The following comes from the opening paragraphs in the introduction of John Maxwell's "The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth."
Potential is one of the most wonderful words in any language. It looks forward with optimism. It is filled with hope. It promises success. It implies fulfillment. It hints at greatness. Potential is a word based on possibilities. Think about your potential as a human being and you get excited -- at least, I hope you do. What a positive thought. I believe in your potential just as much as I believe in mine. Do you have potential? Absolutely
What about unfulfilled potential? That phrase is as negative as the word potential is positive. My friend Florence Littauer, a speaker and author, wrote a story in her book Silver Boxes about her father, who always wanted to be a singer but never was. She says he died with the music still inside of him. That's an apt description of unfulfilled potential. Not reaching your potential is like dying with the music still inside of you.
I have no doubt that the answer is growth. To reach your potential you must grow. And to grow, you must be highly intentional about it.
The following is part one of a two part series that comes from "Mental Toughness: Baseball’s Winning Edge" by Karl Kuehl, John Kuehl, and Casey Tefertiller:
After identifying where and what you want to improve, examine the attitudes concerning each by asking yourself the following questions:
1. How did I develop my current attitude? Most attitudes develop unconsciously. Many of our attitudes come when we rationalize by giving reasons and making excuses. Numerous attitudes piggyback off expectations, both our own and others. Attitudes can develop from our imaginations, from imitating the behavior of others, and from people telling us what they think our attitude should be.
2. Is a certain attitude helping or hurting me?
3. Is it in conflict with my other attitudes?
4. Which attitudes need improvement?
Attitude is really that simple. A winning attitude helps a player succeed; a defeatist attitude nearly always leads to failure. A player who expects to fail usually reaches his expectations, no matter the talent level. A player who embraces a positive attitude can go as far as his ability will carry him—in some cases, well beyond. Effective attitudes become the mental edge in conquering adversity and making the adjustments necessary to compete. Attitude can be the difference between persevering to success and surrendering when something goes wrong.
We wanted to take the time to thank everyone that ordered our Gary Blair Coaching Academy Notebook and DVD set. We were extremely surprised by the number of orders that poured in. It's great to know that there are a lot of coaches that respect what we do and that want to continue to grow as professionals. Orders are still coming in so we are going to extend the sell of the notebooks until November 1. If you are interested, click on the link below to find out everything that's in the notebook, along with the two DVDs. There is also ordering information here as well.
Gary Blair Coaching Academy Notebook: bit.ly/PamxHW
I really liked this concept of teaching your point guards know where their team is in terms of the shot clock. During our fall workouts, assistant coach Amy Wright was responsible for working with our point guards. She had a manager on the clock and had instructed her to set the shot clock at :30 and let it run down on a continuous basis. She then instructed her point guards to start a count down out loud when the shot clock got to :10. It didn't matter if they were in a shooting drill, a defensive drill, a ball handling drill or even if she was talking to the group. When the shot clock hit :10, they were to be aware and to count it down. If they did not count it down out loud, the manager was instructed to let the horn go off -- signifying that they had not paid attention to the clock. At the end of practice, there was a running penalty for each missed count. During the course of a 30 minute workout, there would be around 60 opportunities for them to visualize and then verbalize the time on the shot clock. It was also a great deal to get the point guard to communicate. Often it would be one of the point guards that first recognized the clock and her verbal count cued the others to join in.
This is our third installment from Billy Packer's book "Why We Win" in which he ask coaches of all sports for insight on their philosophy.
How to you feel about keeping players happy or players needing to like the coach?
Are competitor’s born or can this be developed within them?
John Wooden: I think it can be developed to a great extent. In my pyramid of success, I have competitive greatness as the very top. You’re not going to be a great competitor unless you’re prepared. You’re not going to be prepared it you don’t work hard and aren’t enthusiastic about what you’re doing. You’re not going to be prepared unless you can function quickly. You’re not going to be prepared unless you are considerate of others. You’re not going to be prepared unless you’re in proper condition. You’re not going to have poise unless you have these other things. So all of these things, I think, work up to making you a competitor.
Ara Parseghian: I think you have to set a stage and a climate for it...I learned two things from Paul Brown. He was a great organizer. He didn’t overwork his teams, and he brought them to peak at the right time. You never felt like you were overworked. You always felt like you were underworked, and you always felt like you were very well prepared.
Anson Dorrance: In our experience at UNC, over the course of their four years, people who haven’t been outwardly competitive, by the end of their four years, become so.
Joe Gibbs: You can say things to great competitors and you can motivate them.
Chuck Noll: I think you can’t survive in the game over a period of time if you’re not a competitor. If you don’t have — I’m talking about a real serious competitor, you’re not going to survive.
Mike Krzyzewski: It’s a team process in building a competitor. Certainly a coach — and I find at Duke one of my primary jobs — is to make our kids tougher...There are certain things I have to do to make sure that our kids get tougher. A kid is not going to become really tough unless he has some competitiveness and some toughness in him already.
The following came from Don Meyer during his three sessions at the LSU Lady Tiger 2004 Coaching Clinic.
4 THINGS YOU NEED TO BE GOOD OFFENSIVELY
#1 Inside Game (can get this through the following means: fast break, posting, flashing, driving the basketball, and on the offensive glass).
#2 Outside Game (important to have in order to open up the inside game)
#3 Penetration Game
#4 Pull-Up Game (very few have a good pull-up game)
5 PHASES OF GREAT TEACHING
#1 Tell them what to do
#2 Show them how to do it
#3 Have them show you how to do it
#4 Correct them
#5 Repetition (Proper & Quick)
4 CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT POINT GUARD
#1 See the entire court and do what needs to be done.
#2 Go from dribble to a pass or dribble to shot quickly.
#3 Passing = timing, accuracy, quickness, deception.
#4 Masters the pass fake, shot fake and change of pace.
“The overriding principle in our program is ‘team attitude.” We want to be the best team on our schedule. We want to play in such a way that when we win, we lose. We want people to say ‘they play hard.’ We want to win when the ball doesn’t bounce right.”
“It’s OK to be angry. It’s not OK to be quick to anger. Don’t go to sleep angry.”
4 AREAS OF TEAM BUILDING
#1 Shared Ownership…”our” team!
#2 Shared Suffering...you learn more at a funeral than a wedding.
#3 Individual Responsibility...we never use the word ’individual’ unless it’s followed by the word ’responsibility.’
#4 Collective Pride
COACH MEYER ON SHOT SELECTION
1st Bad Shot = Bad Shot
2nd Bad Shot = Bad Player
3rd Bad Shot = Bad Coach
KEY ZONE PRINCIPLES
#1 Run...take advantage of mistakes
#2 Rebound...it is more difficult to blockout from a zone defense
#3 Attack the Rear of the Zone
#4 Keep your ball handler between two shooters
#5 Stretch the zone...it opens up the middle
The following is part one of a two part series that comes from "Mental Toughness: Baseball’s Winning Edge" by Karl Kuehl, John Kuehl, and Casey Tefertiller:
The first step in asserting a positive attitude is to recognize the attitudes that you now bring to the game. A player must understand his motivations and desires in order to improve his outlook.
By sitting down and writing out the answers, you can gain a better understanding of your own attitudes.
1. How strong is my desire to be the best I can be? What price am I willing to pay? Can I work harder and put more into it? Do I want to work harder?
2. Why am I playing? What do I want to achieve by participating? Am I challenged to be the best performer I can be, or am I just trying to be better than those around me? Am I playing just to be with friends or to please or gain recognition from parents or family members?
3. Can I be a better learner? Do I have an open mind, and can I open my eyes to new opportunities to learn? Am I willing to try new things?
4. Am I treating my coaches, teammates, friends, umpires, and opponents with the same respect I’d expect from them?
5. Am I capable of following instructions? Am I doing what is expected of me?
6. Can I have better poise and self-control? Do I recognize times when a lack of poise has damaged my performance?
7. Can I be a better competitor? Am I fighting myself as well as my opponent, or am I competing with myself to do the best I can?
8. How do I want others to see me? What can I do to make it happen?
9. What are my attitudes toward all phases of the game? If I am a pitcher, do I fail to cover first base or back up plays at times? If I am a catcher, do I avoid practicing blocking balls to the dirt? If I am a position player, do I work as hard on base running as on hitting? If I am a hitter, what are my attitudes about being selective? Am I ignoring some of the less glamorous aspects of the game? Am I willing to give the extra effort to improve all parts of my game?
10. Am I intimidated in certain situations? Or am I the intimidator?
11. Do I ever catch myself thinking about not wanting to look bad?
One of the things that I feel strongly about -- something that I will talk about when I speak at clinics -- is that the two most important things a coach can teach their team is to TALK and to THINK. It's not passing, dribbling, shooting or closeouts -- it's TALKING and THINKING. Now the critical point to understand is that effective talking and thinking make the execution level in all phases of basketball rise.
Today, as we prepare for our first official practice tomorrow, I have been reviewing some of my basketball notes including some from Jeff Van Gundy. A few of his thoughts that give credence to my theory of the two most important things that we can teach our players include:
"We like talk to be ELC -- Early, Loud, Continuous."
"Never heard a team that talked early, loud and continuous that was not intense."
"If you can talk it, you can do it."
"The game comes down to decisions."
Here are a few of the attributes of people who have passionate commitment:
They do what they say they’ll do because they have made the commitment to do it. You can count on them every time. When they tell you they will do something, you can consider it done.
They believe so strongly they can achieve a goal that they can envision themselves crossing the finish line. They can vividly see success.
They write and verbalize their commitments. This doesn’t mean sitting around talking about what they plan to do. They put their goals into words and then get busy.
They’re realistic. They don’t over-promise and under-deliver. Whatever they say, you can believe it.
People who choose commitment invest in achieving their goals. They may invest the classroom time necessary to earn a college degree, energy on the basketball court practicing three-pointers, or hours at the computer pounding out that first novel. When they commit, they invest.
Committed people don’t beat themselves up for falling short. They use that experience to learn and continue the process.
People who choose to commit always plan their lives around what it takes to achieve a goal. They are focused, and they make their success a top priority.
Most committed people don’t understand the term “fail.” They think it means “one step closer to success.”
People who commit themselves to a goal have an impact on the lives of those around them. Enthusiasm and commitment are contagious.
From "Monday Morning Choices" by David Cottrell
I am looking forward to speaking this Saturday (October 6) at the Dallas Basketball Coaching Workshop. My friend Matt Grahn does an incredible job of putting this together each season and this year is no exception. He has an incredible line-up including Fran Fraschilla, Bob Hill, Danny Henderson and the University of Dallas staff.
As I continue my first year on the Texas A&M staff, I am thoroughly enjoying meeting all the outstanding high school coaches in our state -- and I am certainly looking forward to meeting a great deal more this weekend in Dallas.
The clinic schedule:
8-9:30 am Fran Fraschilla, ESPN Analyst; TBA
9:30-11 am Bob Hill, Former NBA head coach; The Importance of Building Your Philosophy.
11-12 pm Jarred Samples, University of Dallas head coach; TBA
12-1 pm Lunch [On your own]
1-2:30 pm Danny Henderson, Duncanville HS head coach; 15 Difference Makers
2:30-4 pm Bob Starkey, Texas A&M women's assistant coach; Good Things I've Seen in Coaching.
4-5 pm Matt Grahn, University of Dallas assistant coach; Drills For Effort: Making Your Practices Meaningful
Click here for more information: Dallas Basketball Coaching Workshop
