PETE CARROLL: PRACTICE IS EVERYTHING

After decades of coaching football at different levels, I was prepared to boldly state that “Practice Is Everything.”  By placing practice on a high level of the pyramid, I was making a statement.  We would never accept having a poor practice or taking a day off. There would be no choices.  For us to do things better than they have ever been done before, I believed that we had to practice at the highest level, the most competitive level.  With consistently competitive practice, players would ultimately reach a point where they could perform in the absence of fear, due to the confidence they had gained by practicing so well.  Ideally, they would then learn to trust the process, themselves, and their teammates.  When a performer has supreme confidence in himself and can trust all the people around him and the schemes they are running, he is finally free to totally focus and become immersed in his performance.  This is where great performers and great teams acquire a most cherished characteristic… they know they are going to win.


From "Win Forever" by Pete Carroll

GENERAL LYNCH'S 3 C'S OF LEADERSHIP

A special thanks to University of Texas at Arlington assistant coach Karen Blair for passing on to me her notes from listening to Lt. General Rick Lynch who gave a presentation on leadership.

The notes were outstanding and closed with General Lynch's 3 C's of Leadership.

COMMUNICATION
1. Must make contact with the group.  Make sure you have personal contact.
2. Must ask intrusive questions
3. Must be a mentor.  Successful traits of mentors: 
     --be accessible
     --actively listen
     --truly care

"People don't care how much you know

until they know how much you truly care."

COLLABORATION
1. No first person pronouns.  No "I" -- always use "our" and "we"

COMMITMENT
1. People must be convinced you care.  Be committed to their health and well-being.
2. Build trust through meeting and not just in the work place.
3. Lead by example.  Don't be a drain.  If you are negative, people around you will be negative.  Don't be what you don't want others to be.
4. Set your priorities: God-Family-Work
5. Live your "dash."  On your tombstone 1965 - ?? Live your dash and touch lives.

POST PLAY TEACHING POINTS FROM KEVIN EASTMAN

1. It is fist fight to get open, it is a foot fight to score

2. It is a leverage game to get position, it’s a shoulders game, low shoulder wins

3. Three C’s- Catch Chin and Check…check for (1) cutters (2) Traps (3) Digs

4. Perpendicular Post ups- create an angle with you baseline foot, at that point your shoulder should be square to the ball

5. The floor always shrinks at the next level- quickness and length

6. Your knees are involved in leverage

7. Your feet give you the advantage, the ball gives you separation

8. See 90% of the floor when you catch the ball

9. Give up position for possession

10. Butt into thigh…No deny

11. Play low to high

12. You must sprint to spacing

13. When you catch the ball pause for poise

14. Let the garbage clear before you go to work

15. Post depth…Depth makes the game easier

16. When posting don’t be concerned with the defenders feet, rather the deny arm

17. Dribble the ball to get in line with the target hand when feeding the post…”get the palm”

18. Offensive rebounding…know your teammates because it gives you a head start


19. Run rim to rim not free line to free throw line


20. Don’t waste a post-up when the ball can’t get to you, it’s better to be late than early

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION TO SUCCESSFUL TEAMS (PART II)

The following the second part of some excerpts I took from an article I read in the Harvard Business Review. It comes from an article titled "The New Science of Building Great Teams," by Alex "Sandy" Pentland:

THE KEY ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION

In our research we identified three aspects of communication that affect team performance. The first is energy, which we measure by the number and the nature of exchanges among team members. A single exchange is defined as comment and some acknowledgement – for example, a “yes” or a nod of the head. Normal conversations are often made up of many of these exchanges, and in a team setting more than one exchange may be going on at one time.

The most valuable form of communication is face-to-face. The next most valuable is by phone or videoconference, but with a caveat: Those technologies become less effective as more people participate in the call or conference. The least valuable forms of communication are e-mail and texting.

The second straight important dimension of communication is engagement, which reflects the distribution of energy among team members. In a simple three-person team, engagement is a function of the average amount of energy between A and B, A and C, and B and C. If all members of a team have relatively equal and reasonably high energy with all other members, engagement is extremely strong. Teams that have clusters of members who engage in high-energy communication while other members do not participate don’t perform as well.

The third critical dimension, exploration, involves communication that members engage in outside their team. Exploration essentially is the energy between a team and the other teams it interacts with. Higher-performing teams seek more outside connections, we’ve found.

THE IMPORTANCE OF WHAT WE TEACH AND HOW IT TAKES OUR STUDENT-ATHLETES BEYOND THEIR SPORT

The following are some excerpts from an article written by Brian Hendrickson for "Champion," a magazine published by the NCAA quarterly.  It is a reminder that the best coaches, the best programs, are teaching lessons that translate beyond the sport they play.  I've often written about the importance of being "process-oriented" in our approach to competing.  It was something that was driven home by the philosophy I observed Nick Saban teaching while at LSU.  The score or time had nothing to do with give your absolute best on that one particular play.  And you do that one play at a time.  And in the case of Chris Norton, "be 1-0 in every day and every way." 

Chris Norton’s teammates filled the stands and sidelines as Luther’s football team brought its honorary captain onto the field, roaring with victory before the game even began.


Sure, there was a football game about to take place on this afternoon in September. But this was a victory both sides could celebrate.

The last time Norton stepped on this field in Decorah, Iowa, he left in an ambulance with a compressed spine and a 3 percent chance of regaining feeling below the neck. But this roaring crowd was filled with the teammates who helped ensure those odds would be flipped.

The collision had violently hyperextended Chris’ neck, shifting two bones and compressing the spinal cord. Terry had watched his son finish a basketball game after getting head-butted in the face, so when Chris stayed down, Terry knew it was bad. He and Deb rushed to the field for the first time in Chris’ career. A hushed crowd watched paramedics secure Chris to a backboard and whisk him away in an ambulance. The hospital was arranging helicopter transport to the Mayo Clinic by the time Chris arrived.

As the Nortons prayed, the community mobilized. Coach Mike Durnin and his wife, Karen, made quick trips home and to Wal-Mart to gather supplies. Five teammates from Chris’ residence hall drove up and spent the first night at the hospital with him. NFL and college coaches, Luther alumni and players from rival teams flooded the clinic with shows of support.


“You see the true character of people in situations like this,” Durnin said. “And the character that I witnessed and the outpouring toward Chris and his family is there are a lot of great people in the world. People who truly care.”

One step at a time, family and community pulled together. But while many focused on whether Chris would walk again, the 19-yearold was concentrating on simpler goals. Rehab became his new sport, and he worked like the football team’s slogan preached: “Be 1-0 in every day and every way.” So a day at a time he pushed himself through extra exercises, increasingly extensive stretches on his arm bike and, eventually, straining through longer periods standing upright.


That ethic has been key to his recovery. He is now able to feel movement throughout his entire body and is back on campus taking classes while continuing his rehab at the Mayo Clinic and with therapy in Decorah.

The sum of that work leaves his doctors in awe. Three times per week he works out on his arm bike in the morning before heading to his three classes. When class lets out, it’s off to therapy to work on standing, walking and building his core strength. Then on his off days, it’s off to Mayo for four hours of rehab, followed by a 12-mile ride on his leg bike.


The payoff is clear: Chris walks with more coordinated strides and increasing strength with each passing week, always pushing himself like an athlete preparing for his life’s biggest game.


“In many respects,” Terry said, “he’s trained his whole life for this.”

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

One of my "go to reads" is Success Magazine.  There's never an issue that doesn't have something in it to help me grow personally and professionally.  One of my favorites parts of the magazine is in the very front -- a one page editorial from publisher Darren Hardy.  Here are his thoughts on the "Pursuit of Happiness" from the June 2012 issue.  I think this is an important subject for coaches.  We tend to spend a great deal of time worrying -- even when things are going well.  I'm not saying that we need to get complacent in our jobs but we are doing what we love to do -- coach -- and that alone should bring us a great deal of happiness.  I know it does to me.  Here is what Darren had to write on the subject:

Pursuing happiness is like chasing a rainbow.  The faster we go, the hard we try, the farther office becomes.  I have learned that happiness is not a pursuit -- it's a choice.  Happiness is a state of mind, obtainable at any time, in any moment of your choosing.

It's not the pursuit of happiness we should concern ourselves with, but rather the pursuit of fulfillment, purpose and significance.  If I have created a life of meaning in which I have a deep sense of purpose and value, that won't change because someone knocks my ice cream over.  Fulfillment is a state of existence, not a fleeting emotion.

So what about being happy?  There are two ways you can choose to be happy at any moment.  One: Think about all you have to be grateful for.  Some of the happiest people I have ever met are those who have comparatively few accouterments to be happy about.  When you feel gratitude, you cannot feel fear or worry at the same time.  Gratitude washes it all away.  If you are reading this, you're breathing and above ground, so you have many blessings to be grateful for -- just remind yourself at any moment you want to feel happy.  The second way to choose happiness -- the best way, in my opinion -- is to do something to make someone else happy.  The person who bestows happiness always gets much more of it return.

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION TO SUCCESSFUL TEAMS (PART I)

The following comes from an article I read in the Harvard Business Review.  It comes from an article titled "The New Science of Building Great Teams," by Alex "Sandy" Pentland:

We equipped all the members of those teams with electronic badges that collected data on their individual communication behavior -- tone of voice, body language, whom they talked to and how much and more.  With remarkable consistency, the date confirmed that communication indeed plays a critical role in building successful teams.  I fact, we've found patterns of communication to be the most important predictor of a team's success.  Not only that, but they are as significant as all the other factors -- individual intelligence, personality, skill, and the substance of discussions -- combined.

We found that the best predictors of productivity were a team's energy and engagement outside formal meetings.  Together those two factors explained one-third of the variations in dollar productivity among groups.

It seems almost absurd that how we communicate could be so much more important to success than what we communicate.

Any company, no matter how large, has the potential to achieve this same kind of transformation.

What we had, then, was only a strong sense of the things -- good leadership and followership, palpable shared commitment, a terrific brainstorming session -- that made a team greater than the sum if its parts.

The data also reveal, at a higher level, that successful teams share several defining characteristics:

1. Everyone on the team talks and listens in roughly equal measure, keeping contributions short and sweet.

2. Members face one another, and their conversations and gestures are energetic.

3. Members connect directly with one another -- not just with the team leader.

4. Members carry on back-channel or side conversations within the team.

5. Members periodically break, go exploring outside the team, and bring information back.

The data also establish another surprising fact: Individual reasoning and talent contribute far less to team success than one might expect.  The best way to build a great team is not to selection individuals for their smarts of accomp0lishments but to learn how they communicate and to shape and guide the team so that it follows successful communication patterns.

VALUES TO PLAYING THE GAME

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

Values related to playing the game include:
 
Work ethic. Natural talent can carry a player only so far before someone must learn the proper footwork or better throwing technique to play defense well. A player must ask himself if he is willing to devote the time necessary to improve to the next level.

Proper execution. The amount of value a player places on executing different skills and elements of his game will determine how much he focuses and works on them.

Fortitude. This is the strength of mind that allows one to endure adversity and stand up to difficult tests. Colloquially it can be called guys or backbone.

Tenacity. This means sticking through a task to completion. A player must ask himself if he is willing to fight through the frustration to learn a new skill or improve, or simple to remain motivated when things are going badly.

Taking responsibility. It is easy to avoid responsibility for flaws, errors, and mistakes by blaming others and making excuses. The big problem comes when you make those excuses to yourself. By taking responsibility for your actions, you assert control over what can be accomplished.

Enthusiasm. The player has an advantage if he can muster up the emotions to try to perform well in every game or workout. This is difficult.

Competitiveness. Some of the desire to compete and test one’s abilities against others may come naturally, but placing a high value on competitiveness increases the ability to compete.

Preparedness. This covers both body and mind. It means putting in practice time on the field and mental time off the field.

Rest. Different people require different amounts of rest and relaxation. It is sometimes essential to get away from the rigors of public life to spend a day fishing to recharge, or simply an evening vegging out in front of the TV to relax. There is a difference between necessary diversion and laziness, and that is a line the individual must assess for himself.

COMMUNICATION AND TRUST

"Whenever the center fielder would say 'I got a ball,' we'd say 'Take it,'" Enos Slaughter recalled, adding: "We listened to Terry Moore, (Stan) Musial and I both.  I know in St. Louis, myself, every time a ball was hit up against a screen, I'd go to the wall and when I heard 'careful,' I knew I was close and when I heard 'plenty room,' I knew I could go all out.  And that's one thing about Terry Moore.  To me I think he's one of the greatest defensive center fielders I ever played with, bar none.  And I think Musial listened to him a lot in playing left field."

From "Stan Musial: An American Life" by George Vecsey

A NEW COACH'S MOST IMPORTANT RECRUIT

"When you're hired to take over a program, the most important recruiting process is actually the one you do hiring your coaches.  You've got to recruit them.  You need to get the right coaches.  You can't afford to be wrong on who you hire."

-Mike Leach