Monday, December 13, 2010

ENTHUSIASM

Another gem from Creighton Burns' newsletter -- this one is our team passout for the day:

“Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles."

-- Og Mandino

WHAT IS YOUR PHILOSOPHY -- CAN YOU SHARE IT IN A MINUTE?

Recently at a coaching clinic Pete Carroll, USC Head Football Coach asked the coaches if any of them had a coaching philosophy, and everyone raised their hand. Then he asked them if they could tell him in one minute… most people put their hand down. His was simple…“Win Forever”. Carroll explains, “Of course we want to win every game, but winning forever is simply realizing your potential and making yourself as good as you can be.” Other recent and simple examples have been, “Get Better” and “Ask as if…” How much can you simplify your philosophy into something short and concise. Could you text it to someone in a single message?

-- Via Creighton Burns newsletter - Shared by Ray Lokar

Sunday, December 12, 2010

NOT JUST MAXIMUM EFFORT...MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE

"Lombardi didn’t believe in complimenting people for doing what they were supposed to do.  If you did well, he’d say so.  But to get praise, you had to do something really extraordinary.  It was a matter of understanding your men and getting maximum performance, not just maximum effort, out of them."

-Bill Curry

BRIAN TRACY: THE 7 STEP PROCESS FOR ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS

Yet another qualtiy post from Brian Tracy:

Clarity accounts for probably 80% of success and happiness. Lack of clarity is probably more responsible for frustration and underachievement than any other single factor. That's why we say that "Success is goals, and all else is commentary." People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine. This is true everywhere and under all circumstances.

The Three Keys to High Achievement
You could even say that the three keys to high achievement are, "Clarity, Clarity, Clarity," with regard to your goals. Your success in life will be largely determined by how clear you are about what it is you really, really want.

Write and Rewrite Your Goals
The more you write and rewrite your goals and the more you think about them, the clearer you will become about them. The clearer you are about what you want, the more likely you are to do more and more of the things that are consistent with achieving them. Meanwhile, you will do fewer and fewer of the things that don't help to get the things you really want.

The Seven Step Process for Achieving Goals

Here, once more, is the simple, seven-step process that you can use to achieve your goals faster and easier than ever before.

First, decide exactly what you want in each area of your life. Be specific!

Second, write it down, clearly and in detail;

Third, set a specific deadline. If it is a large goal, break it down into sub-deadlines and write them down in order;

Fourth, make a list of everything you can think of that you are going to have to do to achieve your goal. As you think of new items, add them to your list;

Fifth, organize the items on your list into a plan by placing them in the proper sequence and priority;

Sixth, take action immediately on the most important thing you can do on your plan. This is very important!

Seventh, do something every day that moves you toward the attainment of one or more of your important goals. Maintain the momentum!

Join the Top 3%
Fewer than three percent of adults have written goals and plans that they work on every single day. When you sit down and write out your goals, you move yourself into the top 3% of people in our society. And you will soon start to get the same results that they do.

Review Your Goals Daily
Study and review your goals every day to be sure they are still your most important goals. You will find yourself adding goals to your list as time passes. You will also find yourself deleting goals that are no longer as important as you once thought. Whatever your goals are, plan them out thoroughly, on paper, and work on them every single day. This is the key to peak performance and maximum achievement.

Action Exercises

Here is how you can apply this law immediately:

First, make a list of ten goals that you would like to achieve in the coming year. Write them down in the present tense, as though a year has passed and you have already accomplished them.

Second, from your list of ten goals, ask yourself, "What one goal, if I were to accomplish it, would have the greatest positive impact on my life?" Whatever it is, put a circle around this goal and move it to a separate sheet of paper.

Third, practice the seven-step method described above on this goal. Set a deadline, make a plan, and put it into action and work on it every day. Make this goal your major definite purpose for the weeks and months ahead.

Get ready for some amazing changes in your life.

Check out: http://www.briantracy.com/

TOP FIVE CHARACTERISTICS FOR SUCCESS IN SPORTS

A special thanks to my mentor Coach Dale Brown for sending me a copy of a letter that he recieved from former NFL player Phil Olsen (younger brother of Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen) who now owns Know Your Strengths Company.  Here are some great thoughts from Phil as he outline them to Coach Brown"

Bill Glass got it right. Successful people live a life of "Expect to Win."

We must "expect" good things to happen in our lives before they ever will.

In addition to attitude and effort, visualization is also critical to expectations becoming reality. I've never met a high-performance athlete who didn't practice visualization. Someone once asked Cleveland Browns running back Jimmy Brown how he could make such incredible runs and lead the NFL in rushing every year. He simply responded: "Because I've seen myself do it a thousand times in my mind."

The subconscious mind is like a computer. It can't tell the difference between right and wrong - good or bad. It simply responds to the thoughts we program into it. We must see ourselves being successful before we ever will be. I'm willing to bet that the great teams you coached and the great players who played for you saw themselves as great teams and great players- and they played like it. Great coaches see their players and their teams not as they are but as they can be. Great coaches motivate and inspire performance in their players by treating them as they can be, not as they currently are.

And, I believe the same thing is true for every area of our life, not just in sports. Success rarely happens by accident. I've heard it said that successful people are those who are willing to do the things that unsuccessful people are not. I honestly believe that expectations, attitude and effort must precede performance.

Not a sermon...just a thought.

I've attached information from one of the most fascinating studies I've ever seen. Take a look at the Top Five Characteristics for success in Sports and let me know what you think.


Top Five Characteristics for Success in Sports


Researchers at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, recently compiled a list of 128 characteristics of what makes a good athlete a winner. They divided the list of 128 traits into half psychological and half physical characteristics. Examples of psychological characteristics were: they perform well under pressure, they are teachable, etc. Examples of physical characteristics were items such as body size, natural physical strength, and general talent or athletic attributes.

They then asked 658 coaches from 43 different sports to choose five of these characteristics that they felt defined winners. The majority of these coaches chose psychological qualities over physical abilities for determining successful/winning athletes.

These researchers determined that the top five characteristics for success in sports to be:

1) That these athletes love to play their game or sport.

2) They have a positive attitude in general toward life.

3) They are teachable and coachable.

4) They are self-motivated.

5) They have the discipline and drive to take the necessary steps to improve their game.

The “natural physical athlete” characteristic ranked 19th out of 128 characteristics listed in this study. These finding support the belief of many sports psychologists that success in sports is as much as 90% mental. 

UNBUNTU: I AM BECAUSE WE ARE

A big thanks to Phil Beckner of Weber State for passing this on to us!  I'm a big believe in the power of words and how they can help shape and inspire a team.  Here's a great story about how one word helped force the Boston Celtics into NBA Champions:

Two former classmates see each other in passing. A word is exchanged. They go their separate ways. No big deal. Except that in this case the word inspires a man, who inspires a team, which wins an NBA championship. That’s some word.

The word is “ubuntu” (Ooh-BOON-too), roughly “I am because we are.” A Bantu term, it served as a rallying cry for South Africans battling apartheid, voiced by Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“When you’re building a new country and you’ve spent so long divided, with one group oppressing another, it’s a very big statement,” says Stephanie Russell, Arts ’83, executive director for Marquette’s Office of Mission and Identity.

It can also be a big statement for a newly rebuilt basketball team trying to forge a cohesive identity. “It caught me right away,” says Boston Celtics Coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers, Arts ’85 and Marquette trustee, who heard about ubuntu from Russell during a lunch break at a Marquette Board meeting. “It’s not just a word. It’s a way of life, a way of being.”

Recently, Russell and Rivers shared their memories of that conversation.

The Celtics were coming off a rough season. Nine of 15 players were new. Rivers was searching for something to unite them. When Russell explained the core concept of ubuntu — I can’t be all I can be unless you’re all you can be — he was hooked. “Right when she said that, I said ‘That’s it. That’s the word. That’s the philosophy. That’s what I need,’” Rivers remembers.

He stayed up late that night, reading everything he could get his hands on about ubuntu. Then he went back to Boston and gathered his Celtics. “Our first team meeting,” Rivers says, “I walked in front of the team and I said, ‘ubuntu,’ just like that. I said it again. One of the players, I think Kevin Garnett, raised his hand and asked, ‘What is it?’”

Rivers didn’t answer. He made everyone wait a day and then had the team’s rookies explain. “I brought them up to my office and told them this is not a joke. This is not you singing your team song here. This is very, very personal to me and very important to me,” he says.

Why rookies? Rivers knew they would work the hardest. And because, unlike the veterans, they wouldn’t be skeptical of something new.

“They were sensational, better than I ever would have been,” he says of the rookies. “And it caught the team immediately.”

The Celtics went on to become the 2008 NBA champs, buoyed by the power of a word. “I was amazed at how many times the word helped our team get through tough times. It was the perfect philosophy for our team,” Rivers says. “And it still is. Recently I was thinking about trying a different motto, and one of my players informed me, ‘No, we are ubuntu.’”

Also amazing to Rivers are the circumstances that brought the word to him. “Being in the right place at the right time was huge,” he says. “What if Stephanie had left? What if she had decided to eat lunch on the other side of the room? I honestly don’t know. Without that word our season could’ve been different.”

Read the entire article from CelticsLife.com at: http://bit.ly/dl5c9U

Friday, December 10, 2010

I GET TO COACH BASKETBALL TODAY!

I watched the movie "Rookie" last night (have seen it several times)  It really is a "must see" if you haven't.  It's a true story about a high school coach who makes a deal with his high school team that he will tryout for the major leagues if they win their district title -- which they do.  In his late 30's he can still bring the heat (upper 90's).   But he has to leave his wife and kids and work his way through the minors.  He comes upon a difficult stretch struggles with his decision and considers quiting and going home.  Then one night he stumbles upon a little league game and realizes his love for the game.  The next day he comes into the locker room and tells his teammate with a big smile: "We get to play baseball today."  Well, I'm just as fortunate...off to practice -- "I get to coach basketball."  To all those coaches out there -- have a great day!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

BIRTHDAY WISHES FOR COACH MEYER

Coach Don Meyer will celebrate a birthday on December 16.  Our team will be sending him a birthday card and thanking him for his contributions to the game and our program.  If you want to send him some birthday wishes, the address is:

Coach Don Meyer 
Northern State UniversityNSU
1200 S Jay Street 
Aberdeen, SD, 57401

JIM CALHOUN: 4 THINGS A COACH CAN CONTROL

1. Every team can rebound if you put enough emphasis on it

• Drills

• Emphasized throughout practice

• Can't give a lot of 2nd shots

• Real judge of your defense is FG% defense

• % of offensive rebounds you get – 40% + is good

• % of defensive rebounds you get – 65% + is good

2. Defense

• Contest all shots

• Pressure the ball with help behind you

• Pressure everything from the NBA 3 point line in

• Make them shoot, pass, or dribble; don't let them stand with the ball

• Force offense where you want them and then contain them there

• Need to make stops when the game is on the line

• Defend through all of practice, make the defense challenge the offense

• Have a thought of the day (ex. Nothing great has ever been accomplished without great

enthusiasm.)

• Have an emphasis of the day (ex. Rebounding)

3. Run

• more possessions

• allows for more mistakes

• allows you to play more kids

• run for conditioning and in drills

• get #s to create good shots and create rebounding advantages

4. Play Hard

• steals

• charges
 
Thanks to Coach Steve Smiley for these notes!

COACH MILES MAKES A VISIT

I received this email from Coach Dale Brown this morning -- after reading it, I'm not surprised.  Coach Les Miles obviously comes from the Dale Brown School of Coaching.  I wish I could count how many times while working for Coach Brown that he told me that coaching was simply a vehicle to do good things for others.  I do not know exactly where this email originated so I will simply post it as Coach Brown sent it:

"I have a personal story to share. My cousin, Charlie Cangelosi, was shot after the Alabama game while trying to help a pregnant lady that was screaming when being robbed by some evil-doers. The perpetrators sped off in a car that night while Charlie laid on the ground with a bullet through his mid-section. Charlie survived, and the media picked up the story about how Charlie risked his life to save another in need. On Wednesday after the shooting, Charlie’s parents got a call from the OLOL administration, with a message from Les Miles asking for permission to visit Charlie. Being big LSU fans, they granted permission. Les indicated he would be there around 6 pm on Wednesday.

Right on time, Les showed up … alone, no cameras, no bodyguard, in his coaching outfit. He was extremely kind to the parents and was allowed to go into the room where Charlie was still in critical care. Though Charlie had been in a medically induced coma and had intubation in his mouth preventing verbal communication, Charlie was able to see Les and communicate with eye-blinking. Les told Charlie that the world needed more people like him, that he was a champion and that when he was better (remember, at this time he was “touch and go”), Charlie could come to any home game next year and stay on the field with the team or sit with Les’s family in their box. Les then pulled out an autographed LSU football for Charlie. After this pleasant visit, Les explained that he had to leave. It was Game Week (the Monroe game was coming up) and Les had to prepare for his radio show that was just a few minutes away. When listening to the radio show that night, Charlie’s family heard that it was Les’s birthday, too. OK, so this man took an hour of his day during Game Week, on the day of his radio show, and on the day of his birthday, to say thank you and give a game ball to a stranger? Wow."

Thanks for forwarding this to me Coach Brown...makes me proud to be a coach and proud to be an LSU Tiger this morning!