The Last Blog Of The Season

Here I am sitting in my office reflecting about the past season where we won less games than we have since the first season I coached at the University of Charleston, yet I don't feel depression, disappointment perhaps but not despair. We were young and inexperienced which led to a host of complications which all came from the same seed--insecurity. We did not have a single player on the floor who felt complete and utter confidence in herself. We lacked the thing which makes great players great--belief in self.

We found we could play with other teams who were young or struggling but when we faced seniors and players who knew their strengths, we reverted back to the mental state of questioning ourselves. With all the mental toughness teaching I emphasize, it holds no grip on the young mind who has not yet seen results. We are still thinking that we must see it in order to believe it rather than believing it first. The real secret here is to see it in the mind, to believe it before it actually occurs, but we are taught in so many different arenas that the opposite is true.

I know the players have more inside themselves. They do. The problem is most people have more inside themselves and most of them never reach it, because of the fear that exists. Fear prevents us from trying, from reaching, from going forward and it becomes our biggest enemy. Whatever we fear and we give our attention to, we then create it. The more time we spend thinking about losing or being a failure, the more it becomes foremost in our mind. We become what we think about most of the time.

So how do I get these players to see themselves differently when I can't reach into their minds and turn a switch? Since I cannot get into their minds and extract what needs to be extracted and they don't recognize the power of the mind, then we have to do it the old fashion way--work and work and work. They must get back on the court and spend hours shooting so they will believe in their abilities. I have told them they need to shoot each shot 10,000 times and if they do, they will become an expert at it.

This season is done and over and we have survived and grown. This is the true tale when it is all said and done--we have grown and learned and become somebody different.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.