Am I Good Enough?

A problem I see so many young basketball players experiencing early on in their basketball careers is simply they don't think they are good enough. By good enough I mean good enough to continue playing, good enough to make the school team, good enough in the eyes of their teammates, coaches and family, good enough at basketball in general. I like to tell a personal story of mine regarding this problem because it hits the nail on the head and if this is a problem for any basketball player, regardless of age, it just goes to show that it is a problem that can be solved, I've experienced it. So lets get onto the story (which I believe I briefly brought up in one of my blog posts).

I was in third or fourth grade, I want to say fourth but since this was basketball through my local park district and the kids were all mixed together it's hard to recall. Anyways, this was going to be my first time playing with kids who were slightly older than I was by about a year or year and a half and it was the first practice of the year and I was nervous to say the least. The thought of "am I good enough?" began to set in; in this case it was "am I good enough to play with these older guys who are surely better than". We were no more than I'd say 20 or 25 minutes into practice when we began shooting free throws in a line, one after the other, kind of like the game knockout except this wasn't a fun and silly game, it was practice. We had gone through the line probably 8 times and I was the only guy out there who hadn't hit a single free throw, nerve-racking to say the least. I had now added "am I good enough to continue playing basketball" to my thoughts and about that time one of the coaches pulled me out of the line to go shoot with him by myself. So before I even had a chance to deal with "am I good enough to continue playing basketball" I was already thinking "am I good enough in the eyes of coaches and teammates", who were all looking at me now, I might add. After free throws it was time to play a little 5 on 5. It didn't even feel like we had been playing for more than a full minute when I jumped to steal a pass and came down wrong, severely rolling and slightly fracturing my ankle. The worst part of the injury wasn't the injury itself but that I actually found comfort in the fact that I didn't have to play anymore for a while and that those "am I good enough" questions were gone. How sad is it that a fourth grader, only 9 or 10 years old, is glad he got hurt so he no longer had to worry about "am I good enough" to play the game he absolutely loved?

So as you can see this was a fairly big problem for myself and a sort of depressing one at that but don't worry the bright side of this problem is close! As I have mentioned before I work with younger kids occasionally in practices and at camps and I have had kids struggle with this same problem, and I'm not saying it is only younger kids who face this problem, it can be any age basketball player. I have kids ask me directly if they are good enough, which is extremely hard to hear, and I have had kids not show up after a few days and their parents tell me they don't think they are good enough.

Now to the bright side of this article and something I eventually learned on my own, you are good enough! Is everyone good enough right away? No. But it is possible to become good enough and I'd like to share a few tips to help kids, or anyone, realize that they are good enough if they put in the time and effort to do so.

Tip 1. Practice, Practice, Practice. You can not become discouraged and ask yourself "am I good enough?" just because you aren't currently as good as you want to be. Were you good at riding a bike the very couple times you tried? Probably not. Were you an expert writing cursive the first time your teacher taught it? No (I thought I would never learn to right cursive). So the same applies to basketball. You have to practice and have the willingness to become good and you will eventually become "good enough", I promise.

Tip 2. Do not be afraid to ask for help. I know a lot of kids are afraid to ask questions because they don't want to be seen as stupid or dumb in front of teammates and coaches, I was in that boat once too, but if someone is a really good coach or teammate they won't think that and will try to help. If it is something that really bothers you, ask to speak to the coach alone or seek someone else out whose job it is to teach the game of basketball, there are tons, and you would be surprised to learn how willing they are to help out.

I understand these are pretty basic tips but that just means that they are that simple to accomplish. I can say from experience that although they are not going to make you the next Michael Jordan or LeBron James, they will help you alleviate or resolve though troublesome thoughts of "am I good enough?", a thought that should not plague the mind of anyone trying to do something they love. It took me a while to finally gain my confidence back but it did work and the problem I face was solved! I hope anyone facing this problem or know anyone facing this problem will pass this along to him or her.

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