IF YOU HAVE A BIG ENOUGH WHY . . .

There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains.  The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with them back up into the mountains. 

The lowlanders didn’t know how to climb the mountain.  They didn’t know any of the trails that the mountain people used, and they didn’t know where to find the mountain people or how to track them in the steep terrain. 

Even so, they sent out their best party of fighting men to climb the mountain and bring the baby home. 

The men tried first one method of climbing and then another.  They tried one trail and then another.  After several days of effort, however, they had climbed only several hundred feet. Feeling hopeless and helpless, the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared to return to their village below. 

As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby’s mother walking toward them.  They realized that she was coming down the mountain that they hadn’t figured out how to climb. 

And then they saw that she had the baby strapped to her back.  How could that be? 

One man greeted her and said, “We couldn’t climb this mountain.  How did you do this when we, the strongest and most able men in the village, couldn’t do it?” 

She shrugged her shoulders and said, “It wasn’t your baby.” 

The moral of this story is that if you have a big enough “why” you’ll always find the “how” to get whatever it is that you seek or whatever it is that you want to accomplish.

Are you the player you want to be?  Will you be that player when the season starts?

4:13

41 DAYS LEFT UNTIL SCRIMMAGE

The only thing equal between any two teams that you can compare… are the number of hours in a day.  The one factor that determines which of those two teams will win or lose… is what each has done with those hours. You see, true champions have no off-season. 

Legends are not born ~ they are created.

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DO YOU FAST-FORWARD?

"I skate to where the puck is going to be."

- Wayne Gretzky

Legendary ice hockey great and NHL Hall of Famer

Even in his prime, Gretzky wasn't very fast, his shot was oddly weak, and he was last in the team in strength training.  He would operate from his "office," the small space in the back of the opponent's goal, anticipating where his team would be well before they got there and feeding them passes so unsuspected he would often surprise them.  

For a cover story in 1985 he told Time, "People talk about skating, puck handling and shooting but the whole sport is angles, forgetting the straight direction the puck is going, calculating where it will be diverted, factoring in all the interruptions." 

What Wayne Gretzky described above is called "fast-forwarding" or the ability to travel forward in time and predict where, after seemingly infinite combinations of ricochets, the puck will emerge-the ability to make his way to the precise spot.

Fast-forwarding in sports involves the ability to anticipate the flow of play and stay ahead of real time.  Athletes who fast-forward, anticipate where teammates and the competition are going to be.  Using this technique provides a competitive advantage and makes other teammates' performances better. 

In all walks of life, "fast-forwarding" is about anticipation, being steps ahead of others in thinking and visioning, and predicting outcomes from one's experience as quickly as possible.  Great performers need talent, but they also need to anticipate effectively.  That is what made Gretzky the best.

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THE ABILITY TO STAY FOCUSED

When asked what his best attribute as a golfer was, Tiger Woods quickly replied,  "My mind."

“I don’t think about my last swing.  I keep my mind focused on the moment I’m in.  I don't look at what the prize money is.  I don’t allow my surroundings, events of the day or minor distractions affect me.  I go out and I play.  And when I play, I play to win, period.  That's how my dad raised me, is you go out there and win.”

- Tiger Woods

THE VALUE OF CRITICISM

I think far too often, criticism, especially when it is intended as constructive, is viewed as a negative slam or taken as a personal attack on the individual.  Unfortunately this is a warped view and it often prevents an athlete from recognizing and accepting their need to improve in a particular area.  

Coaches typically don't dish out cristicism with the cold-hearted ferver that American Idol's Simon Cowell does.  Yet players often feel like they are being ridiculed when a coach points out an area of their game that needs to change.

The goal of true constructive criticism is to help someone be the best they can be.  When criticism is done appropriately, the person who has been criticized will understand what she has done wrong and will feel inspired to make a change for the better.  Not only should we not avoid being criticized, we should embrace criticism because it is the only way we can continue to grow both as a basketball player and personally.

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Five Attributes of Inspirational Leaders

The Sahara plays tricks on the eyes of its travelers.  As the desert sun beats down on the sand, heat waves rise from the ground. Light bends as it passes through the superheated air, painting illusory pictures on the horizon.  To thirsty travelers moving through the Sahara, it often appears as if an oasis looms in the distance. However, as the voyagers journey on, the oasis proves to be nothing more than a mirage.

Unfortunately, the ranks of leadership are inhabited by a host of mirages: people who look impressive from a distance, but end up being disappointments.  After being fooled by a few mirages, followers become jaded about leadership.  

To restore confidence with those in power, leaders have to be able to inspire.  I'm not talking about inspiring someone to buy into the team vision, to meet certain team goals, or to practice more efficiently.  These aren't bad things, but right now, people are looking for a leader attuned to their personal needs.  They want leaders who will encourage them, believe in their potential, and help them grow.

Five Attributes of an Inspirational Leader

ATTITUDE OF SERVICE

To be an inspirational leader, you must adopt an attitude of service toward those you lead.  This requires laying aside selfish interests to add value to another person.  When you serve, you awaken something magnetic inside of you.  People are drawn to follow you because they know you'll find ways to make them better.

AFFIRMATION

To inspire means to have a positive view of others.  If we're not careful, we become fault-finders, magnifying the flaws in everyone around us.  Instead, leaders should emulate gold prospectors - always on the lookout for potential gold mines.  When they find traces of ore, prospectors assume there's a rich vein to unearth, and they start digging.  In the same fashion, leaders ought to search for the best traits within a person and commit to uncovering them.

One of the best applications of this idea is expressed in what I call the 101 percent principle: Find the one thing that you believe is a person's greatest asset, and then give 100 percent encouragement in that area.  Focusing on a person's strengths inspires them by promoting confidence, growth, and success.

ATTENTIVENESS

Great inspirers know the desires of those they lead.  As much as people respect the knowledge and ability of their leaders, these are secondary concerns for them.  They don't care how much their leaders know until they know how much their leaders care.  When leaders attend to the deeply felt needs of their team, the determination and commitment of each team member skyrockets.

AVAILABILITY

Leaders inspire by intentionally investing time in the people they lead.  They make themselves available.  People cannot be nurtured from a distance or by infrequent spurts of attention.  They need a leader to spend time with them - meaningful time, not just a conversation in passing.

In our fast-paced and demanding world, time is a leader's most precious commodity.  While it feels costly to give up, nothing communicates that you value a person more than the gift of your time. 

AUTHENTICITY

To inspire, leaders have to be genuine.  More than anything else, followers want to believe in and trust their leaders.  However, when leaders break promises or fail to honor commitments, they reveal themselves as being inauthentic, and they lose credibility.  Trust rests upon a foundation of authenticity.  To gain trust, a leader must consistently align words and deeds, while showing a degree of transparency.

Summary

Inspirational leadership can be confused with momentary charisma.  I prefer to think about inspiring as more of a process than an event.  More than a brilliant speech, it's cultivating habits of brilliance that manifest themselves daily.  By modeling the five attributes of an inspiring leader, I trust that you'll win the respect of those you lead and earn the right to influence them.

- Dr. John C. Maxwell

Five Attributes of Inspirational Leaders

DISCIPLINE - DESIRE - DETERMINATION

“The only meaningful kind of discipline there is in the world is the discipline we freely and willingly impose on ourselves.”

- Jess Lair

“Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability.”

- Roy L. Smith

“There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.”

- Napoleon Hill

“The starting point of all achievement is desire.  Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat.”

- unknown

“If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence.  Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up off the floor saying, ‘Here goes number seventy-one!’”

- Richard M. DeVoss

4:13

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." 

- John Wooden

Five players working together doing the "wrong" thing have a better chance of winning than five players all doing their own thing because each thinks she knows best.

4:13

SEEKING PERFECTION IN EVERY POSSESSION

With it’s litany of rules about decorum, appearance and respect for others - players are not allowed to have visible tattoos, use iPods in public or wear dresses or skirts without stockings - the Connecticut women's basketball program run by coach Geno Auriemma has been likened to Catholic school.   

But the comparison only goes so far.  In putting together a perfect 39--0 season that ended with a 76--54 win over Louisville in the NCAA title game in St. Louis on April 7, the Huskies showed opponents neither charity nor mercy, going on devastating scoring runs that often put games out of reach by the 25th minute.  "Last year if a game was close, it might have stayed close," says junior guard Kalana Greene.  "This year we took a lead and stretched it.  We had poise, experience, a killer instinct and a take-no-prisoners defense."

The Huskies, who had been upset by Stanford in last year's national semifinals, were the preseason favorites to win a sixth national title, but few foresaw a third perfect season for the program.  The team's Big Three - 6-foot sophomore forward Maya Moore, the consensus player of the year, and All-Americas Renee Montgomery, a 5'7" senior point guard, and Tina Charles, a 6'4" junior center - made the team look strong on paper, but there were difficulties to overcome.

UConn lost its top recruit, national high school player of the year Elena Delle Donne, last summer before she'd even played a game at UConn.  She enrolled at Delaware, citing basketball burnout, and played volleyball last fall instead of hoops.  The Huskies also lost starting shooting guard Caroline Doty, a freshman, to a torn left ACL in mid-January.

Even with a shallower bench than usual - only eight players averaged more than 11 minutes per game - UConn found a way to beat every opponent by double digits, something no previous Division I team had done.

The Huskies ran the table not because they pursued perfection in the win-loss column, but because they sought it in every possession.  As with all of Auriemma's teams the players were constantly reminded of their weaknesses.  Even after blowouts he'd show his players a "low-light" tape before practice the next day that featured all the little things they didn't do well.  After a subpar defensive effort in a 76--63 win over LSU in January the Huskies had to endure 2½ hours of defensive drills.  "It was terrible, but he got his point across," says Montgomery.  "Even though we can outscore most teams, we don't want to be a team that just does that."

For Auriemma, who is now 6--0 in NCAA title games, winning isn't the point.  "The NBA is all about winning, but at this level winning doesn't make you happy," he says.  "You can win, play lousy, and in my program, feel lousy.   To me it's about:  How good can we be?"

YOU MUST ALWAYS BE READY

Jordan Farmar told a story recently about "scarfing down a burger at halftime" of a mid-season game against Seattle in his rookie season.

Besides being hungry, Farmar figured that because "he hadn't played in weeks" it wouldn't make much of a difference.

Coach Phil Jackson caught him eating the burger and used that moment as a teaching tool, not only fining him but also inserting him into the game in the second half to show the dangers of expecting not to play.

"He put me in and said, 'I hope you throw up," Farmar said. "It was just to show that you have to always be ready. No matter what the situation, no matter what the circumstances."

Although a humorous story, it is the perfect illustration of being totally prepared for your moment when your moment arrives.  Being prepared doesn't mean when the game starts.  It starts in the days leading up to the game - in your practices.  It starts in the amount of sleep you get the night before the game.  It starts in the meal you eat on the morning of the game.  It starts with the mindset you have on the way to the gym.  The mindset you have when you step out onto the court.

It's not about showing up and playing, it's about being ready...

4:13

LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WITH CONVICTIONS

Every coach wants athletes with convictions who can influence their peers competitively on the court, as well as in the way they behave off the court.

Came across a great quote from Joe Paterno in the book "The Competitive Edge" by Dr. Jeffrey Brown, a sports psychologist and instructor at Harvard Medical School.

"We need people who influence their peers and who cannot be detoured from their convictions by peers who do not have the courage to have any convictions."

4:13

"Setting goals for your game is an art.  The trick is in setting them at the right level -- neither too low nor too high.  A good goal should be lofty enough to inspire hard work, yet realistic enough to provide solid hope of attainment."

- Greg Norman

"It's great to win, but it's also great fun just to be in the thick of any truly well-and hard-fought contest against opponents you respect, whatever the outcome."

- Jack Nicklaus

6 Minutes - 50 Years

Came across a good article last night that, although deals with football, certainly applies to hoops as well.  It’s a pre-game speech Alabama coach Bear Bryant gave to his team before a game back in 1974:

"Most of you will live another fifty years or more.  I hope it's seventy, but if it's fifty that's still a good life, and what happens today you'll have to live with the rest of the way.  You can't get it back if you don't win.  It's sixty minutes and over.  The losers are the ones who say, 'Oh I wish I could play it again.'

You can't play it again.

Well, you're not really going to have to play sixty minutes.  None of you.  The longest play in a game is six and a half seconds.  The shortest play is less than two seconds.  That's barely a wink of the eye.  You'll average five seconds a play.  Five seconds of total effort, going all out, giving a hundred percent.  You oughta be able to hold your hand in a fire that long.

If you're lucky enough to play seventy plays, that amounts to about six minutes.  Six minutes of your time.  Out of fifty years, six minutes doesn't seem like much.  But a loser will regret it the rest of his life.

You've worked a long time for this.  You've been playing since you were in the seventh grade.  You go out there in front of all those people and don't give a hundred percent every play then you're cheating yourself, and your recruiters, and your parents, and your high school coach, and everybody whoever helped you.  This is what you have been working toward.

In any big game there are five or six or seven key plays that will decide the outcome.  If you put out for five seconds on every play, you'll get your share of those key plays.  You never know when they'll come, so you have to go all out every time.

If you're reckless, and give that extra effort, and every play try a little harder, you'll see in the films on Monday that it was you who made those five or six plays that win.  Play 'em jaw to jaw, and you'll win in the fourth quarter."

4:13

"It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life that those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest because they achieve the most."

- Brutus Hamilton

Champions have no off-season.  They realize they will never improve unless they set goals to some standard or example higher and better than where they are now.

4:13

"Pain is temporary.  Quitting lasts forever."

- Lance Armstrong

HYPERDUNK iD

Looks like Nike realized that when they offer teams a chance to design the color-scheme that they want in a poplular shoe... they sell more shoes.

Nike has just added the Hyperdunk to their list of iD shoes.  And... the Hyperdunk is also now available in Youth size 6 and up.

Check out the Covenant design.

"The championship trail leads right to the point guard or certainly to a guard who can control the game."

- Geno Auriemma

UCONN Women's Coach

6-time NCAA Champions

WITH A SENSE OF PURPOSE

"I don't just come to the gym and shoot.  Every drill I do, I do with game-like movement.  I don't stand still and shoot."

- Rip Hamilton

Detroit Pistons

Practicing with a sense of purpose means you are targeting a specific area of your game in order to improve it.  But your goal of improvement should be tied to being able to perform the way you want to in a game.  You should be practicing the skill at the same speed, tempo and movements that you will likely have to use during a real game.  

Through constant repetition, you are preparing for the moment (in a game) that you can shake your defender and execute the skill.

4:13

ACT AS IF...

Any decent athlete can put on a good game face.  But to be truly successful, it has to start in the mind… you have to mentally “act as if.”   

That means you have to go much deeper than mere swagger or theatrics.  It’s a method of thinking - a learned skill for convincing your mind that you already are what you want to become.  The body follows where the mind leads.

Act as if you’re a great shooter.  Act as if you love the drill.  Act as if when you hit the deck it doesn’t hurt.  Negativity, even in the form of body language (drooping), cannot be tolerated.

The only thing able to prevent you from becoming what you want to become… is you.

4:13

NEW THREADS

Both teams (BV & GV) will be sporting some new pre-game threads for next season.  

The BV went with a silver, royal & black design... which by the way makes me wonder if Coach Moss is finally starting to "warm up" (bad pun huh?) to the idea of incorporating more black into the BV uni's...

The GV will be going with a black & royal Duke-style look and adding a two-color school name to the bottom (back) of the shooting shirt (ala Lakeside).

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NEW THREADS

The GV shooting shirts will have a stand up collar and a short zipper and the material for both the shirts & pants will be TriFit (picture baseball uniform type of material).