Being a Focused Competitor

One of the key buzz words I find myself using in coaching is "Focus."  I am forever encouraging my players to stay focused.  To me a real competitor is focused and does not let anything detract from that focus.  External things, such as relationships or even school work, does not detract from the focus the competitor has while in the court.

Have you ever watched a real competitor play ball?  Look at their eyes.  You can see the focus.  One of the greatest competitors I have every seen was Michael Jordan.  When the game was on the line, did you see frivolity in his eyes or did you see razor sharp focus?  I saw that focus in his eyes that usually followed by figurative daggers in the hearts of his opponent.

How many high school players are focused like that?  I've been fortunate to have a few in my coaching career.  Unfortunately, most high school players are not focused.  I am both amazed and distrought when I see teams who are not focused.  What is even worse, is when their coaches seem to promote a lack of focus by allowing frivolity to be the overwhelming attitude in tight situations.  In fact, I dare say that it is often even encouraged. 

For two years, I had the fortune of working with a truly great coach, Bill Avey of Southwest High School in San Antonio.   Bill would sometimes literally come unglued if he caught his girls even smiling on the court in a tense situation.  His message was that this is not a time to think anything is funny or make light of the situation at all.  It was a time to be focused.  Yes, you can smile out of confidence because you know you are about to remedy the situation or make the play.  But smiling in the way that means, "It's OK that I just screwed up" shows a total lack of focus. 

As the start of high school basketball in Texas is just around the corner, I am focusing on changing a mindset.  I am encouraging my players to be focused.  Yes, I want them to have fun on the court.  But it is a lot more fun to win.  I don't find losing fun.  I don't want them to either.  The time to celebrate is after the win.  Not during the game.  In a close game I never want to have a time out that is simply full of players cheering, dancing,  and jumping up and down.  I have seen that.  And what happened?  They weren't focused on the next play and they lost.   How fun was that?  Wouldn't it have been better to save the cheering, dancing,  and jumping up and down until the game was actually won?  I would even put my money on the fact that had they stayed focused in the timeout huddle, they would have won the game.  Instead, they lost focused and lost the game.