OBSERVING the obvious players usually think of losing the first time they see opponents play with such prowess, sometimes even team names become a nightmare for them.
In the recently opened YMCA Inter-Club Sportsfest “1st Palaro sa Barangay” players or even coaches usually size up their opponents, blanked by the thought of fear of losing just by looking at how a team play they usually end up everything with a finger snap of conceding sighs.
Psychologically, these sight of teams disturb coaches and can never seem to plan for the team’s best defensive or offensive plays to at least control or be in n even situation during games. Why these feelings? Take the UB Red Robins, UB Sci. High Greyhounds, and Saint Louis Laboratory High School teams in the high school division or the Scout Barrio, Minero, Y BBC teams for the college/seniors division. Do they impose the challenge or are the other teams challenged?
In the first meeting for the tournament conducted on the 7th of October the present year, the coaches would say the big six letters “thanks” for a chance given for high school basketeers as well as Barangay teams to be in a basketball tournament.
“It is timely,” said Minero coach and fellow columnist, Zards Gacad, according to him “we’re not here to win championships, we’re here for the development of playing honest basketball. It is for the physical wellbeing of the participants that is the purpose why the Y’ conducted the tournament, it is concerned especially for the wellbeing of the participants in mind, body, and spirit.”
Basketball is always a physical, mental, and a psychological game where one without the skill and ability, agility, and motivation ends up being a loser. It is a game of challenge. So why be bothered? All games start with zeros on the score board. It is a matter of how coaches plan and create strategies for a game. It is how the performers execute each plan on plays that makes a team challenge the opponent.
Each performer in games have their own motivations why they play aside from the trainers and coaches motivating them and who provide them the training to respond to the conditioning given as in planned plays. This, in the psychological process, is called operant conditioning, where the performers respond to whatever they were trained and conditioned to do as a role; these, however, must be reinforced by motivational instructions of the coach where the performers must behave in a way that produces consequences. The control of learning how these consequences will be controlled lies on the performers and if no action is taken then it is a probability that conditioning in the part of trainers and coaches is a failure, where reinforcement and motivation needs to be a focus for the performers.
They should be challenged by the game situations to be able to respond, not being intimidated by the opponents, after all they play the same game, one ball, two hoops, planned offense and defense, and only how they respond is the difference “be challenged” after all the game always starts with “zero.”