When playing high school basketball one of my teammates had such an interesting mistake response. After shooting the ball if she made the shot she would run back on defence and everything was great. However, if the shot was missed she would begin limping back like her leg hurt. It was almost as though unconsciously saying to those watching “I missed the shot because my leg hurts so forgive me. I am playing through an injury. ” Just to be clear there was nothing physically wrong with her leg and I don’t think she even knew she did that. By the very next play her phantom injury was gone but every single time she missed a shot the same response happened where she would start limping.
The other day I was thinking about it in the context of owning the mistakes that are made on the court. You can only fix what you choose to acknowledge. We all have moments where the wrong call, read or decision is made. The most important thing is working on figuring and analyzing further why certain situations happened in the first place. The next step is to figure out how to correct them in order to move forward and continue to improve. This can also involve avoiding the situation entirely going forward.
These mistake responses can be very natural and engrained. I can recall one player that I used to coach when given the ball he would dribble to the corner and then turtle over the ball. Anyone who knows basketball knows that is probably one of the worst things to do because it significantly decreased the ability to make a good decision. You are completely at the mercy of the defence and your options are limited exceptionally fast. Over time he worked on getting comfortable and took steps to stop doing this. It took time to get him to change his behaviour which is true for any amount of change that is undertaken. It just doesn't happen instantly.
On the other hand, one of my university teammates had one of the best mistake responses that I have ever witnessed. When she made an unforced error she didn’t react she just focused on the next best thing she could do in order to help to fix the mistake. She didn’t retaliated, get upset, pout down the court or waste energy instead she just got back on defence as fast as she could and focused on doing her part to stop the other team from scoring off of her error. Sometimes I think when players react it is more about them acknowledging to others that they made a mistake or in some situations a way to deflect the responsibility off of themselves.
There is something so powerful about taking ownership of the mistakes you make. Something so freeing knowing that going forward you can make a new choice when a similar situation arises. Taking the power back that you aren’t a slave to the situations of the past is such an incredible feeling. Taking a good hard look at yourself in moments of weakness, poor judgement or pain can really help to make you better. Especially, when it isn't necessarily that pretty to look at. This is exactly how good people become great.
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