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Shawn Jones

DIRECTOR, ATHLETICS

Shawn has 30 years of head basketball coaching experience combined with 11 years as an athletic director. He has coached in Colorado and Texas, and has taken teams to three Final Four tournaments and a state championship. He has seen numerous players of his continue on to compete at the college and professional level of the sport. He is also proud to have seen many of his athletes become high school and collegiate coaches themselves. As director of athletics, Shawn is a key member of Ballogy’s team, driving the company’s athletic strategy, partnerships, coach engagement, and product vision. He has been married to his high school sweetheart for 32 years and they have raised three wonderful children together. Shawn has a passion for player development and the desire to assist coaches with effective, time-saving tools of administering and assessing skill development drills.

by Shawn Jones on Feb 11, 2025

All players, at some point or another, go through a slump. They experience a mental block in confidence that affects their performance in both practice and games. So, how does a coach help a player work through a slump?

The most important thing to remember and communicate to athletes is that their skills did not suddenly disappear. Skills do not come and go like moon phases. The skill is still there, but the mind is limiting their success. With a few simple techniques, coaches can help players navigate through slumps and get back to being productive and successful.

The first thing I would ask an athlete is: How are you helping the team win in other ways? Being a great defender, dishing out assists, pulling down rebounds, or frustrating the other team’s offense with steals are all great ways to validate to your player that they are still valuable and contributing to the team and its success. A lot of times, this knowledge will help lessen the pressure in the player’s mind that they must score a certain number of points for the team to win. Show them that they are helping the team win in other ways just as effectively.

The next thing I would ask is whether their effort, especially on defense, is at a high level. A pet peeve of mine is a player who has high energy when they are scoring, but poor effort when they aren’t being the star. Ensure that they are bringing their highest effort in other facets of the game. One of the first things to go when a player is in a slump is their effort in other areas due to frustration. Encourage the player to bring high effort on defense, run the floor, and move without the ball.

One tactic I like to use for psychological help is showing successful highlights to the player. With today’s video management software, like Hudl, it is fast and easy to create a highlight reel of the player performing at their normal level. Being able to watch themselves perform well on video can, many times, flip the switch in the brain back to confidence.

It sounds simplistic, but one of the most effective tools for getting out of a slump is simply focusing on getting layups and free throws. It’s amazing, but something about seeing the ball go through the net as a shooter reprograms the brain back to confidence. The brain does not know the difference between a layup, a free throw, or a logo three-pointer. It only records the success of the shot. Dopamine rushes to the brain, and success is stored in memory files. Encourage your player to work for easy scores around the basket and get to the free-throw line, where the brain can be reprogrammed for success.

Lastly, set small, measurable goals for each quarter. The greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan, once said that scoring 32 points a game is easy—just get 8 points a quarter. When you break that down further, it’s only 4 baskets per quarter. I know that sounds easy, and obviously, it is not—or else everyone would do it. But for a scorer, it is a very strategic and effective method that is easily measured and provides fast, effective confidence. Set a small goal of 1 or 2 baskets per quarter, so the player can find success in smaller chunks. These will add up by the end of the game, resulting in a highly productive performance.

Above all else, players need to know that the team will find a way to win, no matter what the individual performances are. A quality team will always find a way to win. Ensure that the player knows you love them and that there is no pressure for personal numbers—just team success. That is the biggest slump buster of all.