MBK Ruzomberok after four years again in the Extraliga final!

The women basketball team MBK Ružomberok has been one of the best-quality extraleague teams in Slovakia for many years. Despite their tremendous potential, they have not been able to fight for the Extraleague final in the past three years.

In Ruzomberok, however, the motivation to win the title has never disappeared. The management team realised that to bring the final struggle back under the Tatra Mountain after years, the change had to take place in the traditional practices. “We felt the need for the unified mental setting as well as for better teamwork,” explained Juraj Suja, the head coach. They believed that the key to opening the final gates would be to develop the mental capabilities of the players and to create the right team dynamics.

For the basketball players from Ružomberok, the biggest challenge on their journey to the finals was the play-off with the team Čajky from Piešťany. Their mutual balance clearly spoke in favour of Čajky. The three-month mental training was therefore mainly aimed at successfully managing the semifinals. The players needed to believe that they could do it not only as individual players but also as a team.

The main topics of mental training included:

– Increasing individual and team confidence

– Streamlining communication and collaboration

– Waking up “team spirit”

– Setting individual and team goals

The season results were a huge success for MBK Ružomberok. MBK Ružomberok team led their journey to the finals by the quickest possible way – winning 3: 0 over Čajky. The players showed a fighting and team performance that they managed to transfer to the Extraleague final, too.

“Mental training has helped us to improve the team self-confidence. We have realised that success in sports goes hand in hand with good mental training, ” said Taijah Campbell, the team captain.

In professional leagues, the details are often crucial. The ability to play with a clear head can be the key difference between the winner and the loser. In team sports, there is also a willingness to have the team on the top spot. Players must understand that the team emblem on the heart is more important than the name on the back. Only then, the team can he be successful in difficult games.

“During mental training, we have learned to trust each other and to support one another because it is essential in the team sport. We succeeded in strengthening our team, which we managed to transfer to the pitch, too ” claims Miroslava Mištinová.