{"id":246017,"date":"2025-10-28T09:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T09:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246017\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T09:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T09:29:10","slug":"how-meditations-help-marquette-mens-basketball-players-strengthen-their-minds-marquette-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/246017\/","title":{"rendered":"How meditations help Marquette men\u2019s basketball players strengthen their minds \u2013 Marquette Wire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Russ Rausch began helping Marquette men\u2019s basketball with \u201cmental weight training\u201d four years ago. (Photo courtesy of Russ Rausch)<\/p>\n

With under four minutes remaining in the Round of 32<\/a> and Marquette men\u2019s basketball trailing Michigan State by two, head coach Shaka Smart spent 15 seconds of the media timeout not for drawing up plays, but for breathing.<\/p>\n

In a game that determined who would advance to the Sweet 16, some may think Smart would have used every last second to talk strategy with his team.<\/p>\n

But breathing was something that the Golden Eagles were used to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And they still are.<\/p>\n

In fact, the team has a mental skills coach working with them, teaching the players how to be present in the moment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do it every single day, before practice, before a game, and for me, it takes me away from what I\u2019m about to do,\u201d senior forward Ben Gold said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

For the past four years, Russ Rausch has led the program through what he calls forms of \u201cmental weight training,\u201d or exercises that continuously build on each other, so that come game time, players can quickly revert to those skills in times of need. Marquette also uses the Vision Pursue app<\/a>, which reinforces the same teachings, just with the ability to do it on their own time.<\/p>\n

Rausch, founder of the Vision Pursue<\/a> program, wants to help improve the mindsets of not just athletes, but also corporate leaders, employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He never studied psychology in college; in fact, he majored in accounting. However, after struggling with his own mental weaknesses during his job at a trading firm, he taught himself how to stop overthinking and was inspired to teach others how to discern their own emotional regulation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rausch first runs Marquette\u00a0through\u00a0breathing exercises to center the mind and internal state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One way he teaches breathing is by taking slower, deeper breaths with longer exhales. The second way is through what he calls \u201cpower breaths,\u201d which are when you breathe heavy \u2014 like you are running \u2014 while sitting still.<\/p>\n

Once the breath is regulated, he moves on to teach focus meditation. This is a\u00a05-10-minute practice where players select an object to stare at and focus their attention on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been learning over the summer how to improve our focus, because that will help us a lot more in the game,\u201d Gold said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re locked in, everyone\u2019s on the same page, everyone\u2019s at a high level of focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold admitted that it is a difficult practice to begin with, but over time, the team has been able to get to a point where they all can \u201clock in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach even tested us the other day when we were sitting in the film room,\u201d Gold said. \u201cHe made someone walk in midway through the focus meditation, to see if we would break our focus and check to see who walked in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gold said that one or two people looked up, but it was a huge improvement from when they first started.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Russ Rausch founded Vision Pursue to help improve the mindsets of athletes, corporate leaders and employees. (Photo courtesy of Russ Rausch)<\/p>\n

Now, the breath is regulated, and the focus is there; the next step is the three-letter strategy Rausch uses to develop the meditation with Marquette even further.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And no, it\u2019s not RGV: relationships, growth, victory \u2014 the core values essential to the Shaka Smart era \u2014 but ECC: expect, embrace and control.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Expect: Expecting challenges and challenging emotions, which helps people understand that their emotions are normal, as opposed to feeling overwhelmed or isolated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Embrace: Embrace the emotion. Rather than suppressing the feelings, allowing them will be more beneficial for your performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Control: Control the controllables.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, does it make sense why Smart uses valuable media timeouts for, not Xs and Os, but breaths?\u00a0Athletes learn to control their thinking. Rather than focusing on a missed 3-point shot, turn your focus towards making a great defensive block.<\/p>\n

If Marquette trails by 12 points with four minutes to go in the second half, is there no way they can win? Or is victory possible?<\/p>\n

\u201cMore important than the pre-practice or pre-game meditation is being able to come back to presence in the moment during the game, using your breathing, using different cues to come back to a level of consciousness to allow you to make the right next choice,\u201d Smart said.<\/p>\n

Out of media timeouts, when the buzzer sounds, the Golden Eagles head back to the court. But now, they have a steady breath, sharper focus and an ECC strategy in place for what comes next. <\/p>\n

This story was written by Raquel Ruiz. She can be reached at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> or on Twitter\/X @RaquelRuizMU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russ Rausch began helping Marquette men\u2019s basketball with \u201cmental weight training\u201d four years ago. (Photo courtesy of Russ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-246017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}