"Dealing with Daunting Nostalgia"

Angela Davidson deemed the top female Skill Development Trainer in the Dallas/Metroplex and among the nation's best at the conclusion of 2010. Angela is the CEO/Founder of Non/for profit organizations Kingdom Building Basketball and Universal Basketball Solutions in affiliation with her responisibilities as the Director of Player Development for the Mark Cuban Dallas Heroes Basketball Academy. As a former professional player, Davidson specialized in female Player Development  in addition to creating quality exposure and experiences for academy members through effective mentor programs and professional outlets such as parent organizations in the Dallas Mavericks and Texas Legends.

by Angela Davidson

The idea of playing professional basketball in an overseas venue is one that captures the mind of many athletes, but the reality of nostalgia that can spread like that of influenza in players not poised and prepared to experience international basketball in a world away from home is not.  In other words, this "clause of nostalgia" is not identified nor will it be found within a Player Agreement  or Federal National Letter of Intent although it is the imminent sickness that discourages players, breeches contracts, and ends careers altogether when not calculated. 

According to an explanatory study provided by Holak and Halvena (1992), of the Themes and Emotions in the Nostalgia Experience,  "'nostalgia proneness' has been hypothesized to peak as individuals move into middle age".   This proves that athletes should prepare in preseason and be made aware at all cost to execute efforts to control, prevent, or avoid nostalgia. 

Initially, understanding what nostalgia is according to one's individual experience, temperament should be taken into account. By definition listed in Dictionary.com the term nostalgia is a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, homeland, or to one's family and friends.  For some athletes on a preliminary phase this means that the ideation of getting sick can merely be equated to getting past the airport gate waiving goodbye or something as typical as "traveler's diarrhea".

The importance is that at this point that there is not a dismissal of any possible detriment to a player's well being. In the event that not every player will experience these changes in their digestive tract there are still yet other ailments that can effect a player's physiological equilibrium that can create the onset of the impairment. Discouraging situations by association of recollection of old success or even failures in former systems can derive within the season and defer attention and effort and exhaust a player's mental capacity to fulfill their job description as well.  While discouragements come through on court development elements of chemistry and establishing a common communication factor among foreign teammates often plague a player's performance and distress escalates.  Before a player even recognizes it obscure issues or unfinished business on the home front ranging from familial issues, long distance relationships to what become unavoidable responsibilities, inevitable breeches result that are consequential in worst case scenarios that are career ending situations.