<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Mental game Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy accompanied several Rockets players participating in a voluntary light workout Monday. He even worked with one. Van Gundy put Yao Ming through some light drills, but he worked with his center primarily to hone Yao's mood and approach more than his game. "I have no issue with any aspect of Yao Ming's game other than his approach right now," Van Gundy said. "It's the year, to me, of the analysis of Yao. He's getting hit over the head. I believe it's caused some small twinge of self-doubt. "One of the great things about Yao last year was his poise and demeanor. Now he's gotten caught up in every non-call, showing frustration with every miss, every mistake, and to me, we're going to feed off him and Tracy (McGrady), so your best players can't be frustrated. He has to be above that. Every player goes through tough times. I just want him to be up." Van Gundy said he did not do a lot of preaching, and Yao said before Monday's game that he thought it helped, but "we'll have to see." But Van Gundy emphasized that he wanted Yao to regain his confidence and focus. "There's not one thing -- and I know there's a lot of `big man's coaches' out there -- wrong with Yao Ming's game," Van Gundy said. "His footwork is fine. The moment he snaps out of this thing that is enveloping him right now and he becomes upbeat, looking forward to the competition, he'll be fine. He's shooting 44 percent over the last five games. That happens. If he takes the shot he wants and it doesn't go in, so what? ... "There's too much in his head right now other than clear his mind, lay all out, play as well as you can, and live with the result." </div> link That's what I like of JVG treating and motivating Yao Ming. IMHO, Yao Ming just thought too much, and just can't let go of the huge pressure and expectations loaded onto him.
Yao has a great feel of responsibility on his team, and he takes every shot he misses or every shot or every play he screws up on very hard. He gets so passive at time, timid and afraid to commit mistakes to potentially cost the team. What Yao needs to do is to play his game. He doesn't have to score 20 every night and go 9-14 from the floor. What we can get him to do is take his rebounding first, then scoring. When you grab a big rebound or make a powerful block, it'd transfer to more confidence on the other end, and vice versa. When things aren't going well on one side, switch to the other.
My biggest frustration about Yao's game, and perhaps this ties into his confidence, is his soft hands. It gives him a great shooting touch, sure, but just the slightest tap and the ball seems to get dislodged every time. Every game, there are about 3 or 4 loose balls that Yao has a hand on and should be able to get, but he'll lose the ball. I don't know if at the end of the game, it makes a huge difference in the score, but its extremely frustrating to watch on tv.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting durvasa:</div><div class="quote_post">My biggest frustration about Yao's game, and perhaps this ties into his confidence, is his soft hands. It gives him a great shooting touch, sure, but just the slightest tap and the ball seems to get dislodged every time. Every game, there are about 3 or 4 loose balls that Yao has a hand on and should be able to get, but he'll lose the ball. I don't know if at the end of the game, it makes a huge difference in the score, but its extremely frustrating to watch on tv.</div> yeah i agree, with a hand that big he should be able to hold the ball firm, but instead he is always easily get stripped by opponents... Take a look at sunday's game for example when manu took the ball from his hand EXTREMELY easy... Somebody from other thread said it was like taking away candy from a kid, yeah great analogy..
