Dealing with nerves in basketball is something all players and coaches alike have had to experience. At some point in your basketball career, nerves have gotten the best of you. Coaches, players, and everyone else in between all deal with nerves. They are simply a part of the human experience, especially when what you do is on display for so many others.

Nerves are not a negative thing. In fact, I think it is more of a problem if you don’t feel nerves before a game. Just because you have nerves, does not necessarily mean you are nervous. Being nervous is a negative thing. You cannot play at your best, be fully locked in, and able to execute if you are playing nervous.

I believe that nerves are really just a result of excitement and anticipation. It is the way our body signals to us that we have prepared and are ready to go. Those nerves can fuel us and give us energy. If you don’t feel any type of nerves, it means that you are not ready to play. Every time you hit the court, it should be an exciting and anxious feeling. We should be ready to get after it and play our hardest.

Getting rid of worry

You cannot feel nervous about something you are unprepared for. If you didn’t study for a test, you don’t feel nerves right before because you know it’s not going to go well. Nerves only come when we are about to go through something exciting or something we have put a lot of thought and energy into. Nerves are just a signal that we are about to have a great performance and things are going to go well for us.  The next time you feel some nerves, just know that you have prepared well and are ready to go.

However, nerves are also an effect of worry. If we have real confidence, then there is no room leftover for nervousness. Reducing worry has positive benefits on all aspects of our life. The less we worry, the more we can focus and be fully engaged on what is most important to us. We can keep the main thing the main thing, enjoy life more, and be able to go deeper in certain areas of our life.

The process of ridding worry begins by eliminating the obsession of what could go wrong. Our minds can sometimes take us to the worst possible outcome of a certain scenario. Thinking about what could go wrong will certainly have an adverse effect on performance. How can you be focused on doing your best if you are thinking about all the bad that could happen? Don’t worry about what could go wrong if nothing has even happened yet.

Get focused on the moment that is right now

When we worry about the worst that can happen, we are really just worrying about the future. The future, though, has not happened yet. Most of what happens in the future we have no control over. But we do have the ability to control certain aspects of how the future will unfold. When it comes to performance, understand that what we do to get ourselves ready to perform is always in our control. It is not worth worrying about something bad happening when we have the control to make sure it doesn’t.

Another common reason for worry is managing the perceptions and expectations of others. No matter what the outcome is, there is some apprehension either way. If you lose or fail, there is the worry that others will judge you, laugh at you, or make you feel embarrassed. We don’t want to let others down and feel bad about ourselves when we lose. But if we win, we immediately assume the pressure of doing it again. Once is not enough for most people; they want to see it over and over again. Others will still judge you and perceive you in a certain way even when you win and have success.

Caring only about the standards you have for yourself

It goes back to controlling what we can control. The only outcome that matters is the one that you want. Understand that there is a very fine line between winning and losing and those that criticize you often don’t even want to put themselves in a situation where they are subjected to criticism. We cannot control the perceptions and expectations of others, so focus on doing what you do best, and it will be much easier to live with the results.

“If you’re criticizing from a place where you’re not also putting yourself on the line, I’m not interested in what you have to say.”  – Brene Brown

This is why having your own set of standards and expectations are so important. Those are the only ones that actually matter. Every person on Earth could have a different set of standards and expectations for you, so it is impossible to fulfill what everyone wants from you. Why worry about something that is impossible to reach? As long you are meeting and surpassing your own standard and expectations, those of others lose all credibility.

Winning and losing is a fixed part of basketball. If you want to be in the game, you have to accept all that comes with it. Other people may perceive you in a negative way if you lose but remember that is the nature of the sport. When you are criticized for what you do on the court, remember that the critics likely don’t know you at all. They don’t understand you as a person. Who you are as a person doesn’t have to be affected because your performance didn’t meet their standards. A criticism on your performance in the game is not an indictment of who you are as a person. Remember to separate who you are from what you do.

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