BUZZ WILLIAMS TABC CLINIC NOTES (Part I)

A day following an off day, Virginia Tech has an “Early Bird.” Might watch video, walk through something or do individual work...during season if will be about opponent, us, short and teach...in off-season if will be about life — not basketball.

Everybody in our program is the head coach of something...they are in charge of something.

Coach Williams has a “Head Coach in Charge of Time.” He also has a “Head Coach in Charge of Calendar.” Team and Coach William’s calendar are updated daily.

“If you struggle getting up early, you’re probably not very good.”

Likes to start day with quiet time — reading books.

Circle of influence in recruiting...how many “spokes” are there to the wheel — what is your plan in building a relationship with each.

Coach Williams uses W-C-E-T

Write

Call

Email

Text

Monthly contact list — changes monthly

List changes about 10% each month

Consistency in relationships

Can never achieve greatness unless you can max your pettiness.

Writes 2 thank you notes daily.

Sends team a “Teaching Text” every Tuesday.

Utilized Greg Brown type note card

Charts:

Man Offense

Zone Offense

Special Situations

Short Clock — obsessed with short clock plays

Scouting Reports on their way out...don’t give written reports to their kids.

Left Brain...Right Brain...Wires Crossed

Ways to learn:

   Write

   Visual

   Audial

   Do It

First coach Coach Williams worked for said “If I every catch you without pen & paper you’re fired.”

First thing you do with a new play? Teach it to your staff.

When teaching, you must understand that different players will pick it up differently based on how they are wired.

Goal: improve retention rate

“My best gift is I can help people.”

Huddle: Draw — Hear — Walk Thru guys are dead in front of me and last ones he talks to coming out of huddle.

Has football based mentality in preparation:

   2 Days before playing routine

   1 Day before playing routine

Coach Williams has few friends in basketball coaching. Lots of his friends are football coaches.

If your kids or coaches are asking “What are we doing in practice today?” you’re a poor coach.

“The best coaches are the exact same everyday.”

Coach Williams likes coaching kids with problems.

Beware of “imposters on your path” — like winning and losing. Be process oriented.

Has manager in charge of pulling clips from the newspaper on his opponents.

Coach Williams likes to do everything in 4’s (keys to the game, etc.)

THE PRICE OF TEAMWORK

As a follow up to the "The Price That Must Be Paid," here are some great thoughts from John Maxwell on "The Price of Teamwork."

Sacrifice:

There can be no success without sacrifice. James Allen observed, “He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much.”

Time Commitment:

Teamwork does no come cheaply. It costs you time-that means you pay for it with your life. Teamwork can’t be developed in a microwave time. Teams grow strong in a Crock-Pot environment.

Personal Development:

Your team will reach its potential only if you reach your potential. That means today’s ability is not enough.  Or to put it the way leadership expert Max DePree did: “We cannot become what we need to be remaining what we are.”  UCLA’s John Wooden, a marvelous team leader and the greatest college basketball coach of all time, said, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

Unselfishness:

“When you give your best to the world, the world returns the favor.”

-H. Jackson Brown

And if you give your best to the team, it will return more to you than you give, and together you will achieve more than you can on your own.

TODAY MATTERS: DON'T LOOK PAST IT

I've been reading "Coach Wooden" by Pat Williams and he had a great story about understanding the importance of today and how today truly matters to the best:

Greg Maddux is the only pitcher in Major League Baseball history to win at least fifteen games for seventeen consecutive seasons. He recalls some advice he once received from then-Cubs manager Tom Trebelhorn. “You know what the problem is with players these days?” Trebelhorn said. “They are always looking forward to something. They’re never trying to do something today. They’re always looking forward to the next off-day, the All-Star break, the end of the season. They never stop and enjoy the day that’s here.”

Maddux says that he thought about that and saw that Trebelhorn has a point. In fact, Maddux realized that he had that same mind-set of looking only to the future and never enjoying the present moment. From that day forward, Maddux concluded, “I started enjoying each day… and really started loving the games from that day on.”

And as Pat quoted Coach Wooden:

“When I was teaching basketball, I urged my players to try their hardest to improve on that very day, to make that practice a masterpiece… It begins by trying to make each day count and knowing you can never make up for a lost day.”

COACH WOODEN ON PRACTICE PLANNING

As we quickly approach the first of our practice sessions, here are some great thoughts on practice planning from Coach John Wooden:

“I would spend almost as much time planning a practice as conducting it. Everything was planned out each day. In fact, in my later years at UCLA I would spend two hours every morning with my assistants organizing that day’s practice sessions (even though the practice itself might be less than two hours long). I kept a record of every practice session in a loose-leaf notebook for future reference. Prior to practice time, the secretary would type the entire daily plan onto a 3x5 index card, gave them to me, and I distributed them to all coaches and managers. Those cards informed every staff member of all activities and the exact time each would start and finish. As a result, coaches and managers were prepared to quickly transition from activity to activity without any wasted time. Every second is important…”

COACH SABAN CAMP LECTURE 2014

Another classic Nick Saban lecture at his summer camp.  We posted one from Coach Saban's camp in 2011 and was one we shared with our own team.  This one comes from camp in 2014.

KRYA ELZY: THE PRINCIPLES OF BEING A GREAT ASSISTANT COACH

This past spring I had the privilege of presenting at A Step Up Assistant Coaching Symposium with Tennessee assistant Kyra Elzy.  Her topic was "The Principles of Being a Great Assistant Coach" and she absolutely nailed it.  Here are my notes from her presentation

1.   #1 job is to make HC look good
           Help your boss execute his/her vision

2.   Loyalty
          Keep your program’s business in your program

3.   Hard work
          Work like you’re going to get fired

4.   Reliable and responsible

5.   Trustworthy

6.   Energy and great attitude

7.   Consistent
           “What gives you the right to be moody?”
           Ride to work-mentally -- prepare for work
           Come to office ready with a servant heart

8.   Keep personal life personal

9.   Mentally and physically fit
           Need an outlet

10.  Always remember you represent your boss and your university at ALL times

11.  Think and anticipate what is next
           Plan ahead
           Know what the HC schedule looks like

12.  Know your head coach

13.  Nothing is beneath you
           Don’t have an entitled attitude
           No one wins if everyone has a privileged attitude
           Get your hands dirty

What value do you bring to your head coach?

Be so good that your boss doesn’t want to lose you.

OWNING THE TIMEOUT

When Coach Smith spoke, he expected your full attention. Anything less resulted in a reminder that not paying attention could affect the outcome of a game.

His behavior during time-outs in close games was a lifetime lesson.  Sure, he'd discuss the upcoming sequence of events and what would be required to make them successful, but he always started with a bigger picture. If we were down three points with a minute to play, he’d enter our huddle with a smile. “Isn’t this fun?”

Former UNC player Woody Coley from the book, "The Carolina Way"

LATER

Can there be a more insidious word? Later, as in “I’ll do it later.”  Or, “Later, I’ll have time to write that book that’s been on my mind for the past five years.”  Or, “I know I need to straighten out my finances...I’ll do it later.”

"Later” is one of those dream-killers, one of the countless obstacles we put up to derail our chances of success.  The diet that starts “tomorrow,” the job hunt that happens “eventually,” the pursuit of the life dream that begins “someday” combine with other self-imposed roadblocks and lock us on autopilot.

Why do we do this to ourselves, anyway?  Why don’t we take action now?  Let’s face it: The familiar is easy; the uncharted path is lined with uncertainties.”

-Jennifer Reed (Success Magazine)

 

CREATING A MORE PRODUCTIVE DAY

I ran across this website and really liked the stuff I read -- especially this post by Eric Barker titled, "6 Things The Most Productive People Do Every Day."  I'm going to share a few excerpts but you can read the entire article here.

1) Manage Your Mood
Most productivity systems act like we’re robots – they forget the enormous power of feelings.

If you start the day calm it’s easy to get the right things done and focus.

But when we wake up and the fray is already upon us — phone ringing, emails coming in, fire alarms going off — you spend the whole day reacting.

2) Don’t Check Email In The Morning

To some people this is utter heresy. Many can’t imagine not waking up and immediately checking email or social media feeds.

I’ve interviewed a number of very productive people and nobody said, “Spend more time with email.”

Why is checking email in the morning a cardinal sin? You’re setting yourself up to react.

An email comes in and suddenly you’re giving your best hours to someone else’s goals, not yours.

You’re not planning your day and prioritizing, you’re letting your objectives be hijacked by whoever randomly decides to enter your inbox.

3) Before You Try To Do It Faster, Ask Whether It Should Be Done At All

Everyone asks, “Why is it so impossible to get everything done?” But the answer is stunningly easy:

You’re doing too many things.

Want to be more productive? Don’t ask how to make something more efficient until after you’ve asked “Do I need to do this at all?”

4) Focus Is Nothing More Than Eliminating Distractions

Ed Hallowell, former professor at Harvard Medical School and bestselling author of Driven to Distraction, says we have “culturally generated ADD.”

 

Has modern life permanently damaged our attention spans?

No. What you do have is more tantalizing, easily accessible, shiny things available to you 24/7 than any human being has ever had.

The answer is to lock yourself somewhere to make all the flashing, buzzing distractions go away.

5) Have A Personal System

I’ve spoken to a lot of insanely productive people. You know what none of them said?

“I don’t know how I get stuff done. I just wing it and hope for the best.”

Not one. Your routines can be formal and scientific or personal and idiosyncratic — but either way, productive people have a routine.

6) Define Your Goals The Night Before

Wake up knowing what is important before the day’s pseudo-emergencies come barging into your life and your inbox screams new commands.
Here’s Tim:

Define your one or two most important to-dos before dinner, the day before.

Bestselling author Dan Pink gives similar advice:

Establish a closing ritual. Know when to stop working. Try to end each work day the same way, too. Straighten up your desk. Back up your computer. Make a list of what you need to do tomorrow. 

Research says you’re more likely to follow through if you’re specific and if you write your goals down.

GREG BROWN ON PLANNING

The following our notes from Greg Brown, head coach at Lipscomb University on planning. It was part of his presentation our 2012 Gary Blair Coaching Academy.

1. Have a system, any system and make it work for you...Make sure you don't work for your system.

2. Needs Assessment--What Should Be minus What Is = Needs...Daily, Weekly, Monthly

3. Find a 3rd Place--where work and family can't get to you

4. Long season but it boils down to a 3 game season in March

5. Study Planner Pads--weekly planning system

6. Notes--500 richest people...take notes...Think Pad...Evernote...Hard Sheet for Daily

7. Plan, Prepare, Practice as if you just lost your last game

8. Evaluate every year as if it's your first year

9. Plan your week on Sunday...Plan next day the night before...Journal — what we learned vs. what we did.

10. Sit and Think for 10 minutes per day

11. Don't prioritize schedule/ schedule your priorities--Big Rocks--HVA's

12. Daily/ Weekly/ Monthly/ Yearly lists--Outlook, Task list reminder apps