1. Flip Darr, a former collegiate swimming coach who played a part in training eight Olympic medalists said that he felt if he would work on their heads, their bodies would follow. A lot of coaches work on their bodies and then at the last moment try to do their heads. The thing is, if they are working with their heads all the time, and work with their head over the body, mind over matter, they will have more confidence.
2. Mental is to Physical as 4 is to 1.
3. Must be an overall commitment to thinking.
4. Everything begins with a thought—every great invention, technique, conversation, and every bit of growth starts in someone’s head.
5. What we think determines who we are and who we are determines what we do. What kind of person do you want to be? What do you want to accomplish in your life and career? Are your thoughts paving the way for you to achieve those goals or are they getting in the way?
6. Our thoughts determine our destiny, and our destiny determines our legacy. You are today where your thoughts have brought you, and you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
7. People who go to the top think differently than others. Nothing limits achievement like small thinking, and nothing expands possibilities like unleashed thinking.
8. We can change the way we think. The ability to think well isn’t just an asset, it’s a necessity.
(Thanks Coach Brown)
What we DO often speaks so much louder than what we SAY. Only about 7% of communication is oral. The other 93% is the result of what people see and sense, based on our tone, our body language, our facial expressions and most importantly… by our actions.
This weekends All-Star Game was a prime example of that. There were all sorts of negative incidents... fans dropping the F-Bombs from the stands, parents verbally abusing and even physically confronting referees, etc. But nothing made me prouder than to see the East team gathered in prayer before tip-off while the West was chanting and throwing up high-fives to each other.
4:13
Navy SEALs are among the most respected military men in the world, partly they are widely considered as fearless.
The secret to that fearless attitude is the intense training they undergo. Their secret is what psychologist call habituation. This simply means the more you're exposed to something that you initially fear, they less it will appear as fear to you and eventually you become immune to it. You get used to it.
Only 3 out of every 10 SEAL candidates make it through training and graduate. Graduating as a SEAL is not all about being physically fit, Lieutenant Commander Mike H of executive officer of SEAL Team 10, says, "Today, our primary weapons systems are our people's heads. You want to excel in all the physical areas, but the physical is just a prerequisite to be a SEAL. Mental weakness is what actually screens you out."
Eric Potterat relates this study to sports and described the difference between winners and losers. "Physically, there's very little difference between athletes who win Olympic gold and the rest of the field. It's like the SEAL candidates we see here. Terrific physically. Situps, pushups, running, swimming — off the charts, superhuman. But over at the Olympic center, the sports psychologists found that the difference between a medal and no medal is determined by an athlete's mental ability. The elite athletes, the Tiger Woods, the Kobe Bryants, the Michael Jordans — this is what separates them from the competition. Knowing how to use the mental to their advantage."
(Thanks Dr. Lisa Mills, Navy Research)
When good shooters miss, it’s often because they repeatedly take bad shots, and they usually don’t recognize it was a bad shot and instead think it is their form, and this self-doubt begins to create a shooting slump.
Most missed shots occur because of three things: players shot with poor balance; players rushed their shot or worried too much about the defense; and lastly players have poor shooting mechanics.
If players work harder to take better shots and concentrate on their balance before starting their shot mechanics, they will shoot a higher percentage. For otherwise good shooters, lack of balance typically contributes to a little more than 70% of missed jump shots.
This does not mean they are bad shooters who should worry about their technique. Instead, they are lazy shooters with poor shot selection. Either work harder to get open and on-balance or pass the ball and work to get open again. Throwing up off-balanced shots – for the vast majority of players (Kobe Bryant and others excepted) – is like a turnover.
Work harder before the shot to have more success shooting the basketball.
(Thanks Brian McCormick)
If a coach is looking for leaders on the team, the quickest way to spot one is to give them a challenge, problem or issue that is way over their heads, add a little risk to it, and see if they are willing to put a little skin in the game.
Teams that focus on and celebrate success create more success. Success becomes ingrained in the culture and people naturally look for it, focus on it and expect it. 
This season was in many ways, like falling down a flight of stairs... and somehow landing on our feet at the bottom. It was a difficult journey that ended well in the end.
We should never let the other team determine who we are.
"I want us to play mother-in-law defense: constant nagging and harassement." 
What we will accomplish this weekend at the Final Four will depend on us... not on our opponent. We cannot control what happens on the court, but we can control the way we react and respond to it.
1. A winner makes commitments and sets goals with her heart and sets out to accomplish them; a loser makes "promises" with her mouth and never sincerely means to keep them.
True basketball players absolutely love to play basketball. They want to play 24-7. 
To say this season has been 'difficult' would be an understatement. Chemistry issues have plagued this team from Day 1 and doesn't seem to have gotten to be any better as we close in on our final game.
This weekends disappointing loss in the Regional Tournament, to a team we have beaten twice this season by a combined 32 points, can be attributed to several factors, yet the most obvious one was a complete lack of focus on why we were there... to win.
“You win in the locker room first. Then you win on the court.”
"What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are."
Goal achievement cannot be accomplished until goal creation has been accomplished. 
No matter how long you've been walking south, in just a single step... you can be walking north. It is easy to be ordinary, but it takes courage and discipline to excel.
From Peter King at Sports Illustrated:
Ask any coach... an ugly win is better than a pretty loss, however, there are varying levels of ugliness and last night we set a new record on ugly.
