17 hours ago
Caitlin Clark's shooting slump and injury: Experts discuss sophomore campaign
Caitlin Clark will miss the Indiana Fever's game Thursday night with a groin injury, but her shooting slump continues to draw attention.
Stay present. Be the goldfish. Reflect. Don't ruminate.
Unsolicited tips on how to help Clark's shooting woes continue to pour in, thanks in part to four slump-busting experts who talked to USA TODAY Sports about The Slump:
Clark, ordinarily a sharpshooter from long range, is 1-for-23 from 3-pointers over the last three games.
What ails her, according to the experts, could be a mix of psychological, emotional and physical issues. Sure enough, on Thursday, the Fever disclosed that Clark, 23, has a left groin injury. She will miss her sixth game of the season, with the star missing five previous games due to a quad injury. The Fever are off to a 7-7 start.
'That could easily throw her mechanics off in a way that she's not really aware of,'' said Dan Blewett, author of 'This Slump Shall Pass.'' 'So she thinks, 'Why are these (shots) not going in? I'm taking good looks. Everything's the same.'
"Yet it's not.''
Blewett is one of the four slump-busting experts who spoke to USA TODAY Sports about not only what might potentially help Clark but anyone else mired in a slump.
Be the goldfish!
Nathan Jamail, a leadership coach in the world of business, offers a disclaimer.
"I was 5-foot-3 in the ninth grade and I couldn't make a two-pointer," he said. "I don't know if I'm qualified to give Caitlin advice in basketball."
Whether or not you can hit a logo 3, Jamail offers a metaphor he borrowed from "Ted Lasso," the TV series starring Jason Sudeikis. Lasso, the fictional soccer coach, says "be the goldfish," encouraging his players to forget their mistakes and quickly move on – like a goldfish presumably would.
Said Jamail, "I'm the weird father from the stands yelling when (his daughters) make a mistake, 'Goldfish! Goldish!' They're like, 'Dad, stop.' I'm like, just, 'Goldfish!'
"There's all kinds of really successful veteran athletes, what makes them successful is their ability to forget what just happened," Jamail added.
But Jamail said the key to ending a slump is confidence – and finding a source to help renew it.
"For some of us, it might be triggered by a mentor," Jamail said. "Others might be triggered by an energy or meditation or whatever gets you to reset. You're not going to recover your ability if you're not feeling good about yourself or not feeling confident."
Blewett, the author who's written about slumps, said Clark missing the game Thursday could reflect a wise decision by the Fever.
"Because you want to protect your players from not losing their confidence from something that's beyond their control and their health is beyond their control in large part,'' he said.
Behold, Samurai warriors
Blewett, a former minor league baseball player who works exclusively with athletes, also suggests staying present. Especially at the cost of overthinking, overreacting and accepting advice from outside trusted advisers.
He also prescribes careful assessment of the nature of the slump.
"How much luck is at play?" Blewett said. "Is it me? Is it my teammates? Is it the opponents? Are (opposing players) starting to adapt to me? How much do I need to adapt back?"
He said that inventory would include the player's health, especially if they're fighting through injuries.
"That's also the burden of leaders and superstars, is they know it hurts the team when they're out,'' Blewett said. "And so they try to tough it through everything. They want to stay on there because 75% (of) Caitlin Clark is maybe better than 100% of someone else."
But he returns to an emphasis on staying present, potentially with meditation, and to be unafraid of the picturing the slump at work.
"A lot of times we're taught to only think positive, right?" Blewett said. 'The Samurai (warriors), they often meditated on the negative aspects. They would meditate on their own death. They would see themselves being cut down by swords so that they could be acquainted with it. And then they could eventually feel, like, I'm not afraid of being cut down in battle and when I'm not afraid I can be my best self.
"I can be fluid, I can be relaxed, I can be without fear. And I can just react to my opponent's sword. So the more they could be friendly with the potential negative outcomes and be comfortable with them, then they could let go and be free."
The sophomore slump
Molly Schaller, associate dean and professor of Higher Education Administration at Saint Louis University, has worked closely with college sophomores since 1995. It's part of her effort to understand the 'sophomore slump.''
At the heart of the phenomenon, according to Schaller, is transition. And she said she's long wondered if the sophomore slump plagues athletes like Clark, who happens to be in her second season (i.e. sophomore year) in the WNBA.
'She really jumped straight from the heights of what it means to be a college level athlete to the WNBA,'' Schall said. 'That had to be so exhilarating.''
But then comes Year 2. For students, Schall said, it can lead to changing their major, leaving their friend group, sleeping a lot, drinking too much, dropping out of school or changing schools. For the record, Schall is not comparing those behaviors to Clark's shooting slump.
The common denominator for college students and basketball stars, according to Schall, is transition.
'Now you're settling into that new environment and you can't quite settle into yourself until you answer some questions,'' she said. 'Is this the way I want to be in the WNBA? Is this the way I want to be in the world? Is this the way I want to interact with my colleagues? Is this the way I want to interact with the fans? How's my family handling all of those things?
"So to me, it's a natural thing of transition. All of that stuff starts to hit, who am I? And you have to resolve those questions to settle in for the long haul.''
A shift in perspective
Dust, the associate professor at Cincinnati, applauds Clark. Not just for her on-court skill but also for how she said she's approaching her shooting slump.
"The challenge for myself going forward is just continue to pour into every other aspect of the game and I can continue to have an impact in those other areas," Clark said after she went 1-for-10 from 3-point range in Indiana's 89-81 loss to the Las Vegas Aces on June 22.
During the three games of dreadful shooting from 3-point range, Clark has averaged 9.3 assists, collected six steals and, in one game, had seven rebounds.
"That can be beneficial because then you get what's called a confidence carryover, so that you are feeling better, you're not ruminating about what's not going well, because you're contributing in a productive way,'' said Dust, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati's Linder School of Business. 'And then (accurate shooting) might more naturally come back because it is getting away from that negative (thinking).''
In business and athletics, Dust said, it's beneficial to think of performance on as long of a trajectory as possible.
'This happens a lot in sales,'' he said. "They'll talk about people struggling. They just can't close a deal. They have a rough quarter, a rough year or whatever it is. But if you can get people to extend the window of how they're evaluating themselves, in terms of their performance episode, then they might see that, oh, wow, overall I still am an incredibly high achiever in my area.''
In other words, shooting 1-of-23 from 3-point range will not define Clark, a two-time Naismith College Player of the Year and 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year who continues to entertain and demonstrate a truth beyond basketball.
Not even the likes of Caitlin Clark are exempt from slumps.
