Throughout the basketball season you constantly hear coaches, players, and analysts talking about “toughness.” Both mental and physical toughness are staples of any great team or great player. Being tough isn’t about beating your chest after an “and 1” or screaming into the face of an opponent after you hit a jumper in a defenders face. To me, toughness is the will to execute regardless of the situation. A tough player always catches and faces the basket in triple threat, instead of standing straight up with the ball over their head to avoid pressure. A tough player always uses their dribble with purpose, instead of dribbling the air out of the ball at the top of the key. With the game on the line, a tough player executes a perfect stride step into a pull up jumper. A less tough player uses sloppy footwork and travels or shoots a shot with terrible balance.
Just like any skill on the basketball court, you need work on toughness. In your workouts you need to challenge yourself. You need to take yourself out of your comfort zone. It is during these times when you are working on toughness. Push yourself both physically and mentally. Do each drill with purpose; focus on footwork, technique, and execution and then develop speed without losing the proper fundamentals. After a killer 2-hour workout do you do the last drill for execution or do you lose your technique and give into the fatigue? When you struggle with a dribbling drill do you give in and look at the ball or do you keep your head up and work through the struggles? Do you challenge yourself to do one more set of full court lay ups or do you quit after the first 3? Use your off-season to develop this skill, it is the difference between the tough player and the not tough player, the good player and the great player.