by Victor Roffel

Created on: August 25, 2009

Superstars play hard, play smart and work hard; anybody who has played sports hear it one time or the other. Its a holy rule, a guideline in which all aspiring players who wants to be a superstar live by. But what exactly makes some players superstars and some into bench players? What is that they are doing different from the others? Well, I wondered the same thing over and over when I was a kid, and now that I have the knowledge of why, I want to show you how.

Thought process

"Basketball is all about decisions and we took the best ones, especially from the third quarter on." Nolan Richardson, head coach of the national Mexican team and previous NCAA champions in 1994 with the University of Arkansas, couldn't have said it better. Basketball, as much has it do with talent and skills, is a thought process game too, similar to chess if you will. Lots of players who makes mistakes and cause turnovers is because they don't think and make bad decisions. In every second of the ball game you have to plan or make decisions. Which is the best play to do now? Should I pass or should I go right to the basket? These are questions you should ask yourself in a game. Superstars like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan do. Of course, these are simplified situations, there are a lot of variables to consider when in the heat of battle.

Here's an example: You trail the fast break on a 4 on 3 situation, and your point guard dishes you the ball at the 3-point line at the right wing. You decide to take a shot and leave your feet, ready to shoot. Just then, you notice this defender running towards you, and judging by the speed in which he is running, he can block your shot. Now the decision making process starts; in a split second, you are forced between shooting the shot hastily and risk missing, letting him block the shot and have it knocked out of bounds or just simply not shooting at all and travel. The best situation here is undoubtedly, letting the defender block the shot and hitting it out of bounds; this allows your team possession of the ball unlike the other situations which could have played out.

Now, I'm not saying you will be able to do this immediately after you are aware of it and start an effort to think. Its going to take time to achieve a certain decisiveness and ability to make good decisions in split seconds. If you can practice it and achieve it, I can assure you that you will be an outstanding player which your coach will love(especially if you're a point guard).


Work

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