Blog Post #65

Visualization: The Launching Pad to Realization

Playing professional basketball is a blast; you get paid for playing a game that you would play anyway. Day in and day out, the adrenalin flows as you compete against the best players in the world. But most players will tell you, it’s a whole lot more fun playing at home than on the road. For example, when I played in the NBA, I absolutely hated playing in Cleveland: one, because they had a horrible team; two, because the weather always stunk and; three, because the bus trip, from the hotel to the arena, was forty-five minutes long. What do you do for forty five minutes in Cleveland—look out the window at snow and dark?

When I played for the Lakers and we started that marathon from hotel to arena, instead of staring out the window, I decided to make good use of my time; I made up my mind to practice visualizing a particular move. I chose the most difficult scenario for a rebounder: Getting an offensive rebound in a freethrow situation.

I remembered how, when young, I used to watch Jerry West shoot game-winning jump shots on TV and, immediately after the televised game was over, I would head to the outside courts and practice doing the same thing. “Five, four, three, two, one, it’s in; Nater wins the game!” I remembered, after watching Lew Alcindor shoot sky hooks for UCLA, I could almost see myself doing the same thing. Then, I would go out and shoot Sky Hooks myself, albeit I was at a much lower altitude than Lew.

In the Lakers’ bus, I closed my eyes and visualized myself tipping in a missed freethrow. For forty-five minutes, over and over again, I saw myself fake a move to the baseline (moving the defensive rebounder a half step toward the baseline), spin back to the middle in the fetal position, coil my legs, rise above the rim, and tip the ball down into the hoop. At first, the scene was rather fuzzy but, by the time we arrived at the arena, my mental video was in HD.

As usual, I substituted for Kareem (Oh, that’s the same guy as Lew Alcindor, by the way.) with two minutes to go in the first quarter. One minute into the second quarter, as James Worthy shot a free throw, I found myself making “the move.” I swear on Dr. Naismith’s original laced-up basketball; it happened exactly as I had visualized, to the detail. That scared the heck out of me.

I don’t know about you, but I have always visualized—sometimes involuntarily (like mimicking West and Alcindor) and sometimes on purpose—like in the bus. Visualization comes naturally for some but not for others. For one reason or another, some people don’t dream and don’t see themselves capturing success.  That’s where a teacher can help.

Am I talking about sitting a poor freethrow shooter down, making him close his eyes, and saying, “George, now sit there and keep seeing yourself making ten free throws in a row until it’s vivid?” That may work but I can think of also using visualization off the court. What about the kid that’s thinking about dropping out of school or not going to college? He may  be one of those people that don’t visualize naturally. Instead of giving him the twelve reasons why he should get an education (That won’t work most of the time.), how about getting him to visualize success by asking him, “If you could do anything in life, what would it be?” After he gives you his answer, you can show him how a well-developed mind can help turn visualization into realization. 

I’m sure you can think of more ways to use visualization as a teacher. Visualization: It’s the launching pad to realization.