To anyone who could read this, I hope you can read it. I’ve been playing basketball since I’m 7 years old, currently 21. I was always a grinder in practice, I would work harder than anyone, I would play the best defense and offense, I played was aggressive offensively, not in the mean of hurting people, but I always founded a way to cut to the basket, we won even a championship and I was the mvp and I scored about 60-70% points of the team, I was the best in elementary. I get to middle school and I found myself with the best players of mi city, most of them were not really better than me, I had to keep developing my game, but I got stuck mentally, cause I felt that I was less than what i truly was, i thought I wasn’t that great as I thought it was, so that made me play with fear, lost my confidence, and was afraid to catch the ball, in the games I was just playing and doin nothing, I would barely score, rebound, steal or some, the only reason I was in is because I was taller than some guys and I would outbox my opponents, but I was really afraid of catching the ball, specially when i shoot and dribble the ball. If I played a 1v1 that’s a completely different player to the player in matches, even some teammates told me that it was clear I was afraid to shoot the basket, I was really nervous about making mistakes or not making the right decision. I was really passionate about basketball, but because of everything that happened to me mentally, I lost my light, I stop shinning, I had the skill set to be all state player and more, but I lacked the most important thing, the mental health. There was a stretch of my career in middle school where I was playing against the toughest players I ever played, but for some reason I was playing really good, I was controlling the pace, I was scoring, I was hitting jumpers, knocking down 3s I was feeling really comfortable and like my old self, even my coach acknowledged that in front of my team, there was something different and they loved it, but it was just some games and than I went back to my nutshell. In HS they wanted me to be the PG, I had really good vision of the game, I was playing with way less talented competition, but I was really good, I was the captain of the JV team, I was peeking, with that confidence gain back, I started playing with Varsity team and I was doing really good, I was really good, but eventually stopped playing with them because school was first, I was pretty average in school having around 3.2-3.4 GPA. After that time I had down years, like my bad version, but in my senior, I was all in, I had a really strong mentality, I was ready to embrace it, I trained the whole summer, I was prepared, in the first game of the season I got an AC sprain (basically shoulder sprain) that kept me off the whole season, in the last game of the year we played against some Australia team ( I was playing in the US and Mexico at the time) it was my first game coming back from injury with no Training, no physical condition, nothing, literally 3 days after I was clear to resume playing. Of course I didn’t start the game but I arrived like 1 hour and half early, working on my shot, and my coach noticed that. So we were trailing by around 7-9 points in the 3Q and out of nowhere the coach put me in the game and I was finally back, after not playing 3-4 months, in my recovery time, my coach, teammate and their parents were always asking me when I was coming back, about my time line, etc. So I felt encourage to play and I did one of the best games of my life, at the end we lost by 2 points, but I felt really overwhelming for the future, sadly it wasn’t like that the rest of the year and I was bad-mid. I never felt motivate mentally, my teammates and coaches most of my middle and high school career never made felt that they believe in me, I felt they didn’t like me and that I was absolute trash, never had any advice from no one to help me in my mental health, it was pretty sad and depressing to be so useless with so much talent. Now after 4 year of quitting basketball, tomorrow Sunday im doing my comeback in a open tournament but stronger than ever and im mentally prepared for it, I just wish I could go back in time and tell to my young self to seek for mental help, talk to your coaches, friends of your mental battle, I cannot change that and change the perspective of people about me, I just can do better from now on. Thank you if you read the whole thing, I truly appreciate.
i can relate! alothough its different. Ive played age 11 and now 13, alough i may seem young and two year experience isnt alot. Im 5'10 160lbs and very good. This is my first club tournament and im very nervous but basketball is all that i love and if you had any tips to give someone my age for confidence id appreciate it. have a nice day
Thank you so much! I was looking for something like this for days and finally having a good recommendation for what to do before a competition makes me feel so much safer!
