Sunday 18 October 2015

Basketball Journal

Developing a basketball journal is an outstanding way to get the best out of yourself as an athlete.  Now you may be wondering what exactly is a basketball journal? A basketball journal is a notebook used to write down anything that comes to mind from things you want to develop with your game, to drills you have learned or plays that you are working on with your team. You can write down your goals and the habits to develop so your goals can be achieved. Another thing that is a good idea to use a basketball journal for is for tracking progress such as shooting or workouts.  It should be mentioned that it doesn’t have to be done in a paper notebook.  A basketball journal can be created on another type of device so you can also create a space on a computer, tablet or even your phone to do this as well.

As an athlete it is always a great idea to focus on ways to improve especially when it comes to developing your weaknesses.  You should know your strengths so you can emphasize them to stand out but also have a clear idea of your weaknesses to come up with an action plan so they can be minimized.  It is easier of course to focus on strengths but when it comes to the desire to get better weaknesses need to be developed. A journal can help with that because you can look back and see if you have progressed and by how much.  A couple of examples might be your shot has improved at the foul line by 25% or your weak hand layup percentage has improved by 5% over a 8 week period.

Elite level athletes can be very particular about their performance so a basketball journal can help you to analyze the game and your performance.   It is using this information that can help you recreate the state of mind you were in for when you had the best game of your career or avoid situations so you don’t repeat a terrible performance.  It can help you to analyze what happened in the game or practice so that a situation can be processed and dealt with.

A basketball journal can also be used for inspiration or creativity. It is recommended to put pictures of athletes or people you admire within its pages. Really focus on making it your own.  These admired individuals have qualities you possess in order to draw you to be interested in them so there is nothing wrong with using them as inspiration to becoming a better person. Goal setting can be a very visual endeavour so by using pictures it can help to make those aspirations a reality.    Write down the goals you are aspiring to reach because when they are written down they are much more likely to be reached.  If nothing else it may become an interesting  time capsule to revisit later in life.

Outstanding athletes always go to their workouts with a plan and they also track their progress so they can tell if they have improved quantitatively not just anecdotally.  Anyone can go to a workout and come back saying they got better but a journal is a way to be able to track for sure by measuring the level of improvement over time.  Developing these habits helps to set you up for success over the long term.  

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