October 20, 2024 | Tagged Motivation,
Why hope matters on the basketball court
Why HOPE matters so much on the basketball court.
Did you know that hope is essential for a powerful life on and off the court? Loss of hope is tantamount to loss of life. As we finish out the summer, having the virtue and feeling of hope to dream, to plan, to execute, to achieve on the basketball court and in your life is crucial to your future success. Hope is the anchor for any storm and the underlying motivation behind any great achievement.
What is hope: Hope is both a feeling and a virtue. We feel hope. It is a physical feeling that results in an optimistic state of mine and an expectation of positive outcomes. Hope is also a virtue, a trait of excellence that is cultivated through habit and mental discipline.
Definition of hope: The definition of hope has been altered through the centuries and consequently it has become watered down to wishful or pie-in the-sky thinking. Hope originally was a much stronger word. It means absolute confidence that something which hasn’t happened will happen. It meant to assume confidently, to trust and to expect with confidence.
Why hope matters: According to Harvard’s scientific studies on hope in teens, the higher a person’s hope capacity, the stronger their immune system, their coping strategies, sense of well-being, and sense of life purpose. Lower hope capacity was linked to lower self-esteem, motivation, healthy decision-making, relational well-being and sense of purpose.
Research in athletics shows that hope strongly reduces player performance anxiety and is the foundation for goal setting and goal fulfillment.
Hope versus Delusion: The biggest way to tell the difference between hope and delusion is that hope activates perseverance. Perseverance is patience in difficulty and suffering to fulfill our goals, dreams, and expectations. Delusion does not lead to perseverance or patience, it leads to further distortion in judgment and leads to greater irrational or illogical thinking and behaving.
Action reveals hope: According to habit researcher and author of Atomic Habits, James Clear, action is hope. When a person doesn’t do what they plan or wish to do, the biggest missing element is hope. Hope leads to intention and intention to action. Hope propels us to create intentional plans and to execute those plans. Lack of action usually can be traced back to a lack of hope.
BASKETBALL HOPE
Your level of hope in basketball or school will be revealed in your mindset and your follow through.
Here are some ways to improve your hope this season.
- Beginner’s mindset. Children have natural hope. They are eternally optimistic and haven’t become jaded or foreclosed on their abilities or situation. They expect to do well in a game, they expect to make friends, and they expect coaches to like them. As we encounter more and more difficult situations and people, we start to concretize (make permanent) our thoughts and language about our game and about other people.
For example:
- I can’t jump.
- I miss under pressure.
- My team doesn’t like me.
- My coach doesn’t believe in me.
- These are poisonous thoughts that lead to negative outcomes.
We change our world when we change our words.
Hope language looks like this:
- I am scheduled three days this week for jump training, and I have my goals written out.
- I am getting 1000 shots per day (game speed from game spots) and I am working on my visualization every night for 5-10 minutes.
- I am thankful to be part of a team with its strengths and challenges and we are growing closer every day.
- My basketball game doesn’t depend on the confidence of my coach. I am dedicated to the work necessary to become the player I aspire to be. My future is strong, I am doing the daily work, and the results are in God’s hands who loves me and cares for me
2. Play to your strengths. James Clear calls it habit-stacking. Take a habit that you currently have and add a new desired habit. Your energy and momentum with your current habit can help you build energy and momentum with your newly desired habit.
3. Energy is contagious. Listen to how those around you speak. Negativity kills hope. Negativity is not realism, it is a mindset bent on finding problems without commitment to finding solutions. Negativing kills action, relationships, momentum. Change the negativity and you change the energy and problem solving. Negativity is the antithesis of hope.
4. The discipline of gratitude. Gratitude solves problems. The higher a person’s gratitude level the quicker and more easily they solved problems. Listen to your language- internal and external. You will have a clear indication which areas or relationships in your life are thriving and which ones are in crisis. Change your trajectory by changing your words and mind to be full of gratitude rather than cynicism and negativity. Think hope. Speak hope. Live hope and actions will follow.
What to do in difficult circumstances
Life isn’t easy and sometimes it is downright painful and difficult. In times like these, it can feel counterintuitive to remain hopeful. But that is not what the research has found. In hospitals around the world, the higher the hope the better the outcome whether it is stronger immunity, better community or most importantly higher quality of life. Hope provides us inner joy when everything appears bleak. It’s not blind optimism but an intentional decision to find actions that move us closer to strength, life, to God. As Fyodor Dostoevsky said, “To live without hope is to cease to live.”
About NBC Basketball Camps
NBC Camps runs fall, winter, spring and summer programs. Since 1971, NBC Basketball has been helping student athletes push hard for their dreams and become courageous. Camps emphasize the importance of being leaders who serve their team, and a dedication to living with gratitude, service, compassion, and faith. For more information about NBC Basketball visit www.nbccamps.com/basketball