Skill acquisition is a matter of the mind… over and over again.  It requires extreme focus and an intentional act of exercising dominion over the brain. As a human being you have the capacity to do unbelievable things. What you need to do is convince your brain that what you want to achieve is possible. In order to believe , you have to envision it or experience it …  You must continually interject commands to your brain to make it perform in a particular manner until it is fully automated.

You can train your brain for gain in the direction you choose. It is a struggle at first. The brain fights hard to hold on to the established function (old program)… I tell players all the time not to be discouraged by the discomfort of change – particularly if it is a change for the better… You can expedite change by doing both physical and mental reps. Mental-repetition is the process of visualizing performance without physically doing the function…  However you slice it, it still equates to a lot of hard work on the right materials. Every rep you perform counts. You are either moving in a positive direction toward perfection or a negative one towards a world of higher degree of difficulty.

When you are called to action – to shoot a basketball or execute a dribble maneuver – your brain spins and it lands on one of the programmed slots for performance.  In this case you would typically shoot exactly according to your existing script. With enough positive repetition your technical wheel for shooting can be filled with slots of the optimal way to perform .

It is a tough task to make changes to your system.  But once change is programmed in, however the struggle, it will be just as difficult for your brain to operate outside of the “new” programmed material… Still, you must believe that you will be able to perform regardless of the environment or pressure of the moment.

This level of confidence and “swag” does not come cheap. It will cost you literally thousands of positive repetitions to create the proper defaults and emotional resolve for consistent quality performances.

Many of us have seen the movie the Matrix… this film will help you understand programming (skill acquisition) as it relates to Virtual Play.

In the movie, acquisition was a matter of plugging into the chair and having information downloaded directly into the brain. The information downloaded was designed for optimal performance. Programming in Virtual Play is very similar, only there is no chair and you are required to download the information manually – repetition by repetition. The television game show “The Wheel of Fortune” outlines the principles of programming.

On the show, the slots on the wheel are full of dollar amounts and prizes. The contestants spin the wheel and it lands on a certain slot. It rarely lands on the same slot more than once, but it always lands on a slot. Your brain, similarly, is “The Wheel of Function” (Diagram 2A) with slots full of programmed information of how you perform or do certain things. 

 

The bottom line:  you must pay to play in a special way. Everyone wants to, but who actually gets to?

-The Virtual Game of Basketball-

Tags: basketball personal training, Brain Power, martial arts, skill acquisiton, The brain

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