How to play basketball under pressure

8 Tips to Keeping Your Cool Under Pressure From NBA Finals Pros

Every athlete feels it. It could be little flutters in your stomach. It could be a slight weakness in your legs. It could even be tightness in your chest. You try to ignore it. You try to block it out, but it’s there and it won’t go away. It’s not a heart attack, but it might feel like one. It’s not food poisoning, though at least that would pass soon. No, that tension gripping your muscles and your mind is one thing and one thing only: pressure. Some guys can handle it and some can’t.

Tonight, the best athletes on the planet are facing off in Miami to determine the NBA Championship. For the Heat and LeBron James, one more win brings the first of many promised titles to South Beach. For the Thunder and Kevin Durant, one loss and their quest for a title ends abruptly on Biscayne Boulevard. Both teams know what’s at stake. They know the whole world is watching. Under the brightest lights, on the biggest stage, here’s how the superstars of the NBA Finals deal with the pressure to perform.

Avoid Overload by Giving Your Mind a Break – LeBron James, F, Miami Heat

When you’ve been building towards an important moment in your life, be it in your career or in competition, it’s only natural to begin obsessing over the outcome. Don’t. Your mind needs to be clear for you to perform your best and one way to do that is to give it some time off from the stress of reaching your goal. LeBron James, who is arguably feeling the most pressure of anyone in these NBA Finals, has found a unique way to let his mind relax; he reads books, lots of them (including the Hunger Games trilogy, apparently). And here’s his reason why:

“It just slows my mind down. It gives me another outlet. Throughout the playoffs, all you think about is basketball.  All you want to do is play basketball. But at the same time it can become a lot. It can come to a point where it’s overloading to the mind and you think about it too much. It’s hard to get away from it because you’re playing every other day, you talk about it every single day, you prepare every single day. The reading has given me an opportunity for those couple of hours of the day or those 20, 25 minutes before the game, it just gives me an opportunity to read and think about something else. It’s made me comfortable. I’m not saying it’s the trick. It’s just something that I decided to do at the beginning of the postseason and it’s worked for me.”

Let it Fly – Shane Battier, F, Miami Heat

Pressure situations can cause you to pull back for fear of making a mistake. More often than not, that hesitation will end up causing a mistake. If you trust that you’ve put in the time and the dedication and you believe in the plan that you’ve followed, hold nothing back in the big moment. This is exactly Shane Battier’s philosophy about performing in the playoffs:

“When you put your heart and your soul into preparation and in the games and you let it fly, you can always live with the results. I believe that. It’s something that Coach K (Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski) talked about. It’s not about accolades, it’s not about your resume, it really isn’t. It’s about throwing yourself into a situation and doing your best. If you can do that you can live with any result or consequence.”

Keep an Even Keel and Stay in the Moment – Dwyane Wade, G, Miami Heat

Along your journey towards whatever you’re trying to accomplish, you’re likely to have minor successes and setbacks. If you’re in a triathlon and enter a stage below the pace you’d like to keep, you can’t get upset or it could sabotage your whole race. Likewise, if you’re well ahead of the pace you want, you can’t get too carried away from your game plan or you could burn out. When it comes to dealing with the ups and downs of a playoff run and the NBA Finals in particular, Dwyane Wade explains the Heat’s strategy for steadiness:

“For this team, I think we understand that the moment is the biggest thing. It’s cliché and we might say certain things a lot, but it’s even keel around here. We never get too high, we never get too low. We try to always stay in our moment. ”

Maintain Focus, Learn from Experience – Erik Spoelstra, Head Coach, Miami Heat

When preparing for a big competition, many people will start trying to look for any small edge to boost performance. It might be a new energy bar, it might be something to help them sleep the night before, or it might be a new warm-up. If you’ve been practicing a certain way to get ready for a competition, don’t panic and make changes to your routine in the last minute. When asked how tough it is to keep the same approach with his team heading into what may be their championship-winning game, here’s what Coach Spoelstra had to say:

“If you start changing the routine and now start making it about the result other than focusing on the process of the next 24 hours, it’s going to be another battle… You’ve got to absolutely immerse yourself into the process and the focus. It’s Game 5. We want to treat it as a Game 7. But we are preparing for Game 5 to protect our home court and to take care of business. It’s been well documented the experience we went through last year and the pain and all that. It doesn’t guarantee you anything. Experience is a great teacher. You know, hopefully all those experiences will help us.”

Exude Confidence – Mario Chalmers, G, Miami Heat

You’d be hard pressed to find even a casual sports fan who doesn’t know about the “Big Three” stars on the Miami Heat (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh), but these NBA Finals have seen some other players step up in the most crucial moments. For the Heat, point guard Mario Chalmers has used his unshakeable confidence to come up huge in some of the series’ biggest spots. With so many stars on the team, here’s how Chalmers explains how he has the confidence to have the ball in his hands with the game on the line:

“My confidence is never shaken. I’m always ready to go, any time, any place. A lot of people said I wouldn’t make it [to the NBA] and that’s been my motivation my whole life. Now I’m here and I don’t want to have any regrets. ”

When Dwyane Wade was asked to comment on Mario’s belief in himself, he had this to say:

“Mario is a special breed in the sense of, like I joked around yesterday, Mario probably thinks he’s the best player on this team. He probably does. He really thinks that. He has the mentality that, you know, it’s the, quote unquote, Big Three, but I’m here, too.”

Have a Positive Frame of Mind – Chris Bosh, F, Miami Heat

One of the biggest compliments an athlete can be paid is to be described as being clutch. Being clutch is essentially the ability to come through under pressure. Can you hit the game winning shot? Can you get the game ending strikeout? Can you come from behind with a strong kick to win a race? It sounds simple, but the ability to do any of these things starts between your own ears. To Chris Bosh, the ability to have ice water in your veins comes down to one simple thing:

“It’s all what you believe in. It’s only a frame of mind. To step up and make big shots, you have to believe in yourself. ”

Never Give Up – Kevin Durant, F, Oklahoma City Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder are facing a playoff elimination game tonight. If they lose, their season is over. The pressure on the Thunder players is palpable, yet sometimes the biggest victories happen just after the moment where defeat looks most likely (See: 2004 Boston Red Sox). In order to turn your fortunes around, you need to put aside the thoughts of defeat and focus on maintaining 100% effort. Kevin Durant’s team is in a big hole, but they still believe in their chances of winning a title this year:

“We didn’t get here [the Finals] just to say that we made it here. We want a title. It’s all about competing until that last buzzer sounds and that’s what we’re going to do. That’s the type of city we play for and that’s the type of team we are. We’re going to keep fighting and fighting and we’ll see what happens.”

If You’re Down, Fight Back One Step at a Time – Kevin Durant, F, Oklahoma City Thunder

Regardless of your goal, you may find yourself so far behind that achieving it seems impossible. Most likely, you won’t be able to make up ground all at once. If you’re down two sets to your buddy in tennis, you can’t win two sets on one serve. You can only win by making one solid shot at a time. This is the same mentality that Kevin Durant has as his team faces the daunting task of winning in Miami tonight:  

“Everyone knows our backs are against the wall. We’re down three to one. We have a chance to try to take the series back to Oklahoma City. We can’t win three games in a row here in Miami. We can’t win the series in just one game. We have to take it a possession at time, a game at a time and go from there. It’s do-or-die and we have to come out and perform.”

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How to Play Pressure –A Fun, Competitive Basketball Game – Old Man Game Tips

Ever wondered how to play Pressure? Well, this basketball game is great for practicing 3-point shooting and shooting under pressure.

Do your nerves get in the way when you try to make crucial 3s? Or are you just bored of shooting around with your friends and need a game to play?

If you answered “yes” to any (or both) of those questions, I have a solution for you.

AdvertisementsNow, this activity I’m going to tell you about is not well-known. People have to travel around the world to learn about this.

But I’m a nice guy and will let you know everything about it.

Ready?

This secret, ancient activity is called Pressure.

“What the heck is Pressure?” you’re probably thinking to yourself.

Well, first off, don’t be rude.

And secondly, Pressure is a simple schoolyard basketball game that, when played often enough, will help you with 3-point shooting.

The first time I played pressure, I did horrible. I sucked at it. It was because I wasn’t a good 3-point shooter back then (I’m still not but I’m much better now).

I much preferred attacking the basket. And so, I was often the first to get knocked out.

But the more I played, the better I became. I went from losing all the time to coming in second or third last on a regular basis.

This is really nothing, but it was a huge improvement for me.

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I went from not really being able to shoot from beyond the three-point line, to being able to shoot it (albeit with a bad percentage).

I also become more comfortable with shooting from distance and with my shooting form.

And that’s really the main benefit of playing Pressure -it gives you an opportunity to get comfortable.

You’ll feel at ease when you shoot from beyond the arc and when there’s a lot riding on that shot. The anxiety will vanish because your nerves will be desensitized to that pressurized feeling.

You’ll feel as if every shot is weighted the same.

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Additionally, Pressure will force you to work on and master your shooting form and fundamentals, which will aid you when you get older (i. e. Mike Miller and his ability to shoot).

So, if you want to be Zen on the basketball court (like Damian Lillard as he shoots and makes clutch 3s), here’s how to play pressure:

Okay, the goal of this game is to get as few points as possible.

The first thing you and the other players have to do is to decide who will shoot first. You can do this via “do or die” or by flipping a coin or by each players’ height.

Now, let’s assume I get to go first. If I make my shot, one point will be added to the pot of gold. But if I miss it, nothing happens to me.

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The next player will then get to go. Depending on the result of my shot, the second player will either:

• add a point to the pot (I made my shot and he makes his too)
• take all the points in the pot (I made my shot, but he doesn’t make his)
• nothing happens (we both missed our shots)

These steps then apply to the third and fourth, (and so on) players.

If all the players keep making shots, then the points in the pot will continue to rack up until someone misses and takes all the points.

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So if there are 7 or more points in the pot, the current shooter will automatically lose the game if she misses the shot.

It’s brutal, but that’s how the game is played.

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The first players to get 7 points losses. The winner will be the last player standing (or the one that doesn’t reach 7 points).

You can also increase the number of points too if you wish. Normally, I would keep it as is. But if you have a lot of people playing, then increasing it will probably make it more fun.

AdvertisementsAnd that’s how you play Pressure.

Pressure is a great basketball game to play if you want to improve your 3-point shooting or if you want to practice calming your nerves.

So play this game the next time you head to the court.

There’s really no downside to doing so. At worst, you’ll have a fun time playing some basketball with your friends.

Basketball is a game of strong and hardy | iMotion

Basketball fever

Dynamic, unpredictable, team spirit, agility and endurance - all these words accurately describe one of the most common ball games today - basketball. For those to whom the high educational and health value of basketball is not yet obvious, we will tell you how this sport can attract you.

US-born

B 1891g James Naismith, a teacher at the Christian Youth Association training center in Springfield, came up with this game. To spice up the gymnastics lessons, a young teacher attached two bottomless fruit baskets to the railing of the balcony, into which they had to throw a soccer ball. Hence the name basket is a basket, ball is a ball. Since then, Basketball has become not only a popular sport, but also an exciting way to develop your body, nurture character and strength of mind. The aim of the game is to take possession of the ball and shoot into the opponent's basket while the other team tries to prevent it. The ball is considered abandoned if it enters the basket from above and remains in it or passes through the net.

The benefits of playing basketball can be classified into two categories - recreational and educational . First, let's look at all the benefits of basketball for physical health.

Healthy body

1. All muscle groups are involved here. Body movements during the game involve not only running and throwing the ball, many body systems are trained, which makes the body work smoothly during the game, like a clock.
2. During sudden exertions, throws, jumps, runs and movements, the endurance of the respiratory apparatus and the cardiovascular system is trained . The heartbeat of athletes during the match reaches from 180 to 230 beats per minute, while blood pressure does not exceed 180-200 mm Hg.
3. In addition, participation in the game has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the nervous system: being exposed to certain loads, a person involved in basketball improves his peripheral vision, and this is a big plus that has a significant impact on the efficiency of visual perception.
4. Studies have shown that today regular basketball practice increases the sensitivity of visual perception of light impulses by 40% on average. In addition, a person becomes more collected, learns to control emotions, and also react more calmly to failures.
5. Basketball is a great sport for those who want to lose weight. Considerable energy costs for one productive game of basketball are approximately 900-1200 kilocalories. As a result, working muscles use a significant amount of body fat to consume the missing energy, gradually relieving a person of extra pounds.

If you have not yet decided what sport to do, the fact that you will lose weight in the process of an exciting game, making new friends, inspiration from personal and team victories will be a great motivation.

We educate character

The educational function of playing basketball largely depends on the observance of discipline and the regularity of training. Among the psychological characteristics that develop during basketball lessons, we will highlight the following: perseverance, courage, determination, honesty, self-confidence, a sense of collectivism. At the same time, the athlete's purposefulness and interest in the very process of improving his skills is important.

The kids need it! A variety of technical and tactical actions of playing basketball and the actual game activity have unique properties for the formation of vital skills and abilities of schoolchildren, the comprehensive development of their physical and mental qualities. At 1948 year American teacher Jay Archer adapted this sports game for children aged 8 to 12 years. To do this, it was only necessary to reduce the size of the site, equipment and inventory. This is how mini-basketball was born.

You, the parents, will need approval of the child's determination and desire to play, support in case of failures and defeats ... And, of course, providing all the necessary equipment!

Basketball equipment

In order to make visiting basketball lessons comfortable and beneficial for you, you should take seriously the issue of choosing a place and equipment. First of all, you should take care of a light sports uniform that does not restrict movement. It should be made of materials that are well breathable in cases of profuse sweating. Today quality sports shoes will help keep the foot and shin safe during sharp movements and high jumps during throws and rebounds.

Exercise in specially equipped gyms with a flat surface. In the presence of various irregularities, even of a small size, for many players, the chance of injury in the form of sprains, dislocations and bruises is significantly increased. At risk are athletes who are heavily addicted to the game, neglecting the basics of the safety of complex technical movements.

Buy everything you need to play basketball here!

Ball inflation pressure

Ball inflation pressure

A properly inflated ball is the key to a good game and durability. If the ball is not sufficiently inflated, then this will entail a low rebound, poor handling, and an incorrect flight path. If the ball is pumped over, it can burst, change shape, cause pain during the game, and even cause injury.

First of all, when buying, carefully check the ball for mechanical damage, whether the ball is new and how it is packaged. Most often, the cause of the pressure drop in the ball is a damaged nipple. If you purchased the ball in a deflated state, then be sure to inflate it according to the instructions, checking the pressure, and leave the ball overnight. Check the pressure again the next day. If you bought the ball in an inflated state, then leave it for a day and see if it went down during this time. You can also use the "old Russian way" to determine the health of the nipple. To do this, moisten your finger and attach to the nipple. A properly functioning nipple will not form bubbles. We draw your attention to the fact that if you purchased the ball and used it, then the guarantee for such a ball remains only after the provision of an expert opinion.

Back to pressure... The pressure in a ball depends on what sport the ball is for, what size it is, and what level of play it is. Different manufacturers measure pressure in different units, psi (pounds per square inch), bar (pressure unit approximately equal to one atmosphere), kgf / cm² (one kilogram of force per square centimeter), kPa (kilopascal). Pay attention to this!

The pressure in the ball is strongly influenced by the ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure. If we recall physics, then at high temperatures the substance expands, and at low temperatures, on the contrary, it decreases. So if, in winter, we pump up the ball on the street at -10 to the desired pressure, then after we bring the ball into a warm room, the pressure in it will increase slightly. This is true, for example, for soccer balls for games in winter. Therefore, it is better to inflate the ball directly where games or training are planned. If the operating pressure recommended by the manufacturer is not observed, the performance of the ball will be significantly worse and the ball will become unusable very quickly.

Below are tables with average working pressures for balls of different sizes and for different sports:

Pressure balls for classic volleyball

Beach Volleyball Pressure

Futsal pressure

Football pressure

Pressure in handballs

Pressure in basketballs

IMPORTANT! These tables are for reference only and may not meet the requirements of some manufacturers.

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