wHaT’s WrOnG wItH tHe BuCkS??
The NBA playoffs have begun, and many Milwaukee fans are feeling some nervousness about the recent play of the Bucks. Many have watched their play since entering the bubble and wondered “what's wrong with the Bucks?” Fingers begin to point in multiple directions, trying to pinpoint the problem and where to assign blame. Although they began to turn it around for stretches on Thursday, there are still a lot of questions about the team which can only be answered in the coming weeks.
From a Sport Psychology standpoint, going through struggles and slumps is actually a very normal experience that most athletes will go through at least once in their career. While it can certainly help to work through and identify problems to solve, oftentimes an athlete can end up spending too much of their mental energy focusing on and analyzing ‘the problem’. This can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which an athlete expects poor performances due to believing they’re in a slump, and the resulting behaviors align to fulfill the belief. In other words, the expectation comes true simply because they believe it will.
Oftentimes when we focus too much on the problem it can take us farther from the solution. When I work with athletes in a slump, I try and go in the other direction. I usually start by asking them to think and describe what it's like when they’re playing at their absolute best. When you’re playing your best, what does it look like? How would you describe it? What were the thoughts and behaviors that led to such great performances? What was it that helped you play so well? Rather than focusing on what is going wrong, we can often better serve athletes by helping them identify what works for them when they play at their best, and then working to develop routines and habits to do do those things consistently. This will ultimately lead to better and more consistent performances over time.
To come back around to the Milwaukee Bucks, perhaps the solution isn’t to focus on figuring out what is wrong or who is to blame. Instead, players (and coaches) need to head onto the court thinking about what their best possible game would look like, and then go out and create the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to make it so. Of course, this is easy in principle but very difficult to execute! That said, the organization has world class players, coaches, and support staff who know better than anyone else what needs to be done in order to play at their highest level. Meanwhile, I will watch, cheer, and enjoy watching the process. =)