From Deseret News archives:
Mind games — Sports slumps more psychological than physical
"For whatever reason," he recently said, "it's never been a friendly shooting gym for me."
And the more Korver thought about it, the more the sharpshooter seemed to be hucking up medicine balls in Utah — even after being traded here from Philadelphia.
Problem is, the more shooters think about unfriendly rims or hitters think they're seeing "one big glove" — as BYU baseball coach/former Major Leaguer Vance Law described what the field looks like for struggling batters — the more likely they are to prolong their poor performances.
One bad game turns into two ... turns into over-analyzations ... turns into self-doubt ... turns into constant thinking about the whiffs, the what ifs, the whys, whats and whos ... turns into more frustration and off-games ... turns into ... rinse, repeat, slump.
Too much thinking
When it comes to sports — and especially for top-tier athletes — slumps are often just one big mind game. EnergySolutions Arena's rims are 10-feet tall just like every other gym in the world, and Law's opponents really didn't use baseball mitts made out of a herd of cows.
"I'd say all slumps are more psychological than physical," said Dr. Keith Henschen, the Utah Jazz's team psychologist who also helps Olympic athletes. "Most of the time slumps are caused because people start overthinking and overanalyzing too much and start trying too hard."
That seemed to be the case with Korver and his shooting performance in Utah. For instance, in his first 10 home games as a member of the Jazz, the shooting guard only hit 41.1 percent of his field goals and 22.9 percent of his 3-pointers — and that happened despite his getting cheered on as the new fan favorite in Utah.
During that same stretch on the road, Korver blistered the nets by hitting 62.2 percent overall and 51.9 percent from 3-point land.
"I think a big part of being in a slump is just mental. When you tell yourself you're in a slump, it's harder to get out of it," Korver said. "You got to fight through it. You got to just keep on shooting. You can't change stuff. Maybe you can maybe work a little bit harder at it. (But) I think the more you focus on it, the harder it is to get out of it."
Despite how it could have been counterproductive, Korver couldn't help but bring up his shooting woes in Utah.
"I kept telling the people I talked to about it, 'One of these games it's going to break, it's going to go, and hopefully from that point on I'll shoot good,'" he said.
