In order to prepare for the European Challengers, our U20 team had a workshop with sports psychologist Frank Muller.
„The main focus of a workshop depends on the expectations of the coaches and the particular situation of the team“, says Frank Muller who notes that there are some main elements he is taking into consideration to prepare an event.
„The first thing we look at is how many players have never played in such a competition. It is important to talk about the meaning of representing your country in such an event. The next step is to clarify and define the standards and values as a team, because the team is not only representing itself but also the country and the basketball federation. Based on these values, the players set clear action targets (behaviours) that they follow at every moment during the competition, on and off the court. At the end of the workshop, the players had to rate themselves how well they have already followed these standards and values at their practices until now (the coaches also rated the players). With the help of this exercise, the players have a baseline that they can look at and try to improve over the next weeks. »
Pit Rodenbourg, who is the team manager of the U20 boys, notes that the subject of sports psychology is taking over a more and more important role and is already strongly present in international sports competitions. It is a clear goal to bring this subject forward over the next time.
