My mom talks on and on about a book called “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. She speaks about how these habits are great life skills, and more importantly they are all things that are easily manageable.
In this article I am going to take the lead from Stephen Covey and talk about the 10 Habits of Highly Effective Ball Players. Every player out there can make an effort to control their level of effort with each of these habits.
- High Effective Ball Players Defend – 100% effort, not only in the open court, but in the half court. Defending through screens is a manly activity, proper footwork takes hours of practice, keeping our angle and hips right takes concentration, but all of it is easily manageable.
- Highly Effective Ball Players Embrace the mental aspect – Film study, angles, player tendencies, these are all part of the mental edge. The greats don’t just show up, they study the game and pay attention to the finer aspects.
- Highly Effective Ball Players Rebound – While this is self-explanatory it takes effort. When you get lazy on the boards you expose a chink in your armor. Crash, gain your team extra possessions.
- Highly Effective Ball Players sprint the floor – Even if you don’t get the ball, you could be in position to corral a rebound or a deflection. If you get a reputation of not giving up any easy buckets, you will always be in the back of your opponents mind.
- Highly Effective Ball Players understand control and pace – They don’t rush. They see the play, allow it to develop, then attack. Slow down, observe, the offensive player has all the control.
- Highly Effective Ball Players are tough – a famed line is “Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane” and you’ll be surprised how often this is observed. Don’t gain a reputation of being soft.
- Highly Effective Ball Players prepare – I touched on the mental aspect above, but this is also with your body. Get plenty of sleep, eat right, do dynamic stretching, make sure that your body is able to perform at its peak each time out.
- Highly Effective Ball Players don’t worry about exposure, but focus on winning – winning is a skill, some people are all about who is talking about them, yet the players that are talked about the most are also the ones that win more times than not.
- Highly Effective Ball Players Talk – Communicate. Let your team mate know where you are and put your team in the best position to win.
- Highly Effective Ball Players practice at 100% – if you practice at 75 you’ll play at 75. Game speed is imperative to prepping.
Naturally there are more things that can go into being a great player, but these are all things you can start tomorrow. Perfect each of this 10, and you will be sure to catch the eye of people that can help you advance.