duncan228
03-06-2009, 11:33 PM
Unconscious on the Court? Give That a Second Thought (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/sports/basketball/07shooting.html?_r=1&ref=sports)
By Jonathan Abrams
The New York Times
At one point last month, LeBron James dazzled the Madison Square Garden crowd for 52 points in a victory against the Knicks. His encore for the Cleveland Cavaliers, four days later, was a 16-point performance in a loss to the Lakers. More recently, he scored 55 points in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks, then 20 in a victory against the Detroit Pistons.
In some games, a basketball player seems incapable of making a wrong move. The decisions are quick and decisive. In others, he is errant and ineffectual.
But why?
Paul Baard, a sports psychologist at Fordham University, has studied the link between cognition and athletic performance. He related the inconsistency of sports to everyday life by describing the person who can maneuver easily through a crowded subway stop one day, then bounce off people like a Ping-Pong ball the next.
“Our brain processes things so rapidly that you can’t distinguish between cognizant and reactive,” Baard said recently. “Cognition is in place and it’s a form of thinking, but it’s a rapid thinking that you can’t really articulate.”
In basketball parlance, unconscious is the term used most often to describe a shooter who cannot seem to miss. The label is accurate, though not completely, according to many N.B.A. players, who during the course of a game are faced with countless split-second decisions: to shoot or pass or cut or pick or drive.
“There’s a lot more intuiting that’s going on in those rapid decisions,” Baard said. “It’s a combination of thinking and experience. It’s integrating those two things together that lead you to taking that shot or making that pass. You can’t play in that level without having a quick mind.”
After all, 24 seconds for each possession does not provide much time to analyze, compute and act out a plan on the court.
“My game is built on read and react,” James said. “I always try to approach a game being aggressive, but during the course of a game, every game is different. I’ve always been a thinking guy on the court.”
Players devour film and recite moves in practice with the hope of translating their preparation into instantaneous responses.
“You try to stay one step ahead,” the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant said. “But a lot of times in order to make the right decisions, reactionwise, you have to make them quick.”
Unlike baseball or football, sports in which the action comes in spurts with frequent breaks, basketball has a natural rhythm that works to a player’s advantage because there is less time for external factors to invade the mind, said Charles Maher, a psychologist for the Cavaliers.
“There’s less opportunity for them to get out of their thoughts and their performance modes,” Maher said. “Even with that, the time on the bench, timeouts and huddles give the players the opportunity to be their own worst opponents. They start thinking about themselves or things that are internal to them.”
Many pro teams employ psychologists to work with players. Maher, who also consults for the Minnesota Wild in the N.H.L., initially relays three principles to athletes: focus on the task at hand, do not judge yourself or your performance and commit to just playing the game.
“The most difficult aspect for some players is to recognize that they have to be their own best sports psychologist,” Maher said. “They have to know the triggers that take them out of their game.”
Many N.B.A. players say they perform better when they simply respond to their surroundings — for instance, in spotting an open teammate and passing to him. But when they think too much, they can end up hesitating.
“You practice those situations, and you hopefully react and it becomes natural for you,” the Spurs’ Tim Duncan said. “When you have to stop and think about things is when they go wrong.”
Although overthinking can lead to anxiety on the court, it can occasionally help players avoid bad habits. The Knicks’ Quentin Richardson reminds himself to mix in an attack to the rim if he makes a couple of 3-pointers.
“That’s the only time when I have to be conscious of it and make sure that I drive to the hole,” he said. “Because if you make a few, they’re going to start running at you, and it makes you into a one-dimensional player.”
Of all the positions, point guard is considered the most cerebral. Chris Duhon of the Knicks said he based his decisions on a number of external factors.
“I have to know time, score, team fouls,” Duhon said. “If we’re close to the penalty and I have a guy rushing out at me, I’ll be more aggressive in trying to penetrate and drive and get to the free-throw line.”
For some, however, being labeled as a thinker on the court can carry a negative connotation. Lamar Odom, a forward for the Lakers, has been in that situation throughout his career.
“Some think the game is 90 percent mental, what you do out there and how you do it,” Odom said. “On a good night, it seems like you don’t think. On an off night, you may be thinking too much or it may be in between. On some nights, you have a good night and you think you just out-thought somebody, that you were one step ahead mentally.”
Vince Carter said that he surveyed and analyzed tendencies while bringing the ball up the court or that he internalized plans to use later.
“Maybe there’s situations that happened in the first quarter that you messed up or didn’t see,” Carter said. “Later in the game, when you’re in that situation again and the defense plays you a particular way or you’re on defense and playing a particular way, you react to it different. It’s all about memory through repetition and memory throughout the course of the game.”
So, with players occasionally being scolded for thinking too much, can they simply tell the coach they were not thinking after making a mistake?
Duhon laughed at the thought.
“Most players are at their best when they’re not thinking too much,” he said. “They’re just playing and immersed in the game and letting the game dictate what they need to do.”
By Jonathan Abrams
The New York Times
At one point last month, LeBron James dazzled the Madison Square Garden crowd for 52 points in a victory against the Knicks. His encore for the Cleveland Cavaliers, four days later, was a 16-point performance in a loss to the Lakers. More recently, he scored 55 points in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks, then 20 in a victory against the Detroit Pistons.
In some games, a basketball player seems incapable of making a wrong move. The decisions are quick and decisive. In others, he is errant and ineffectual.
But why?
Paul Baard, a sports psychologist at Fordham University, has studied the link between cognition and athletic performance. He related the inconsistency of sports to everyday life by describing the person who can maneuver easily through a crowded subway stop one day, then bounce off people like a Ping-Pong ball the next.
“Our brain processes things so rapidly that you can’t distinguish between cognizant and reactive,” Baard said recently. “Cognition is in place and it’s a form of thinking, but it’s a rapid thinking that you can’t really articulate.”
In basketball parlance, unconscious is the term used most often to describe a shooter who cannot seem to miss. The label is accurate, though not completely, according to many N.B.A. players, who during the course of a game are faced with countless split-second decisions: to shoot or pass or cut or pick or drive.
“There’s a lot more intuiting that’s going on in those rapid decisions,” Baard said. “It’s a combination of thinking and experience. It’s integrating those two things together that lead you to taking that shot or making that pass. You can’t play in that level without having a quick mind.”
After all, 24 seconds for each possession does not provide much time to analyze, compute and act out a plan on the court.
“My game is built on read and react,” James said. “I always try to approach a game being aggressive, but during the course of a game, every game is different. I’ve always been a thinking guy on the court.”
Players devour film and recite moves in practice with the hope of translating their preparation into instantaneous responses.
“You try to stay one step ahead,” the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant said. “But a lot of times in order to make the right decisions, reactionwise, you have to make them quick.”
Unlike baseball or football, sports in which the action comes in spurts with frequent breaks, basketball has a natural rhythm that works to a player’s advantage because there is less time for external factors to invade the mind, said Charles Maher, a psychologist for the Cavaliers.
“There’s less opportunity for them to get out of their thoughts and their performance modes,” Maher said. “Even with that, the time on the bench, timeouts and huddles give the players the opportunity to be their own worst opponents. They start thinking about themselves or things that are internal to them.”
Many pro teams employ psychologists to work with players. Maher, who also consults for the Minnesota Wild in the N.H.L., initially relays three principles to athletes: focus on the task at hand, do not judge yourself or your performance and commit to just playing the game.
“The most difficult aspect for some players is to recognize that they have to be their own best sports psychologist,” Maher said. “They have to know the triggers that take them out of their game.”
Many N.B.A. players say they perform better when they simply respond to their surroundings — for instance, in spotting an open teammate and passing to him. But when they think too much, they can end up hesitating.
“You practice those situations, and you hopefully react and it becomes natural for you,” the Spurs’ Tim Duncan said. “When you have to stop and think about things is when they go wrong.”
Although overthinking can lead to anxiety on the court, it can occasionally help players avoid bad habits. The Knicks’ Quentin Richardson reminds himself to mix in an attack to the rim if he makes a couple of 3-pointers.
“That’s the only time when I have to be conscious of it and make sure that I drive to the hole,” he said. “Because if you make a few, they’re going to start running at you, and it makes you into a one-dimensional player.”
Of all the positions, point guard is considered the most cerebral. Chris Duhon of the Knicks said he based his decisions on a number of external factors.
“I have to know time, score, team fouls,” Duhon said. “If we’re close to the penalty and I have a guy rushing out at me, I’ll be more aggressive in trying to penetrate and drive and get to the free-throw line.”
For some, however, being labeled as a thinker on the court can carry a negative connotation. Lamar Odom, a forward for the Lakers, has been in that situation throughout his career.
“Some think the game is 90 percent mental, what you do out there and how you do it,” Odom said. “On a good night, it seems like you don’t think. On an off night, you may be thinking too much or it may be in between. On some nights, you have a good night and you think you just out-thought somebody, that you were one step ahead mentally.”
Vince Carter said that he surveyed and analyzed tendencies while bringing the ball up the court or that he internalized plans to use later.
“Maybe there’s situations that happened in the first quarter that you messed up or didn’t see,” Carter said. “Later in the game, when you’re in that situation again and the defense plays you a particular way or you’re on defense and playing a particular way, you react to it different. It’s all about memory through repetition and memory throughout the course of the game.”
So, with players occasionally being scolded for thinking too much, can they simply tell the coach they were not thinking after making a mistake?
Duhon laughed at the thought.
“Most players are at their best when they’re not thinking too much,” he said. “They’re just playing and immersed in the game and letting the game dictate what they need to do.”