You cannot go out and practice against players everyday that give a mediocre effort and improve yourself, can you? Because you are not being pushed and you are not being strained to the limits of what you need to do, if you are on the second team, it is your responsibility to do exactly that. If you are not doing that, you are not being the player you need to be, you are not being part of the team that you should be part of, you are not doing your job. You have to do your job and practice.
Bill Walton said, the physical aspect is completely overrated. It is never the biggest, strongest player who wins. It is the player who has the most skills. It is the player playing the mental game. It is the player who is out-thinking, out-conditioning, and outworking the players in practice.
If you are in practice, no matter what your attitude, your situation will not change. No matter what your attitude, your situation will not change. That means, if you have a good attitude, it will not change your situation but your effort will. If you have a bad attitude, it will not change your situation, but your effort will.
There is a saying in business that if you are not fired with enthusiasm for your job, then you will be fired with enthusiasm. Anybody ever see a player thrown out of practice or thrown off a team? A negative player’s attitude is like a cancer to the team. It cannot exist, it should not exist, if your coach is smart, it will not exist. If you have a negative attitude because you are not getting what you want, then go out and work harder.
Last of all, understand how your coaches think and what your role should be on the team. Ask your coach what you need to focus on, what he wants you to practice, what you need to work on, what your role is going to be on the floor when his expectations for you are. Ask him all of these things. If you want different results, you either have to do things differently or you have to do different things.
But one thing that will not change is what your coach is going to do in practice. So if you want different results, you have to do things differently or you have to do different things.
The following is your top ten for becoming a great practice player.
One, did you give your best in every drill, sprint or scrimmage?
Two, did you work to overcome any obstacles or difficulties in practice?
Three, can you name one skill area that you devoted extra practice time to today outside of regular team practice?
Four, did you arrive 15 minutes earlier and/or stay 15 minutes later than your team for practice and put in a little extra work?
Five, did you lead your team and teammates in enthusiasm, encouragement and effort?
Six, did you hustle at all times in practice even running over to the coach when the whistle blew instead of jogging?
Seven, did you ask your coach to help you with a weak skill area or teach you a new move you may need in order to improve your performance?
Eight, were you mentally tough when things became harder or were you beaten down? Did you give in, give up, give out or give more effort?
Nine, did you experienced any minor pain or injury that you could play through and keep practicing with or did you use it as an excuse to stop practicing because you were too tired or fatigued?
Ten, were you filled with the spirit of competition and did you have an intense desire to win?
In closing, I will leave you with this final thought, you may not be the tallest player on the team, you may not be the strongest athlete on the team, you may not be the fastest runner on your team, but you can at all times be the biggest player or athlete on your team. You have to do more than your competition if you want to be more than your competition. Good luck with your practice.
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