Mind Over Matter

Coming back to practice from basically a week and a half off with a couple of shoot-arounds in between was hard. You think that you are going to just jump on the court and do everything right. Truth is that ain't gonna happen. You may have shot around with your friends during break, but it is nothing like being in an intensified practice. It was no lackadaisical practice; to tell you the truth there never is one. You know you are rusty when you get tired after doing high knees and butt kicks full court. It was going to be a long practice.

It was mental mistakes we kept making. We were doing fairly simple drills and we couldn't keep the lines right or the ball on the right side. We weren't exploding across the middle for the mid range jumper. It seemed like all half efforts, and coach wasn't liking that. We were tired, but it was no excuse. Coach called us all on the baseline and talked to us about overcoming all the tiredness.  She said "mind over matter!" She told us that we had to get through this mentality of thinking about when the drill was going to be over instead of just working hard for the duration of the drill and then being able to get a drink of water when we are done. Coach then started to talk analogies. I am one of those players who loves analogies because it makes me look at things from a different perspective. She talked about "hell week" for the Navy Seals and how they go non-stop for three days and then get just 2 hours of sleep! Then they continue the rest of their brutal week. I thought to myself, "WOW". Here we are complaining and panting about sprints up and down the floor and there are people out there doing so much more than us. After we get back from break we have 4 games in 6 days. I am excited; I love playing back to back games, but we have to get our bodies and minds in it first.

Basketball truly is a mental game. If your head isn't in it, you mine as well just make yourself comfy on the bench. It's hard to overcome tiredness. That is where the desire and heart come into play. I sure am guilty of it; there are times where I just want to stop and walk out the gym. But who is that helping? No One. That is hurting me and hurting my teammates. We have learned to be the support team for one another. We are all in the same boat, so if we guide each other through it we should be able to withstand any obstacle.

You have to look towards the future, not in the moment. We have to get ourselves in basketball condition for these next four games. All this hard work will pay off, but it has to be consistent. I have a great team and an awesome coach, what more can I ask for to motivate me to keep going?

It's just mind over matter.

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