“Working hard is one thing, but working hard with purpose is what separates the good from the great” – Thad Matta

What is mental training for basketball?

Mental training in basketball is a segment of sports psychology for basketball. Mental training will help you and your team improves mental skills for competition and improves consistency in performance. You learn how to improve and maintain confidence, focus, composure, and become a fearless athlete.

Many athletes and coaches today still resist or avoid the use of mental skills training because they don’t understand it completely.

Research on basketball psychology shows that most basketball players and coaches don’t understand how to use or apply mental training in basketball. Young athletes who have not been exposed to sports psychology for basketball also fall into the category. They avoid mental skills training because they don’t understand it.

If you want to get the most out of your physical talent in sports, you have to be aware of the importance of improving your mental game. As you learn more about basketball psychology you tend to embrace mental training. Mental skills techniques help you make adjustments to your actions, thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations that will improve your games.

You can use these techniques to:
• Help build self-confidence,
• Set goals,
• Manage your stress,
• Use imagery and visualization to work on game skills,
• Focus concentration and attention.

Mental Training can also help you with problems off the court that may affect your performance on court.

Mental training for basketball is about improving your mental muscle and not your physical skills.

You learn how to think well in competition using mental training skills.

You also learn how to identify the mental barriers to success that is preventing you from improving your mental game in basketball

But it is a long-term process. You learn mental skills, just like you learn physical skills.

Mental Skills training in basketball takes daily practice to improve your mental game. But you want to take it beyond practice and apply mental skills training to competition. Application is the key to your success with mental training. You can develop a mental game plan to help guide the mental training for your training program.

A mental game plan helps organize the strategies in the program and provide specific mental strategies for improvement.

You can also work on specific drills and strategies to help you improve your mental game daily.

There are several resources to help you improve mental toughness for basketball. These resources provide mental edge workbooks, mental training worksheets, awareness exercises, and post-performance feedback tools to help you learn, track, monitor, and provide feedback about basketball mental toughness. You can utilize these customized programs to help you apply your mental training to competition.

Once you are using mental skills in your physical conditioning, training, and pre-competitive routine consistently, you’ll ingrain them so deeply that when you get to that big event, all of those mental skills will come out and they’ll enable you to perform your very best.

*Download the free mental game assessment and get started on Improving your Mental Game in Basketball