Starting something new is exciting, scary and similar to entering an unfamiliar dark room. You don’t know what is in front of you. You don’t know which way to turn. When I started my career in college basketball, that’s how I felt. I was in unfamiliar territory. People were speaking languages that I didn’t have a clue about. My coaches were yelling 1,2,3,4,5, elbow, short corner, and maxing out.  I was being tossed new terms and acronyms left and right.

If someone would have told me the things I’m about to share with you, I would have had an extremely successful college basketball career. Instead, I was a below average to average college player.  I eventually became frustrated, couldn’t dig myself out of my frustrations and stop playing basketball my junior year of college.

At the beginning of something new, everyone has the opportunity to be successful. But only the ones that do specific things will end up successful. Below are some of those specific things you can do to have a successful basketball career.

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Get Some Rest

Make sure to go to bed at a decent time the night before. You want to be well rested because you will be doing a lot of moving around and running. Don’t eat a lot or at all immediately before the tryout. Eating too much will weigh you down and make you feel sluggish.

Relax

Remember to relax. Basketball is a game. So if you don’t accomplish anything else, simply have fun. If you feel a little uptight, think of something funny and just smile. You will be amazed at how instantly you will relax.

Don’t worry about making any mistakes. Just put forth maximum effort to do what the coach is asking you to do. If you don’t understand a drill, try to ask the coach or get towards the middle or end of the line. This way you can watch the players before you.

Pay Attention

This is not social time. Believe me. A coach will not select you, if you are socializing with other players during the tryout. That is not a good first impression.

My niece played her first season of basketball. She’s in the the 5th grade. She came off the bench. She didn’t get many minutes. She never scored any points. However, she had fun. She enjoys the game of basketball.

She had her moments when she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t understand why sometimes she only played less than 1 minute. I told her not to worry about playing time but to focus and learn about how to play the game, the rules of the game and playing on a team.

Some things I enjoyed during her first season of basketball: Her looking over at me in the stands during warm up after attempting her layups. Her coming over to the bleachers before heading to the bench to get her bottle of Gatorade or water. Then saying “Thank you, Auntie.” Her facial expression when her coach told her to check-in for the very first time. When she started jumping for rebounds, after I worked with her on jumping. Her first free throw attempt during a game. Her reaction while watching video of herself playing basketball. Her running faster during games because she saw how slow she was running while watching the video of herself. And sitting in the stands answering basketball questions from her little sister, who is in the 1st grade and will be starting her first season of basketball in a couple of weeks.

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