WHAT OFF THE COURT EXPERIENCES ARE YOU CREATING FOR YOUR TEAM?
The following comes from a great book I'm reading "Your Greatest Victory" by Ken Rohlf -- great read for anyone that coaches any sport on any level. I obviously love this passage because it deals with one of my mentors, Coach Dale Brown. I made a couple of trips with the Tigers to Angola and I can you tell you it's a powerful experience. Here is Ken talking about choices:
You have created the life you’re experiencing right now by the choices and decisions you’ve made or those that you have failed to make. You have absolute control over these choices as well as your actions, your reactions and the thoughts you think. Taking full responsibility means that you cause all of your experiences. If there is anything in your life that is not exactly how you want it to be, it’s up to you to change the outcome. You are solely responsible. Don’t blame others for circumstances that cannot be changed. Rather, what is most important is accepting the way things are and understanding that the choices and decisions you make impact what happens from this point forward in your life.
Former Louisiana State University men’s basketball coach Dale Brown always stressed the importance of making good choices to the players on his teams. So that each one of his classes was able to have the experience, every fourth season, Brown’s LSU teams would hold a practice at Angola Prison. Angola, located in Louisiana, and aptly nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the South,” is known for being one of the fiercest prisons in the United States. At the end of practice, to drive his point home about the importance of making good choices, Brown would have his players sit in a solitary confinement cell, walk them past the inmates located on death row, and, to make sure he got through to his team, Brown had each player briefly sit in the prison’s electric chair. These inmates, Brown would preach to his team, have created the life they have by the choices and decisions they made. The choices you make, big and small, will be critical to the life you experience.
Order your copy: http://www.yourgreatestvictory.com/index.php?id=1
