Search

Unity Sports Group

Building Character, Strength and Skill

Open Search
Month

July 2016

The Mental Game

Sports are half physical and half mental. You can be the strongest, fastest, most athletic player in the world, but if you don’t have a control over your mental game, you’ll never be on top.  It’s those players who have a strong mental game that excel.

All the skills in the world mean nothing if you don’t have a good head on your shoulders.

Sports may be half mental and half physical, but 100% of what you do on the court is going to deal with your mentality. Your actions are influenced by your thoughts, and your thoughts are influenced by your actions. You can be the best 3-point-shooter in the game, but what is it worth if you can’t discern when the best time to take a shot is? If you miss your shot, how will it affect you? Will you get down on your game, or will you channel that frustration into motivation? The best players are the ones who are able to do the latter. Having your own lion is amazing, but if you can’t control that lion, it’s going to eat you.

 

Many talented players have fallen into obscurity because they couldn’t control their mental game, either on or off the field. Johnny Manziel is a good recent example of this. He has all the talent in the world, but never matured past 15, and is considered a locker-room issue. After being a 1st-round draft pick in 2014, he went on to play a total of 14 games in 2 seasons, before being released by his team. During his 2 year NFL tenure, he was fined $12,000 for a hand gesture and was reported to be in Las Vegas partying during one of his team games when he was supposed to be out with a concussion. All that talent he possessed had gone to waste because he never had his mind in the game.

Unfortunately, for young athletes, this happens a lot, and it is how potential careers can be ruined. A player will get too full of themself, too focused on themself and how good they think they are, and it will hurt their career. This can be because coaches and trainers focus primarily on the 50% physical part when developing an athlete without ever touching on the 50% mental aspect.

If you’re a coach, do your kids a favor and teach them about the mentality of the game. Teach them about focus, positive attitudes, concentration, and most importantly, controlling their emotions. If you’re a young athlete, work harder on controlling your emotions. Don’t let bad shots and bad calls get to you. The goal for any athlete is to make it to the big show, don’t let your mind and emotions hold you back.

0

July 18th-July 20th Unity Sports Junior Nets Chris McCullough Camp Recap

The 2nd week of the Junior Nets camp for this summer has gotten off to a nice start. We have seen some new faces and some of the same from our previous camp last week. One major difference this week is that we were fortunate to have Chris McCullough join us to help out the Junior Nets.

McCullough helped the kids in the defensive stations and even handed out autographs at the end of the day.

View this post on Instagram

Thank you @briskuno for attending camp today!🏀

A post shared by Unity Legends (@unity_legends) on

The kids continue to improve and definitely are benefiting from having an NBA player around to help out with the drills.

As we did last week, our Junior Nets practiced each component of their game before going into contests and full 5 on 5 games.

You can see their terrific improvement!

Just two days left in this Junior Nets camp, let’s continue to see that hard work from our campers tomorrow!

0

July 15th Junior Nets Camp-Day 5 Recap

Our Junior Nets camp at the Summit middle school this week is over. We had a great number of kids who attended the camp and hope to see them back again this summer.

Day 5 was a nice ending to this week. Because of some changes our coaches wanted to implement, we switched up the schedule a bit for this final day.

As always, we started with stations to begin the final camp day. The stations have continued to get tougher, but our Junior Nets were able to handle it!

One of the main changes that we made was to have a sit-down with each of our 5 on 5 teams following lunch to work on communication and to try to bring the team closer together. It really showed up in the games.

Something special we did today was to give awards our for those who won the contests for the day and that showed the greatest hustle throughout camp.

Here were the winners:

Thank you to all of our Junior Nets for creating a great environment and we hope to see you sign up next week for our camp at the Summit Middle School, where the Brooklyn Nets’ Chris McCullough will join us.

You can sign up for the camp on our home site by clicking here:

0

July 14th Junior Nets Camp-Day 4 Recap

The camp is almost coming to a close. Day 4 is done and the 5th and final day is coming tomorrow. As we’ve said, the improvements from each camper has been prevalent. This 4th day was as good as the previous ones.

As we do everyday, we had our campers start out in stations to work on their games. Passing, shooting, defense, post-up, dribbling, and driving drills to start the morning for the campers really gets them into form.

Again today, we had a two-ball challenge and this time, our winner (and Camper of the Day may I add) was Myles! Terrific work today from him.

Following lunch our Junior Nets got into some 1 on 1 work and then into their 5 on 5 teams to play some full games.

Something that we are continuing to try to instill into our campers is the notion of passing. The best player is hardly ever the player to score the most. Without players that want to get others involved, a team can’t function.

To end the day, we had the teams compete in the skills challenge once again. You can see the great teamwork and how each player is trying to will their teammates to a win. Here were the winners:

Let’s finish off this week right with a terrific final day tomorrow!

 

0

College Athletes Using Their Voice

Following the ESPY awards, the conversation of athletes using their voice came to the forefront. In light of everything going on in America, it is essential that we talk about how it will begin to affect the sports industry and possibly collegiate student athletes.   There seems to be an unwritten (in some places written) rule that athletes should not involve themselves in issues because they are representative of a team and university.  This argument is heightened when an athlete is on a scholarship.  With the upcoming election and constant debates about Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender rights, police brutality, and new NCAA rules and regulations, the term student athlete and their roles are constantly being redefined.  Student athletes around the Country are receiving appraisal from some and backlash from others in their involvement of campus politics and controversial issues around the world.  Some feel as though sport teams or athletes on a scholarship should not involve their selves in such matters.

However, it is important to note that student-athletes are still people who will be affected by these issues and politics around them, thus, should be allowed to state their opinions on these topics. Athletes have the right to voice their opinion and it should be done in an respectful manner.  Athletes should note that their views do not necessarily reflect those of the university and team.  Controversial incidents around the world are playing a pivotal part in the sports industry and will continue to do so.  It paints a picture and gives a personality to different collegiate sports.  These incidents show that athletes are people as well and not trained robots we often describe them as.

university-of-missouri-football-team-protest-MK4

 

0

July 13th Junior Nets Camp-Day 3 Recap

Each day so far during this Junior Nets camp, we have seen some incredible improvement from our campers. Today was no different.

First, we started with stations once again. More than any other day though, we wanted to place a major focus on defense.

View this post on Instagram

Day 3!! Defense, Defense, Defense💪🏼

A post shared by Unity Legends (@unity_legends) on

Even with there being a focus on defense, we wanted our campers to continue to improve their shooting. When watching this video, it’s noticeable the leaps they have taken!

Wellington Smith wanted to give some of the campers the chance to go about against him to see what it’s like. Maybe tomorrow they’ll get him back!

Again, today we had our campers compete in a two-ball challenge.

Connor was our winner today who showed off his quick hands and nice handles!

Following the two-ball challenge, we went into our 1-on-1 games where we had Myles as the winner for the elementary school division while Kaleb won it for the middle school division!

Following lunch, we got our campers back into their 5 on 5 teams to run some games. It was exciting and competitive the entire time. We continue to challenge our campers to focus on moving the ball to create for others. A great basketball player always knows how to get his or her teammates involved!

After the 5 on 5 games, we finished up the day with the skills challenge again. The Bulls were the winners for the middle school division and had some great chemistry! Love the enthusiasm!

Finally, as we do every day, we announce our camper of the day. Day 3’s camper of the day was Ethan. Ethan showed great enthusiasm, extraordinary handles, and has a smooth jumper! Keep up the great work Ethan!

0

July 12th Junior Nets Camp-Day 2 Recap

Day 2 of our Junior Nets camp started off as we had ended Day 1. Each Junior Net showed fantastic enthusiasm for each drill, game, or contest that they were tasked with participating in.

Just like yesterday, following some stretching to get the legs loose, the Junior Nets were placed into groups to go through the same stations that had gone through in Day 1. This time though, the coaches continued to add new facets to the drills to have each kid improve their game.

For example, in the shooting drill today, the coaches helped our Junior Nets incorporate a pump-fake to their game to enable them to have that ability during a game. Anyone can pump-fake, but having a good enough one to keep the defender on his or her toes is extremely important.

For the station where the Junior Nets practice their drives to the basket, they started to add more finesse to their takes.

This one move in particular was spectacular:

Even some of our coaches and Wellington himself decided to step in to try to have the kids get a taste of defending and shooting against a much taller opposition.

Once again today, we had our Junior Nets participate in the two-ball challenge. What was different from yesterday is that we had them continuously switching the two balls between their hands while keeping a continuous dribble.

Luke was our winner today who did a fantastic job and looked like a pro out there with his handles!

Following that contest, we would again get into 1-on-1 games to see who could display their talents. Each Junior Net was able to get multiple chances at going up against one another and we saw incredible improvements by many.

Trey, for the 2nd day in a row, was the 1-on-1 champ in the elementary school division. We’ll see if someone can down the champ tomorrow!

View this post on Instagram

Trey, the 1-on-1 champ two days in a row!

A post shared by Unity Legends (@unity_legends) on

Once lunch came to a close, our campers got into 5 on 5 games. There was much better ball movement from each Junior Net and there was a noticeable cohesiveness between teammates.

Finally, we finished up with our skills challenge once again. Our elementary school kids got a chance to do the skills challenge full-court and they were spectacular.

They certainly finished off the day right!

View this post on Instagram

Finishing up the day strong 💪 #juniornets

A post shared by Unity Legends (@unity_legends) on

And as always, we like to crown one of our campers at the end of the day our Camper of the Day because of the hard work they put in, the enthusiasm they showed, and the improvements in their game that we have seen.

For Day 2, Ben was our winner!

0

July 11th Junior Nets Camp-Day 1 Recap

Day 1 of our Junior Nets camp is in the books and our unity sports members at Summit Middle School got it started off right today. It was a busy morning for the kids who learned a lot about the game of basketball and how to play it right.

First, they were split up into stations that helped them work on their passing, dribbling, shooting, and footwork.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHuS43KgE4O/?taken-by=unity_hoopsnj

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHuWC3KAzlb/?taken-by=unity_hoopsnj

After each person had rotated from station to station, we got into our first contest of the day, the two-ball challenge.

Here, each Junior Net had to dribble one ball continuously while dribbling another ball behind his or her legs and to try not to lose the dribble with either hand.

Our Junior Nets looked like pros out there with this challenge! Brianna Turner was our winner who amazingly dribbled it 55 times!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHucFqyAH74/?taken-by=unity_hoopsnj

Following this contest, our Junior Nets then participated in a 1-on-1 challenge. It was very competitive and we had 4 winners!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHujAPKgwFt/?taken-by=unity_hoopsnj

After lunch, the Junior Nets got into 5 on 5 games. The games were neck and neck the entire time and featured some incredible plays like this one:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHunVBLADr-/?taken-by=unity_hoopsnj

To end the day, the Junior Nets were put into teams to compete in a skills challenge. Each team member had to make a layup, dribble through the cones down to the other end, make another lay-up, and then speed dribble back to a cone near their own basket to make a mid-range pull-up jumper.

Here were your winners for today:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHuvjlIg-ZZ/?taken-by=unity_hoopsnj

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHu2MpMgJcP/?taken-by=unity_hoopsnj

Finally, following every camp day, we like to post who our camper of the day was.

Today, it was Brianna Turner who did a phenomenal job in each drill and game, and put in 100% effort the entire day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHuwa1_g6Qc/?taken-by=unity_hoopsnj

Come back tomorrow to check out the recap to Day 2 of our Unity Sports Junior Nets camp at the Summit Middle School.

0

LeBron James, the Cavaliers, and the importance of never giving up

temp

“LeBron is soft.”
“LeBron doesn’t show up when he needs to.”
“The Warriors are just too good.”
“No team has ever come back down 3-1 in the finals, and the Cavaliers won’t become the first.”
“LeBron just isn’t the best anymore, not with Steph Curry around.”
“Golden State just locked this series up. It’s impossible for the Cavs to come back, not against the Warriors.”

 

If you looked around after game 4 of the NBA Finals, this is what you would have heard. Whether it be from friends and family, journalists, comments online, or the most respected analysts and experts. After the Warriors beat the Cavs 108-97 to take a 3-1 series lead, a deficit no team had overcome in NBA finals history, everyone understandably thought it was a lock. No one thought the Cavs had the slightest chance in coming back and winning it all. Not with how poor Kevin Love was playing. Not after losing to the same Warriors team in the finals just the year before. And not while facing the 2016 Warriors, which set the record for most wins during the regular season. The Cavs seemingly had the entire deck stacked up against them.

But the Cavaliers didn’t care, and neither did LeBron James or Kyrie Irving. Even though all anyone talked about was the 3-1 deficit, they didn’t let that get to their heads, and they played every game like it was the most important game of their lives. They had their backs up against the wall, and they knew it, so they used it as motivation to win. It worked. Both players erupted in the last 3 games of the series, with LeBron averaging 36.3ppg/11.7rpg/9.7apg and Kyrie averaging 30ppg/5.3rpg/3.3apg. The Cavs beat the Warriors in 7 games and proved just about everyone wrong.

LeBron James has more money, cars, and jewelry than any of us could ever dream of having. He’s world famous and one of the greatest athletes in the world. But sometimes people forget that he’s still a real person just like all of us. He makes mistakes, he makes bad decisions, and he has fears and worries and doubt just like the rest of us. When he was down 3-1 in the finals, no one thought that he could still win. Everyone kept telling him that he couldn’t do it no matter how hard he tried. We’ve all been in situations like that. We really want to achieve something, but we’re told we can’t do it and it’s a waste of time to even try. But the reason LeBron James is so successful is because he tries anyway, and he usually ends up achieving his goal. No one ever became rich and successful by just giving up when they’re told they couldn’t do something. Every single person you see that’s rich and successful got that way by trying over and over to defy the odds and achieve something that was unrealistic.

No matter what your goal is, if you try, and you practice, and you try some more, you’ll be able to achieve it, no matter how much the odds aren’t in your favor. LeBron James proved that this year. So next time people are doubting you and telling you that you’re not good enough to do something, don’t let the negativity get you down. Use that doubt as motivation. When you achieve your goals, it will be that much more satisfying.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑