KELVIN SAMPSON: "LET'S GO HIT THE ROCK"

If you follow, read and study Tim Elmore (and you should), you know the importance of visuals in making emotional connections with those you lead.  In a story that ran a few months ago in the Houston Chronicle by Joseph Duarte, I loved what Kelvin Sampson had created to get his message across at the University of Houston:

From Duarte's article: 

A rock is the first thing visitors see upon entering the player's lounge inside the Guy V. Lewis Development Facility.

It's kept in a case with a sledgehammer leaning against it, a symbol of what Kelvin Sampson has based the revival of the University of Houston men's basketball program.

Sampson often ends every staff meeting with the saying, "Let's go hit the rock."

"It ain't going to break today," Sampson, the Cougars' 62-year-old coach, continues. "We don't know how many times we are going to have to hit it, but I just know it's going to crack."

"He's said it for four years," says Kellen Sampson, an assistant coach on his dad's staff. "Our whole culture has been based on hitting that rock."

DO YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR SUMMER WORKOUTS? HOW ABOUT PRACTICES?

One of our discussion points with our team this past week is their ability to maximize their workouts.  Not just the individual workouts with the coaching staff but those workouts on their own -- unsupervised.  We have stressed the concepts of "deliberate" and "intentional."  Don't just roll to the gym and jack up some shots -- have a plan before you leave your apartment...a goal to accomplish during your time on the court.

I read somewhere this past week that Kobe Bryant would go to the gym and work on the same shot or same move for one complete hour...deliberate...intentional...that's how you grow towards mastery of your skills.

Whether its a summer workout or even practices during the season -- how much better would a player be if they mentally and physically prepared for a practice. If they made sure they had the proper rest.  If they were following the correct diet.  If they got there early and actually took time to map out some objectives for the workout.  And if you could get a majority of your players dedicated to pre-practice preparation, you'd be well on your way.

There's an old Adidas video with Bob Knight where he talks about preparation -- and he's referring to practice preparation.  He speaks about when the ball is tossed up, everyone wants to win.  But the successful players are those that want to win "the day before, and two days before and three days before, because the will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win."

Most players however think preparation is solely directed towards readying for your next opponent.  But tremendous improvement can come about by being deliberate and intentional in your summer workouts and preparing for practices during the season.

As Jay Bilas wrote in his book "Toughness" --

"If I could go back and be a player again, one area in which I would strive to be better would be my daily preparation.  I would take more time to mentally prepare myself for practice.  It would have made me a better player if I had consistently taken the extra time to mentally prepare myself and focus on what I expected to get out of that day's practice, and to mentally preapre myself to truly compete that day from the first drill to the last."

Deliberate.

Intentional. 

COACH BILL SNYDER'S 16 GOALS FOR SUCCESS

The following is an excerpt written by Mark Jannsen for KStateSports.com.  It speaks to Kansas State's coach Bill Snyder and his philosophy of 16 goals for success -- which he got from his mother. You can read the entire article here.

Simplistic words like: commitment, unity, unselfishness, enthusiasm, responsibility, improve. Generic phrases like: great effort, never give up, expect to win, no self-limitations, and so on.

Lumped together, and bought into, Snyder summarizes, “If each player achieves each of these goals, we, as a team, will always be successful.”

Snyder declines to accept invention of his pet words/phrases, but instead says, “They come from my mother (Marionetta). The foundation comes from how she raised me, and what she meant to me. How you buy into those values is who you are.”

Growing up in a single-parent home in St. Joseph, Mo., Snyder said, “My mother was a stickler for having everything in its proper place and doing things right. Our apartment wasn’t much, but it was always clean. It was small enough that when my area was a mess, then her area was a mess. There wasn’t my space and her space. It was our space.”

He would add, “She worked hard. If my work ethic came from anyone, it came from my mother.”

THE WILDCAT 16 GOALS FOR SUCCESS

Commitment … to common goals and to being successful
Unselfishness … there is no ‘I’ in TEAM
Unity … come together as never before
Improve … every day as a player, person and student
Be Tough … mentally and physically
Self-Discipline ... do it right, don’t accept less
Great Effort
Enthusiasm
Eliminate Mistakes … don’t beat yourself
Never Give Up … never … never … never
Don’t Accept Losing … If you do so one time, it will be easy to do so for the rest of your life
No Self-Limitations … expect more of yourself
Expect To Win … and truly believe we will
Consistency … your very, very best every time
Leadership … everyone can set the example
Responsibility … You are responsible for your own performance

JAY BILAS ON PUSHING LIMITS

Our team passout today via the book "Toughness" by Jay Bilas.

DEREK JETER: TOUGHNESS AND THE TEST OF TIME

I  came across an absolutely great article on Derek Jeter written by Joel Sherman for the New York Post.  It is possibly the best thing I've read about Jeter and some of the reasons he been so consistently successful.  I've written before but to me, the true test of greatness comes with the test of time.  There are many that are good, even great for a short period of time but it is the long haul that truly show us greatness.

I strongly suggest you take the time to read the entire article here -- until, here are some great excerpts:

On Friday night, Jeter started his 2,610th game at shortstop. That moved him past Omar Vizquel for the most in major league history. It might not be Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripken stuff, and it came and went without confetti and fanfare. But you do not start that many games in the middle infield — all those double-play pivots, etc. — without a sense of responsibility, a reservoir of pride and a steely constitution. The day-after-day mental and physical grind ultimately defeats every athlete. But some endure better than others. And Jeter is at the top 1 percent.

“We all consider rolling over and shutting the alarm clock off,” Joe Torre said by phone. “Jeter never rolls over. He gets out of bed. It is never a consideration to take a day off. It is a sense of responsibility to his team and to himself.”

I remember a conversation long ago with Gene Michael when he was still the Yankees general manager. We were discussing the traditional five tools — hitting, hitting for power, running, fielding and throwing.

That day I disagreed with the confines of the five tools. I suggested there were so many more than five tools. Aptitude was vital. You could have five tools, but if you couldn’t apply them, what was the use? Victor Martinez might only have two tools, but he has pretty much maximized them. That is so much more valuable than having five that excite scouts but never come out in games with consistency.

Grace under pressure is a tool. Again, you could have the physical stuff down, but if you can’t do it with 40,000 people in attendance or in October, what is the point?

Discipline is a tool. Are you going to keep working out, avoid perks that could drain your energy and skill?

And durability is a tool. Danny Tartabull used to tell me to project his stats over a full season and I finally told him, “Why? You never play a full season.” Mark Buehrle might not be blessed with the stuff that makes scouts drool, but wind him up and he gives you 200 innings. Every year. Year after year.

Because I believe it is in all these areas beyond the traditional tools that Jeter was an A-plus and took very good traditional tools to a Hall-of-Fame level.

His aptitude, his grace under pressure, his discipline and — for me — especially his toughness.

Chili Davis Code: If I am playing, I am healthy enough to play. He never played the “I am 80 percent” game to provide an alibi. Never told you off the record how he was really feeling, again, as a way to set up the excuse. “I’m all right.” That he what he told managers and media.

Jeter felt a responsibility to play, that the team was best when he did. Torre and Joe Girardi have known they could write his name into the lineup game after game, season after season. Do you know how much easier that makes the managing job?

“There was a playoff series in which he had pretty much a broken hand, got shot up for Game 1, couldn’t feel his hand and said he would rather just play with the pain,” Torre said. “There was never a consideration that he wouldn’t play. He came to the ballpark to play. It certainly made my job a whole lot easier. You talk about a guy who is a leader. You have someone who wants to rest, they look across the locker room and see him. He forced other people to play, not literally, but by example.”

THE UNIVERSAL TRUTH IN EVERY GAME

"The lowest common denominator every performer shares is the execution of the next task. What has happened and what might happen will very with each athlete and each circumstances.  But the next task must be made: a block, a tackle, a pass, a pitch, a stride or shot.  It is a universal truth within every game."

H. A. Dorfman

THE WAY OF THE NAVY SEAL: TOUGHNESS, COMPETING, TEAMWORK, LEADERSHIP, ACCOUNTABILITY

The following are a few notes from the book “Damn Few” written Rorke Denver, former Head of Basic and Advanced SEAL Training:

Our program is unique in four ways: what we teach, how we teach it, who teaches it, and who we teach it to.

What we teach is pure SEAL.  The lessons are simple, clear and well-defined: They come right out of our basic values.  Winning pays.  Losing has consequences.  Nothing substitutes for preparation.  Life isn’t fair and neither is the battlefield.  Even the smallest detail matters.  We are a brotherhood.  Our success depends on our team performance.  And we will not fail.

These precepts are driven home constantly as we make new SEALs.

Whether the students know it or not — and mostly, they don’t — these powerful ideas are behind almost everything that happens in training.

A boat race isn’t just a boat race.  It’s a way of teaching the culture of winning.  A room inspection isn’t just a room inspection. It’s an excuse for the instructors to get all over the students and teach the life-or-death importance of sweating every last detail.

 

TOUGHNESS TRAINING

“We should remember that one man is much the same as another and that he is best who it trained in the severest school.”

-Thucydides

 

SELF ACCOUNTABILITY

“Every SEAL must learn to run his own jump.  You pack your own chute.”

 

LOVE OF A CHALLENGE

“The Spartans don’t ask how many are the enemy but where they are.”

-Plutarch

 

TEAM

“Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.”

-Alexander the Great

 

COMPETE

“SEALS never miss a chance to compete.  If we don’t have something to compete over — don’t worry, we’ll dream something up.  If there SEALs are going on a run, it’s not a run anymore.  It’s a race.  SEALs get bloody noses during pickup games of Horse.”

 

THE NEXT BATTLE

Killing Osama Bin Laden… “Mission Complete”

 

LEADERSHIP

“Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head.”

-Euripides

 

 

 

KEY NAVY SEAL CONCEPTS

The following are a few notes from the book “Damn Few” written Rorke Denver, former Head of Basic and Advanced SEAL Training.  This is one of the best books I've read in sometime and I recommend it to coaches and all that are building teams or in positions of leadership:

Be excellent.

It pays to be a winner.

The only easy day was yesterday.

Don’t ever let your teammates down.

 
Carry your full measure of the load.

Don’t disrespect the game by not preparing fully or playing it as well as you possibly can. 

Be present always.

 

PEAK PERFORMANCE DOWN THE HOME STRETCH

Another great newsletter from the Texas A&M men's basketball staff and Coach Mitch Cole.  If you have already, you need to sign up for it -- each edition is outstanding. Simply email Coach Cole at Mitch Cole mcole@athletics.tamu.edu and ask him to put you on the list.  Here are the Aggie thoughts on peak performance as we head down This time of year, everyone is searching for the best ways to get their teams to play at peak performance in February/March. Every staff asks the questions:

What is the best way to prepare our players for a late season run? What is our strategy if our team is favored and playing well?…Or what if our team is the overwhelming underdog? What approach is best when our team is inconsistent, good one game and poor the next? 

The following are a few concepts that are some helpful reminders to stress to our players in February, regardless of where our teams rank in the standings:

1.EMBRACE "THE MOMENT"

This month is the reason you (the player) work so hard in the off-season. Don't have a mindset of "I can't wait for the off-season." You are working for February (and March) when you spend countless hours in an empty gym the other 10 months of the year. Stay in the moment. The time is now! 

2."TRUST" THE PROCESS

Regardless of the final outcomes of games, ask the question, "Are we improving in certain areas?" For good teams, "are we eliminating mistakes that could cost us when the competition gets tighter?" For struggling teams, "are we seeing improvement and building toward a successful culture/program?"

3. HOW DO YOU MEASURE ON THE  "GRIT" SCALE?

Some educational researchers have defined GRIT as "passion and perseverance to achieve long term goals".  When struggles come, do you get more DEJECTED or more DETERMINED? 

Studies have shown that the attribute of GRIT,  is one of the most powerful indicators of success. The most GRITTY people usually succeed on and off the court.

4. STAY TOGETHER, PRACTICE "TOGETHERNESS"

 -Teams can become selfish during good times and turn on each other during tough times. Teams that stay together can resist the temptation to be selfish, can withstand tough times, and even conquer insurmountable odds. I love this clip of the movie Gladiator.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWRfWr65rlg 

Is it possible that a more "together" team could be worth 1 point in a game? Have you ever won or lost a game by just 1 point? 

 5. KEEP FIGHTING, BE "RESILIENT"

Most people can appreciate a team or athletes that refuse to give up no matter what the circumstance. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from difficulty and in some cases, be better than before. This can happen when the other team goes on a run and things look most bleak, or even within a season. Teams that "Fight" and show tremendous Resilience over and over again have the best chance for sustained success.

 

 

MJ: NO SUCH THING AS GOOD ENOUGH

Our team passout for today:

DO YOU WORK...TEACH...EMPHASIZE TO YOUR TEAM THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAYING HARD

Often times coaches can get caught up a little too much in evaluating execution and not focus or emphasize how hard their team is playing or not playing.  Sometimes we assume we should just come out and play hard each and every night.  Developing a mindset of playing as hard as you can for as long as you can is just as important as developing skills, and your system of play.  That's why I loved this short post by Broderick Turner of the LA Times on Clippers head coach Doc Rivers:

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers talked about how much he admired how hard the undermanned Utah Jazz played in a 98-90 loss on Saturday night at Staples Center.

In that same vein, Rivers said his team has been playing hard too. The Clippers played hard in losing at Golden State and Portland last week, and they played hard in defeating the Jazz.

“I think we’re getting that way for sure,” Rivers said. “I think we play hard most nights.

"When you have the talent that we have, it’s more trying to get guys to play in the right spirit every night. And we’re getting there. I think our team is really close."

Rivers has been stressing that to be a good team, you have to play hard every night, no matter the opponent.

“I’ve been saying it for a week or two," Rivers said. "You can feel it. We’re close to being like really good.”
 

ON GRIT AND PERSEVERANCE

Earlier this week I was fascinated by the following tweet from Eric Musselman:

@EricMusselman      

U of Penn study found that "grit" (passion & perseverance for long-term goals) is best predictor of success. "Grit is unrelated w/ talent."

 

I retweeted it of course but found myself very interested in the finding so, as we all do these days -- I Googled it.  In doing so, I found the actual report from the Duckworth Lab at the University of Pennsylvania.  There is a long research statement that you can read in its entirety here but below are some excerpts that I found interesting.

 

The Duckworth Lab focuses on two traits that predict success in life: grit and self-control. Grit is the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals. Self-control is the voluntary regulation of behavioral, emotional, and attentional impulses in the presence of momentarily gratifying temptations or diversions. On average, individuals who are gritty are more self-controlled, but the correlation between these two traits is not perfect: some individuals are paragons of grit but not self-control, and some exceptionally well-regulated individuals are not especially gritty. While we haven’t fully worked out how these two traits are related, it seems that an important distinction has to do with timescale: As Galton (1892) suggested, the inclination to pursue especially challenging aims over months, years, and even decades is distinct from the capacity to resist “the hourly temptations,” pursuits which bring momentary pleasure but are immediately regretted.

 

In terms of Big Five personality, grit and self-control both load on the conscientiousness factor, which also encompasses dependability, punctuality, and orderliness, among other facets.

 

Some educators typically prefer the umbrella term “social and emotional learning,” whereas many other educators, as well as philosophers and positive psychologists, embrace the moral connotations of “character” and “virtue.” So, grit and self-control are facets of Big Five conscientiousness, but are also conceptualized as dimensions of human character, social and emotional competency, and non-cognitive human capital.

 

Predicting Consequential Life Outcomes

 



Our research has established the predictive power of grit and self-control, over and beyond measures of talent, for objectively measured success outcomes. For instance, in prospective longitudinal studies, grit predicts surviving the arduous first summer of training at West Point and reaching the final rounds of the National Spelling Bee, retention in the U.S. Special Forces, retention and performance among novice teachers, and graduation from Chicago public high schools, over and beyond domain-relevant talent measures such as IQ, SAT or standardized achievement test scores, and physical fitness. In cross-sectional studies, grit correlates with lifetime educational attainment and, inversely, lifetime career changes and divorce.

 

Cultivating Grit and Self-Control

 

The language we use to describe grit and self-control – words like “character” or “personality trait” -- may connote to some immutability. However, it is now well-established that traits change across the life course. So, while there is enough stability to traits to sensibly describe one individual as grittier than another, it is also true that children and adults change their habitual patterns of interacting with the world as they accumulate additional life experience.

 

In terms of intentional change, one promising direction for research is the correction of maladaptive, incorrect beliefs. For instance, individuals who believe that frustration and confusion are signs that they should quit what they are doing may be taught that these emotions are common during the learning process. Likewise, individuals who believe that mistakes are to be avoided at all costs may be taught that the most effective form of practice (deliberate practice – see research by Anders Ericsson) entails tackling challenges beyond one’s current skill level. 

DON MEYER: THINGS WE HAVE TO LEARN EVERY YEAR

This is one of my absolute favorite pieces written by Coach Meyer.  It's not the first time I've posted it but the first time I've posted it in its entirety:

You Can Pick Captains But You Cannot Pick Leaders (The Foxhole Test)

When we think our team is ready each year, we have our players take the foxhole test. They draw a circle to represent their foxhole. They write their name at the front of the foxhole. They draw a line at their rear, their left, and their right. On each of those lines they write the names of teammates they would want in their foxhole if they were fighting a life and death battle. The position to their rear is worth three points and is awarded to their most trusted, courageous, and tough teammate. The position to their left is worth two points and is awarded to the second most trusted, etc. teammate, and the position to their right is awarded to the third teammate they would pick and is given a value of one point. This test cuts through all the friendships, cliques, and is the truest measure of what players really think of their teammates. It might be a good idea for each coach on the staff to do this with his/her coaching staff, administrators, teach associates, and of course your team. There are many people who you would love to have around on the golf course or in a duck blind but deep down you know that defeat is assured if they are in your foxhole.

Your Team Is Never As Tough As They Can Be And You Can Never Assume They Are Tough Enough

When looking in the dictionary you see descriptions for toughness such as: hard to break but not necessarily hard to bend, difficult to get the better of, apt to be aggressive, able to resist, etc. When we think of toughness we immediately think of mental toughness and then physical toughness. LET ME SAY AT THE OUTSET THAT A TEAM WILL NEVER BE TOUGH WHEN THEY ARE COACHED BY A STAFF OF COACHES WHO ARE NOT. The hardest thing we have to do each day as coaches is saddle up and face the day with the attitude we want our players and team to adopt. WE CANNOT SELL THEM SOMETHING THAT WE DO NOT OWN. My most difficult task as coach is to be tougher on myself and more demanding than I was the day before. THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT WHEN YOUR PROGRAM IS WINNING GAMES. For every 100 who can handle failure, there is but one who can handle success. Winning can weaken the resolve of those who worship winning and do not plan, practice, play and coach to a higher standard. THE BEHAVIOR OF YOU R PLAYERS IN THEIR ACCEPTANCE OF FATIGUE, BAD CALLS, TURNOVERS, MISSED SHOTS, BEING OPEN AND NOT GETTING THE BALL, HARRASSMENT FROM THE OPPOSING FANS, TRASH TALK FROM OPPONENTS, AND THEIR TEAMMATES' FAILURES AND SUCCESSES will tell you all you need to know about how well you are teaching the life long lessons of toughness.

Players And Coaches, Everyone In Your Program Must Be Willing To Change When It Is For Their Improvement And The Betterment Of The Team

This is the thing that always concerns us in our recruiting of players. We are not for every

player. The solid programs will have attrition because there is a standard, a level of excellence, a desire for learning and improvement on and off the court that is demanding and is therefore character building in nature rather than a look the other way. That is probably why we have not had many transfers in our program from four year schools or junior colleges in our 30 years of head coaching. The few that we have had were outstanding kids and developed into great team players. As a coach you are constantly studying to find a new and better way to teach the game and YOU USUALLY FIND THAT THE OLD SCHOOL WAYS ARE STILL THE BEST. The TEST OF TIME is the master teacher and is cruel but the fairest of all teachers. You will never have a team if the best athlete on your team is not someone willing to be molded and taught to play the game and conduct them self in the proper manner. If your leader is of suspect character, the fabric of your team will be torn apart when the first negative winds attack from outside the program. If your best athlete is a great leader, no amount of negativity will rip the team apart.

Thinking As A Team, Becoming A Team, And Always Remaining A Team Is the Single Best Thing That You Can Teach Your Players For The Present Time And For Their Life After They Leave The Program

When you play a game, travel on the road games, register for classes waiting in long lines, eat in a restaurant, befriend or ignore a young child after a game, respect or taunt an opponent, deal with winning and losing, you are making a statement about what the core values are in your program. Coaches, players, and teams are teaching lessons in every encounter along life's way. We hope it can be said of our program that EVEN WHEN THEY LOSE THEY WIN. The way you accept the hand life has dealt you vividly tells everyone else what your true character is. The great boxer Sugar Ray Robinson said, "You can tell the most about a man when he is getting whipped". That is oh so true in a basketball game and life. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP TO BE A CHAMPION. As a coach, you are responsible for the actions of your players and team. You are not a coach if you look the other way and ignore bad behavior. It must be dealt with or you are harming your players for a lifeti me. Philippians 2:1-8 gives a description of what a team attitude should be like for coaches and players.

Transition Defense, Intensity On Defense, Rebounding On Both Ends Of The Floor, And Turnovers Are Key Factors You Can Help Your Team Become Aware Of In Practices And Games
 
Transition Defense---Try to develop a philosophy of transition defense that fits your style of play on both ends of the floor. It might vary some each year depending on your personnel. Stick with it in every shooting drill, all break down drills, 5/0 work, and 5/5 scrimmage. This will be a key to not giving the game away.

Intensity on Defense---Too many ways to defend a particular offensive move means no way to defend it because players think too much. It has to be instinctive quickness. If a player lacks quickness, then this is even more vital. As Jerry Tarkanian said, "The more they think, the slower their feet get". Keep it simple on defense and lean to the aggressive way of doing things and your team will make more plays defensively.

Rebounding on Both Ends of The Floor---You must chart effort in order to see if players really value possession of the ball and realize that rebounding is most often the way you gain possession of the ball. Turnovers---We got a great idea from Porter Moser, the head coach at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. He puts so many basketballs in the ball rack and removes one for each turnover. When all the balls are out of the rack it means that there will be morning running. We have modified it some because our coaching staff does not like to run in the early mornings. Porter is a very young coach. We put two balls in the rack and when we have turned the ball over three times the offending team will run or do whatever consequence we think is best. We like it, it is simple. It drives home a point. BALLS IN THE RACK makes our players realize that everything they do in practice will effect what they do in a game.

 

 

DIANA NYAD'S THREE MESSAGES

WSVN-TV -
Diana Nyad's three messages upon completing her historic Cuba to Florida swim today:

#1 We should never, ever give up.

#2 You are never to old to chase your dream.

#3 It may look like a solitary sport but it's a team sport.

BREAKING BARRIERS

As I keep track of Diana Nyad today, pushing strong towards her life-long goal of swimming from Cuba to Florida, I am reminded of a few quotes of hers that I'd like to share.  The first one is my favorite and one that we share each year with our teams:

"I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can that the experience will take me to a new level.  I am interested in the unknown and the only path to the unknown is through breaking barriers, an often-painful process."

"But for each of us, isn't life about determining your own finish line?

The journey has always been about reaching your own other shore no matter what it is, and that dream continues."

"It's not too late, I can still live my dream."

Track Diana's process here http://www.diananyad.com/

 

HAVING FUN IS DOING HARD THINGS WELL

Once, at the end of a hellacious, close, hard-fought game against archrival North Carolina, Coach K knelt down in our tense, pressure-packed huddle.  I think we all expected a fiery statement from him, loud and with veins popping out of his neck, on the raw intensity and toughness we needed to finish this game and win it.

Instead, Coach K surprised us.  He looked right at us, smiled and said, "Isn't this fun?"

His message was clear, and it had a relaxing effect in such a frenzied, tense and pressure-filled environment: This is important and we have a job to do, so play your ass off and play to win.  He was reminding us to embrace and enjoy the richness of the experience and to savor the journey, in both peaks and valleys.  This is a game that is supposed to be fun.  So let's make it fun.

Having fun is doing hard things well.

When I look back, none of my fondest memories are of easy games.  They are of the tough games, the games and practices when we had to lay it on the line, and things were the toughest.

From "Toughness" by Jay Bilas

THE DISEASE OF AVERAGE

AVERAGE is what the failures claim to be when their family and friends ask them why they are not more successful.

AVERAGE is the top of the bottom, the best of the worst, the bottom of the top, the worst of the best.  Which of these are you?

AVERAGE means being run-of-the-mill, mediocre, insignificant, and also-ran, nonentity.

Being AVERAGE is the lazy person's cop-out; it's lacking the guts to take a stand in life; it's living by default.

Being AVERAGE is to take up space for no purpose; to take the trip through life, but never to pay the fare; to return no interest for God's investment in you.

Being AVERAGE is to pass one's live away with time, rather than to pass one's time away with life; it's to kill time, rather than to work it to death.

To be AVERAGE is to be forgotten once you pass from this life.  The successful are remembered for their contributions; the failures are remembered because they tried; but the AVERAGE, the silent majority is just forgotten.

To be AVERAGE is to commit the greatest crime one can against one's self, humanity, and one's God.  The saddest epitaph is this: "Here lies Mr. and Ms. Average -- here lies the remains of what might have been, except for their belief that they were only AVERAGE.

-Edmund Gaudet

DOES YOUR TEAM HAVE A LIST OF STANDARDS?

Having recognized standards is important in self-evaluation.  When Mike Montgomery was coaching at Stanford, I went to Palo Alto to watch his team practice and play.  When Montgomery took me into the Stanford locker room, one of the first things I saw was a framed list of team standards and goals, and each member of the Stanford basketball team, including the managers and coaches, had signed it.  The team had come up with the standards they expected to meet and the milestones they expected to reach that season.

At certain times when the team may have been falling short of those standards, Montgomery or any player could point to them and emphasize that they were not some directive from above; those were the standards they all agreed to meet. k They did not agree to meet them when they felt like it, or once in a while, but every day.

"Toughness is the ability to go from 'bought in' to 'locked in,'" Indiana coach Tom Crean said.  "What it takes for you and your team, on a daily basis, to lock into what will make you better and make us change, contact and challenge?
To Crean, too many people waste their time talking about buying in, instead of focusing on what it takes.  "There are a lot of fakes in basketball -- in any business, really," Crean said.  "People talk about buying in, but most people really don't.  It's just too hard.  But if they do, if they lock in, the rewards are incredible, almost indescribable."

From "Toughness" by Jay Bilas