The Comfort Threshold
The Comfort Threshold
As a coach I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to
push players to improve. Whether it be ball
handling, shooting, passing, defense, rebounding, or footwork there is a
natural tendency for a player to stay in his/her comfort level when playing
basketball. I call this comfort level
the comfort threshold and it is the point where a trigger occurs in a player’s mind
which warns the player that if you go beyond this point there is no guarantee
of success and the odds of failure are greatly increased.
The comfort threshold applies to all of us in all aspects of
life. It keeps us safe many times by
warning us that maybe you shouldn’t go in the water since you can’t swim, or
keeps you from crossing an expressway when cars are flying around by telling
you you’re not fast enough. It can also
keep an athlete very conservative by warning of potential failure and keeping
the player from trying something that will only be learned through practice. This inhibits a players development.
The big question that should be asked is how we can push our
comfort threshold up? How can we
convince our mind that I can split the double team with the dribble, I can take
the shot with time running out on the clock, or I can stay with the best player
on the other team regardless of how good he is?
The answer to the question is 2 fold and one is related to the physical
and the other to the mental. Let’s take
a look at both below:
- Physical – Regardless of what it is, you won’t get better at it without repetition. Repetition is the only thing that can help sync the body with the mind and make something easier for you. For example, say a player comes to you and asks you what he needs to do in order to improve his shooting. As a coach you will review the fundamentals with him and tell him how to properly set his feet, square his shoulders to the basket, how to properly place the ball in the shot pocket, keep your eye on the rim, and follow through but unless the player practices the above mentioned items over and over again to the point where the brain and the body are in sync about how to shoot the ball the player will never improve. That’s why you hear of players that spend long hours in the gym over the summer taking 500 shots a day in an effort to improve their shooting.
- Mental – Regardless of how much you practice a given skill it won’t matter if your mind is not convinced that you are better today than you were before you started practicing. You can shoot the ball all summer long but if your mind tells you you’re not any better, then it is all for naught. The good news about this is that the mind is always looking for proof that it should change its beliefs. By taking all of those shots, and seeing yourself making many more shots than you used to the mind starts believing that you are a better shooter.
Bringing it Together
The key to increasing the comfort threshold is bringing the
physical together with the mental. It is
the point when all of the hard work taking shots (in the above mentioned
example) meets the point where your mind believes that you are a better shooter.
What can you do as a coach?
So what can you do as a coach in order to improve the
comfort threshold of your team? I think
that this should be broken down into in season and out of season in order to
properly address the issue.
- In season – The two most important things a coach can do during the season is to instill and promote confidence and to properly plan practices to use time efficiently.
- Instill and promote confidence – the mental side of the game is so important and as a coach you need to be able to instill confidence in your team. Confidence is instilled through the following:
- Positive reinforcement – Every time a player makes a good play let them know about it, single them out, give them the accolades they deserve. Every time your team makes a good play stop practice and let the team know how proud you are of them for what they just did. There is never enough praise that you can give to your players and your team. One of your biggest jobs as a coach is to be the head cheerleader..
- Correcting mistakes – Being a cheerleader is easy but how do you correct a player error without embarrassing them or wrecking their confidence? The best way to do this is by correcting in a positive manner. You could say something like “I really liked the way you made that cut but why did you choose to make that pass?” Once he/she answers then you can ask “if you had to do it all over again what would you do different?” This way you give him/her the chance to think (Some might think that this is putting more pressure on the kid but I like doing it this way because it keeps them involved and will allow them to better learn from their mistakes). Once he/she answers you can spend a bit of time making the corrections yourself and then finish off the conversation with something positive like “you’re a really smart player so I know you’ll get it right next time.”
- Practice planning – as a coach you need to spend almost as much time planning a practice as you do running one. Each practice is a building block to an ultimate end of year goal. This is why all coaches should sit down at the beginning of the year and realistically set the ultimate goal of the team. Setting goals are easy but it is very important that the goals are high enough where the comfort threshold of your team will be raised but yet not too high that your team is not capable of achieving its goals and gets discouraged. Once you set the ultimate goal you can begin evaluating your team as practice begins and start figuring out daily or weekly practice plans that will bring your team closer and closer to the goals you have set.
- Out of season – This season lasts the majority of the year and most coaches don’t get to spend much time with their players during this time of year. There are ways that you can help your players keep their development going and help them increase their comfort threshold during the off-season.
- Develop an off-season workout for your players to follow – the off-season is a great time for your players to work on fundamentals including ball handling, shooting, passing and catching, footwork and strength development.
- Recommend off-season camps – camps are a great source for kids to go and get some extra work done. It is also an opportunity for them to be coached on the fundamentals by another coach who may be able to communicate to the player in a way that the player better understands.
- Footwork and agility camps – these camps may not emphasize basketball at all but can help the player improve his/her coordination. The more coordination a player has the easier the game becomes.
- Play other sports – playing baseball can help with hand-eye coordination, playing soccer can help with conditioning and footwork, playing any team sport helps teach players how to work for each other.
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