Mastering the Game

[jackdaniel]

What exactly does that mean? Does anybody ever truly master the game of basketball? Is it just a hype term to peak more interest,or can players actually master the game of basketball. What's the standard,what are some components to mastering the game?Is it all mental,physical,or a combination of both.Things like,making the right decisions at the right time,instinct to know when to make the play, know what you can and can't do and never try to exceed those limits?Can it be taught and learned,passed on through observation,ingrained into the culture of a basketball program?

All players have flaws and make mistakes,so there are no masters of the game in my book,they're all journeymen,the job of learning ,honing skills,executing ,obseving and transitioning from raw to polished never ends. If any Jacks player ever has come close to mastering the game,who would it be?Just curious if there's a consensus as to who that player would be. What qualities and attributes do they possess ? Any thoughts?

I personally believe it's trait that a person has or doesn't, a "go where no man has gone before" desire to play the game as near perfection as they can , it's deeply embedded in a persons conscience and they can react and do with out thinking and allowing others to set up a defense against.Don't know if it can be taught or learned, but it can be observed and mimicked.

Enough of the Philosophy,.... back to beer and pretzels and griping about losing a game or two.

[GopherHole]

Re: Mastering the Game

JD, have you become a Zen master? Phil Jackson was always the enlightened one who understood having everything in balance and order. Must be a North Dakota Fighting S???? thing.

[jackdaniel]

Re: Mastering the Game

JD, have you become a Zen master? Phil Jackson was always the enlightened one who understood having everything in balance and order. Must be a North Dakota Fighting S???? thing.

Don't know what come over me, not even interested myself in the topic " mastering the game".Interesting tidbit about Phil Jackson, Mel Klien who coached at Augie, alway's talked about how good of a player he was while playing college ball.

[goon]

Re: Mastering the Game

Don't know what come over me, not even interested myself in the topic " mastering the game".Interesting tidbit about Phil Jackson, Mel Klien who coached at Augie, alway's talked about how good of a player he was while playing college ball.

Limitations are the schakles we bind to ourselves.

Also the inner game of tennis is a great read, probably more so if you like tennis. I think it has been written to fit into different areas of sports and life. I think Pete carroll, or maybe another big time coach use to have his players read that book.

I guess I look at a lot of sports and the style of play and execution and with certain theories. A lot of time I feel its situational coaching/ approach to the game. Teams/ players who make things look easy, or as many in sports talk about, being in the "zone", I have played enough sports at a fairly high enough level to know when I would be "in the zone". Playing tennis, when you feel like every shot you take is a winner, no unforced errors, just always seem to be in the right spot at the right time. Then the next match, I feel my mechanics are the same, same equipement and same game plan and mindset, but its like I am always a step late or always clipping the net etc. Sports are sort of like a weird dance, that some cane make it look easy and do things others cant really do, and others well, the music moves them, but it moves them ugly.

[jackdaniel]

Re: Mastering the Game

Really interesting to get the athletes perspective on when your "in the zone", thanks Goon. Their must be a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of being able to compete at a very high level. I think, in terms of basketball, it's feed the person with the hot hand ,in other words, the person "in the zone". Tennis, it's all on you, being an individual sport, sometimes on TV watching a tennis match, you can literally see the strain, pressure show on the players face right before they throw the ball up to serve. I used to watch all the great players on TV, sad to say, not so much anymore.