DON'T MISTAKE ACTIVITY FOR ACHIEVEMENT

Love this quote by Jim Rohn:

"Don't mistake movement for achievement. It's easy to get faked out by being busy. The question is: Busy doing what?"

Reminds me of Coach Wooden's "Don't mistake activity for achievement." 

We talk to our team about this in terms of our motion offense quite a bit.  We want them to "move with a purpose" offensively.  Running around is not motion -- it's, well, running around.  Are you cutting to create help, screening to create help, maintaining spacing and balance?

But you can see that it also pertains to life as well.  Often we get got up being busying but not necessarily effective or efficient.

JON GORDON'S POSITIVE SUCCESS FORMULA

"You have more control and influence than you think you do."

These were the words of an economist I heard speak as he talked about the economy, the housing market and the recession.

He reminded his audience that a lot of people make a lot of money during recessions. He stressed that these are the times when successful companies and successful people gain market share. He shouted when he told the group to look for buying opportunities over the next three years because there will be many.

In essence he was saying not to let the economy dictate your situation and success. Rather, change your belief system and focus on opportunities instead of challenges. Reminds me of the "Positive Shark Formula" (also known as The Positive Success Formula) I wrote about in The Shark and The Goldfish.

E + P = O

In the book, Sammy, a nice shark who feels that sharks get a bad rap and are in need of some positive publicity, teaches Gordy the goldfish that while we can’t control the events (E) in our life, we can control our positive energy and our positive actions (P) to these events and challenges and in turn this will determine the outcome (O).

Indeed, we have more control than we think we do. Our positive energy, our belief system, our attitude, and our actions have a huge impact on the life we live and the success we enjoy.

You can listen to the Constantly Negative News Channels and believe that success is impossible or you can change your belief and know that with God and an optimistic attitude, all things are possible. Instead of focusing on what they say you can't do, focus on what you can do. Instead of listening to the negative voices, focus on your positive choices.

I'm not saying it will be easy. We will certainly be tested on our journey. I'm an optimist but also a realist. These are challenging times. We may lose our job. We may experience financial difficulties. We may not sell our house as fast as we'd like. We may have to start a new business or venture. We may have set backs. But if we apply the Positive Success Formula to our life I guarantee we will have a big say and influence in the outcome. Instead of letting the world create us we will have a significant role in creating our world.

PREPARATION AND CONFIDENCE

The following comes from "Mental Toughness: Baseball’s Winning Edge" by Karl Kuehl, John Kuehl, and Casey Tefertiller:

In the bullpen and between innings, Greg Maddux spends most of his time working out of the stretch. The toughest pitches during a game come from the stretch, and Maddux wants to be ready, both physically and mentally. Knowing that he can make his best pitches from the stretch in the bullpen builds a confidence that carries over into the game.

Practice is a time to build confidence.

Consistently doing it right in practice builds confidence that carries over into the game.

Being prepared also means being well conditioned. Added strength and stamina from workouts give an athlete confidence in his physical abilities to meet the challenges of competition.

It may sound almost circular, but confidence breeds success, and success leads to confidence. The trick is to use success to build a level of confidence.

A process of replay and pre-play enhances confidence. A player can replay past successes in his mind, recalling past successes that have led to his current level. The pre-play is the process of visualization, in which an athlete envisions every situation in his mind in order to prepare for what will actually occur on the field. Curt Schilling goes so far as to acquire his own personal computer program that plays his previous outings in order to help him prepare for upcoming games. In visualization, as we shall see, every thought should be positive.

Confidence does not always mean achievement—it means believing in the ability to overcome challenges and adversity. A confident player can fall into a slump and know that he will somehow find his way out rather than folding in despair.

ICEBOX ATHLETE: STAT MENTAL TOUGHNESS

This comes from my Icebox Athlete email newsletter today.  I'm a really big believer in this concept.  Players are very stat conscious so why not create a stat that targets area of important to you system and style of play?  Email me at rstarke@lsu.edu if you are interested in our stat package.  Here's what Icebox has to say:

Statistics are kept for almost every facet of the game; from metrics on quickness, agility, assist to turnover ratios, points, offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, steals, and the list goes on. Many smart coaches also track the mental toughness traits of their team during the pre-season and also in-season. As is commonly said, "mental toughness does not guarantee you a championship, but a lack of mental toughness is guaranteed to lose you a championship."

The Metrics

So what are some of the mental toughness variables that should be tracked? The following four areas of mental toughness are an excellent gauge of the mental makeup of any team:

1) Ability to sustain intensity

2) Commitment to excellence/passion for the game

3) Clutch poise/Clutch confidence

4) Ability to execute game strategy - regardless of opponent.

A great exercise for any team is for the coach to rate each player on each facet of mental toughness on a 1 - 10 scale, and then rate the entire team on the same scale. Players should also rate themselves, and the coach should set some collective goals for improvement. This exercise should be repeated multiple times throughout the season.

Learn more: http://www.iceboxathlete.com/

TRESSEL TEACHING MORE THAN TO FOOTBALL PLAYERS AT OHIO STATE

The following was written by Rob Oller of the Columbus Dispatch:

A few minutes after 7 on a chilly Wednesday morning, bleary-eyed students began filing into the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, lugging book bags and wearing Ohio State colors. Or else.

"That's not Notre Dame Irish," Jim Tressel said in mock disapproval to Grace Miller near the team meeting room that twice a week doubles as a college classroom.

Miller recoiled for an instant; the OSU senior and Dublin Scioto High School graduate was unsure whether the most famous professor on campus was kidding about the cursive Irish, her high school's nickname, stitched across her sweatshirt.

He was. Sort of. But it was hard to tell that early in the morning. The Buckeyes' head football coach began his 7:30 a.m. class promptly at 7:28 because "everything is a race against time," he reminded his students.

And so began Theory and Practice of Football Coaching, a three-credit-hour course taught by Tressel, with much help from football staff assistants, as well as former OSU head coaches John Cooper and Earle Bruce. It meets on Mondays and Wednesdays in the fall, with a "lab" on Fridays that sends students out to scout high-school football games. The course includes pop quizzes and a midterm heavy on football history. And students must design a high-school-level training program for a position of their choosing.

"There's a lot more work than you would expect," Miller said.

Tressel, the only coach in all of major-college football to teach an academic course during the season, was dressed Wednesday in a scarlet-and-gray short-sleeved nylon shirt - no vest. He immediately began the roll call for the 50 students (no football players), who come not only for the novelty of being taught by Tressel but also to learn about X's and O's.

Some students, such as Miller, knew next to nothing about football when class began in September.

"Now, I can watch it and actually know what's going on," the molecular-genetics major said.

Other students, such as 64-year-old Vinny Sue Herwig, already understood the game but wanted to dig deeper. And Tressel provides students with a big shovel.

"Tress says, 'Little things don't mean anything; little things mean everything,'" said Herwig, a Westerville hairdresser who attends the class free through the university's program for those 60 or older. A classmate is her 76-year-old friend Frank Barone, a former Ohio University business professor who has gone from thinking that football is a slow, crazy and silly game to something "sophisticated and complicated, with a beauty to it I have not seen before."

Read the entire article: http://bit.ly/bpnXlM

2ND PRINTING OF COACH MEYER'S BOOK ORDERED BY RANDOM HOUSE

I just received an email from Buster Olney informing us that Random House has ordered a second printing of "How Lucky You Can Be: The Don Meyer Story."  The book, written by Buster was only released on November 9.  It is truly a well-written book about a special coach/person and one that all in our profession should read.  I just bough 10 for our staff here at LSU. 

Thanks to all that have purchased the book and helped spread the word!

Here is a link with more information about purchasing the book on-line if you haven't already:

http://bit.ly/bVbiDh

ALL GAVE SOME, SOME GAVE ALL

Today is Veteran's Day -- but in fact everyday should be Veteran's Day...each day we spend freely doing that which we love we have a lifetime of Veteran's that made it possible.

COACH NEWELL: "I WANTED TO MAKE THEM FIGURE IT OUT"

I think one of the most underrated things that the best coaches teach, in any sport on any level, is that of educating their players how to think on their own.  Few were better than Coach Newell.

“I wanted players with initiative, guys who could control a difficult situation on their own.  People may not realize that years ago, you couldn’t bring a player over to the sideline to talk to him.  Players had to stand out in the middle of the court during your timeout.  They changed that rule during my second year in coaching (1947) and I was madder than hell.  I felt my team could always interpret what I was teaching; we didn’t need all these damn meetings.  I didn’t want my players depending on me.  I figured I’d teach ‘em during the week, and when the game comes along, it’s up to them.  That’s one reason I didn’t like to call timeouts.  I didn’t want the players thinking that every time they got in a little jam, I’d bail them out.  I wanted to make them figure it out.”

-Pete Newell

From: "A Good Man - The Pete Newell Story" by Bruce Jenkins

WISE WORDS FROM COACH NEWELL

“Don’t ever allow yourself to think you invented the game, or any part of it. But it doesn’t mean you can’t refine what you borrow."

-Pete Newell 

COVEY ON EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY

"Effective people lead their lives and manage their relationships around principles; ineffective people attempt to manage their time around priorities and their tasks around goals. Think effectiveness with people; efficiency with things."

-Stephen Covey