Posting #10, August 19, 2008

INSIDE, INDIVIDUAL REBOUNDING

All of us are wondering how the American Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps, was able to win eight gold metals. Michael won when he was supposed to, but also won a race he wasn’t supposed to. If the race was close, he somehow kicked it into another gear, a gear no one else had, and won.  How? There has been, and will continue to be, speculation as to what the answers are, but all of us know it was more than physical talent. It was an intangible that is mental. Was it that he hated to lose, needed to win, or a combination?

For those of you that don’t know, individual rebounding was my talent. I was a good jumper, with very good timing, but with an extraordinary pursuit of the ball. Great coaching was responsible for much of the first two, but the third was mostly my doing. Granted, I don’t believe I would have had that passion without the repetition mentioned in Blog 8, “Rebounding is a Habit,” but my determination went way above that; rebounding, for me, was a game within a game. If someone else got a rebound, I felt like I failed. 

I never got blocked out, even by the strongest players. I always had another gear just in case. Far before the shot was taken, I began my maneuver to get inside position in the area I thought the ball was most likely to rebound to. In fact, I was thinking about rebounding during the entire possession. The reason is, I knew from experience, the player that makes the first move will usually win the battle. On the defensive end, I checked my man (block out) hard and quick, usually at the release of the shot or before. On the other end, I made a swim move or hard cut to get inside position, before my opponent was even thinking about rebounding. If I was still blocked out, I spun the other way, rolling off the back of my opponent. That was the extra gear.

Every game, I had two rebounding goals: 20 or more rebounds, and One rebound for every two minutes of playing time. The stat sheet revealed whether I was successful that night. I had a plan for pulling this off. I learned that for every two rebounds I legitimately went for, I usually got one. Now the ball was in my court, wasn’t it? If I wanted 20, I needed to pursue 40 or more. So, I went for all of them because I never knew how many missed shots would be available that night. I was also very conscious of the rebounds-per-minute-played stat. If some time has elapsed since my last rebound, I literally became hungry and worked harder, not just physically but mentally. 

This disposition is not limited to rebounding. Great one-on-one defenders such as Bill Walton, Walt Frazier, Coby Bryant, and Bruce Bowen play with an intense personal competitiveness where success is nothing less than stopping the opponent’s score. On the other side of that coin, great one-on-one offensive players have the same mind-set.

Now here is the question I need you readers to answer for me. Can this obsession be taught? You would think that I would have the answer, but I don’t believe I do. It seems, the root of this quality may be intuitive and/or developed during childhood.  On the other hand, as a child, I don’t remember being that competitive. At some point, shortly after I began playing basketball, I morphed into a different person. Was that competitive spirit always there but just needed to be emerge, or did I develop it?