NO EXCUSES

WHAT CHAMPIONS KNOW AND DO

The following comes from Jim Afremow as a contributing editor for The Sporting News.  He also has wrote an outstanding book The Champion's Mind: How Great Athletes Think, Train, and Thrive." Follow him on Twitter @goldmedalmind.

1. Champions know that vague goals lead to vague results. They know exactly what they want to accomplish and think of each day a golden opportunity to chip away at their big-picture goal.

2. Champions don't care what the obstacles are because they love to battle and get back on top again. Tough times make them even tougher!

3. Champions always play to the max, whether in practice or games. They go out and ball out with their best attitude and a complete effort.
 
4. Champions learn to make every play (or shot, etc.) count. They relish the poor ones as much as the powerful ones. 

5. Champions keep their attitude and work ethic constant throughout the ups and downs that are part of every season. They never let up or give up.

6. Champions understand that the better they get, the harder they need to work. A true champion never thinks in terms of, "Well, I've got it made."

7. Champions take as much pleasure in the journey as the destination, the process as much as the product. 

WHAT'S MORE IMPORTANT? YOUR TEAM OR YOUR MINUTES?

What type of attitude do you have as a player in regard to what's best for your team?  Are you most worried about the success of your team or the minutes you are going to play?  Here is the greatest of stories about sacrificing individual minutes for the good of the team by possibly the greatest collection of players to ever compete -- the ORIGINAL DREAM TEAM!

The following comes from the Dream Team’s first meeting and is one of the reasons they were truly a dream:

“Look, there are twelve of you, and you’re all All-Stars and future Hall of Famers,” said Coach Chuck Daly, “and there is no way I can get all of you the minutes you’re used to having on—-

Magic and Jordan interrupted him.

“That isn’t going to be a problem,” said Jordan.

“We’re here to win, and nobody is going to care about playing time, Chuck,” Magic said.

Taken from “Dream Team” by Jack McCallum

The original DREAM TEAM included the best that have every played:
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Chris Mullin

 

    

 

PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DECISIONS

 

"I go to bed early because I rise early.

The decisions I make always center

around performance enhancement."

-Tom Brady

This is the mindset of a champion.  If you are determined to be the best you can be, you have to understand that every choice you make will help or hinder your performance.  This is true of the student as much as it is an athlete.  When it comes times to make a decision the simply yet effective question is "How with this help me improve."

THE LEADERSHIP EXAMPLE OF HARD WORK

One of the mantra's utilized by Coach Don Meyer is "if you best player is your hardest worker then you have a chance to have a good team."  The concept is the important of the leader to create a culture of work ethic for his/her followers.  Another Coach Meyer's favorites: "You example isn't the main thing in leadership, it's the only thing."

Which brings us to a case in point --  Dak Prescott, the quarterback at Mississippi State who has the Bulldogs in the top 5 in the nation -- unfamiliar territory.

This from an article that ran in the Columbus Dispatch:

"We saw a guy with an unbelievable work ethic, a guy who works to get better every single day," said head coach Dan Mullen of Prescott, who has turned into one of the top players in the country as a redshirt junior. "We saw a guy with great potential for growth, a player we could get in here and really develop. This is a development program. And with his work ethic, we knew he was one of those players who would get better every single day, and those are the players you want." 

THE GREATS ARE CONTINUAL LEARNERS

I loved this story from "The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth" by John Maxwell:

I recently read an anecdote about a meeting between Ted Williams and Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach in the 1950s.  As the two greats discussed their sports, Williams asked, "What do your guys eat on the day of a game?"

"What do you want to know for?" Auerbach replied.  "You seem to be doing all right with what you're doing."

"I'm always looking for new ways to improve what I do."

Auerbach said of Williams, "He thought of the little things, what's important to being great.  When you're great and you excel, some athletes would coast on that...Here's the best hitter in baseball, and he's trying to get another little percentage point."

YOUR MOST IMPORTANT SOCIAL MEDIA RULE

This is short and sweet but critically important -- more so than ever in today's world of social media and instant communication.  This actually came from an article written by Geoffrey James for Inc.  The title of the article was: "The 1 Personal Branding Rule Everyone Should Know."  You can read his entire article here -- but this is the most important part -- and one we will share with our team:

Every day, people screw up their personal brands by not following this absurdly simple rule:
Never go online if you're angry, upset or otherwise impaired.

DEREK JETER: TOUGHNESS AND THE TEST OF TIME

I  came across an absolutely great article on Derek Jeter written by Joel Sherman for the New York Post.  It is possibly the best thing I've read about Jeter and some of the reasons he been so consistently successful.  I've written before but to me, the true test of greatness comes with the test of time.  There are many that are good, even great for a short period of time but it is the long haul that truly show us greatness.

I strongly suggest you take the time to read the entire article here -- until, here are some great excerpts:

On Friday night, Jeter started his 2,610th game at shortstop. That moved him past Omar Vizquel for the most in major league history. It might not be Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripken stuff, and it came and went without confetti and fanfare. But you do not start that many games in the middle infield — all those double-play pivots, etc. — without a sense of responsibility, a reservoir of pride and a steely constitution. The day-after-day mental and physical grind ultimately defeats every athlete. But some endure better than others. And Jeter is at the top 1 percent.

“We all consider rolling over and shutting the alarm clock off,” Joe Torre said by phone. “Jeter never rolls over. He gets out of bed. It is never a consideration to take a day off. It is a sense of responsibility to his team and to himself.”

I remember a conversation long ago with Gene Michael when he was still the Yankees general manager. We were discussing the traditional five tools — hitting, hitting for power, running, fielding and throwing.

That day I disagreed with the confines of the five tools. I suggested there were so many more than five tools. Aptitude was vital. You could have five tools, but if you couldn’t apply them, what was the use? Victor Martinez might only have two tools, but he has pretty much maximized them. That is so much more valuable than having five that excite scouts but never come out in games with consistency.

Grace under pressure is a tool. Again, you could have the physical stuff down, but if you can’t do it with 40,000 people in attendance or in October, what is the point?

Discipline is a tool. Are you going to keep working out, avoid perks that could drain your energy and skill?

And durability is a tool. Danny Tartabull used to tell me to project his stats over a full season and I finally told him, “Why? You never play a full season.” Mark Buehrle might not be blessed with the stuff that makes scouts drool, but wind him up and he gives you 200 innings. Every year. Year after year.

Because I believe it is in all these areas beyond the traditional tools that Jeter was an A-plus and took very good traditional tools to a Hall-of-Fame level.

His aptitude, his grace under pressure, his discipline and — for me — especially his toughness.

Chili Davis Code: If I am playing, I am healthy enough to play. He never played the “I am 80 percent” game to provide an alibi. Never told you off the record how he was really feeling, again, as a way to set up the excuse. “I’m all right.” That he what he told managers and media.

Jeter felt a responsibility to play, that the team was best when he did. Torre and Joe Girardi have known they could write his name into the lineup game after game, season after season. Do you know how much easier that makes the managing job?

“There was a playoff series in which he had pretty much a broken hand, got shot up for Game 1, couldn’t feel his hand and said he would rather just play with the pain,” Torre said. “There was never a consideration that he wouldn’t play. He came to the ballpark to play. It certainly made my job a whole lot easier. You talk about a guy who is a leader. You have someone who wants to rest, they look across the locker room and see him. He forced other people to play, not literally, but by example.”

YOUR'RE NOT GOING TO OUTWORK ME

"The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on the treadmill. I will not be outworked.  Period.  You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all those things -- you got it on me in nine categories.  But if we get on the treadmill together, there's two things: You're getting off first, or I'm gonna die.  It's really that simple, right?...You're not going to outwork me."

-Actor Will Smith
From "The Rise" by Sarah Lewis

BE PHENOMINAL

SELF TALK -- "THINK GOLD"

We are a big believer in the concept of continual positive self-talk.  Here are some great thoughts from "The Champion's Mind" by Jim Afremow:

To perform at a champion’s level, you must have a winning off-field game plan that includes specific strategies-for instance, well placed environmental cues that you can use to achieve excellence and to remind yourself that you are working to win. Tape a note that says, “Think gold and never settle for silver” somewhere noticeable and make it the desktop background on your computer to motivate to start and continue your day with a winning mind-set.

Schedule automatic, electronic “think gold” or “personal best” reminders throughout the day; for example, set the reminder function on your cell phone to chime at certain times and display “Champion.”

YOU HAVE TO KEEP PUSHING YOURSELF

You can go through the annals of history and it will be documented that the vast majority of greatness came about as a result of long, hard, dedicated work -- at times unsupervised -- because of the desire of the individual to excel.

"I found this sandbank by the Pearl River near my hometown of Columbia, Mississippi.  I laid out a course of 65 yards or so.  Sixty-five yards on sand is like 120 on turf.  But running on sand helps you make your cuts at full speed.  I try to pick the heat of the day to run in, but sometimes the sand will get so hot you can't stand in place.  It'll blister your feet.  You get to the point where you have to keep pushing yourself.  You stop, throw up, and push yourself again.  There's no one to feel sorry for you."

-Walter Payton

THE ART OF TEAM WORK -- THE SPURS WAY

LIMITATIONS ARE ONLY IN YOUR MIND

A big thanks to Coach Dale Brown for forwarding this to me via email.  Coach Brown never misses an opportunity to motivate or inspire.

TALENT IS NEVER ENOUGH

The following came from an email newsletter from John Maxwell.  His book "Talent Is Never Enough" is one that I always recommend to student-athletes to read.  In fact, it was an assigned book to read by our team during last season in our run to an Elite Eight.  Here is what Maxwell said today:

Talent is never enough. There’s no substitute for it, but there’s also no guarantee of success with it. To turn talent into influence, a person must prepare it with hard work, surround it with the right relationships, strengthen it by taking responsibility, and protect it with character.

Preparation Positions Your Talent
Author Emile Zola spoke truly when he said, “The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” Preparation positions you so that when opportunity comes, your talent can shine. “Talent alone won’t make you a success,” Johnny Carson once remarked. “Neither will being in the right place at the right time, unless you are ready. The most important question is: Are you ready?”

Relationships Influence Your Talent

People knew LeBron James had special talent when he was a teenager. His high school basketball games were televised on ESPN. He was considered a future hall-of-fame ballplayer before he even turned pro.

Marcus Dupree was like LeBron James, only on the football field. A running back from small-town Mississippi, Dupree had it all as an athlete: size, speed, power, and grace. All of the top college programs invested heavily in his recruitment. Some blatantly disregarded collegiate rules when recruiting him, illegally provided him with money to influence his decision of where to attend school. The University of Oklahoma even sent an assistant coach to live in Dupree’s hometown of Philadelphia for six weeks in an effort to win his commitment.

Yet despite flashes of brilliance, Dupree never made it big. A movie about his life proclaims him as The Best That Never Was. Perhaps the main reason Dupree never capitalized on his remarkable talent was his relationships. Everyone close to Dupree—his extended family, friends, and coaches—wanted to profit from his success. Instead of adding value to Marcus, they sought to extract it from him. Without an encouraging support system, Dupree faltered the first time he encountered adversity and never fully recovered.

Responsibility Strengthens Your Talent
The ESPN documentary, Broke, examines why so many professional athletes, despite signing multimillion dollar contracts, find themselves penniless when their playing days are over. According to the film, “By the time they have been retired for two years, 78 percent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress; within five years of retirement, an estimated 60 percent of former NBA players are broke.”

Regrettably, these athletes never learned to manage their money. Their reckless spending prevented them from enjoying the financial stability that their talent should have secured for them. They enjoyed the momentary pleasures accompanying their ability without taking responsibility for their future wellbeing.

Character Protects Your Talent
Figure skater Tonya Harding, golfer John Daly, sprinter Marion Jones, and cyclist Lance Armstrong…each of these athletes had dazzling ability, but lacked the character to sustain it. Overcome by jealousy, Harding hired a hitman to attack her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, thereby sacrificing her shot at Olympic stardom. Daly won the PGA Championship as a rookie, and the British Open a few years later, but his off-course drinking problems kept him from winning as much as his talent merited. Both Jones and Armstrong gave in to the temptation to supplement their natural talents with performance enhancing drugs. While the decision brought them victories in the short-run, each eventually got caught and suffered a fall from grace.

Thought to Ponder
When have you seen talent squandered? What was the reason why someone’s ability went to waste?

COACH DON MEYER'S FOUR TYPES OF PLAYERS

Unconscious & Incompetent: These types of players "don’t know that they don’t know." They aren’t even aware that they don’t have a feel for the game. These players aren’t going to contribute on a winning team.

 

Conscious & Incompetent: These players now realize that "they know they don’t have it." These players still don’t have a feel for the game and are lacking in the skill department but they realize where their weaknesses are and can now begin to improve  Awareness is the beginning of correction.

 

Conscious & Competent: At this level of development, the player is able to perform various skills (competent), but he / she must think about everything that he is doing before performing the skill; i.e. catch the ball, go into triple threat, direct drive, etc.  You know, but you don’t flow. Very robotic.

Unconscious & Competent: The most difficult level to reach, this player can perform the skills without having to think about them. For this type of player, the game naturally "flows."

GREAT THOUGHTS FROM NBA GREATS

LESSONS THAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM KD's MVP ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

As a player, what can you learn from Kevin Durrant's MVP acceptance speech?

1. You can see a true vision of what humility looks like and sounds like.

2. You can see how an MVP takes an individual award and turn it into a team award.

3. You can see from text messages, written notes and conversations, how teammates can lift a player to a higher level.

4. The importance of family.

5. Preparation -- in terms of what he wanted to say and the message he wanted to convey.

GRIFFIN LEARNS ABOUT WORK ETHIC FROM PAST NBA GREATS

The following is an excerpt of a story on the Clippers Blake Griffin that was written by Robert Morales of the Long Beach Telegraph.  The story speaks to how Griffin has not only heard about the work ethic of the great players before him but has used it to model his own work ethic.

“I’ve heard millions of Kobe (Bryant) stories about late-night workouts,” said Griffin, whose team takes on Detroit on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Staples Center. “One I heard, one time I guess he was in Italy and called Marco Belinelli (of the Spurs) at like 1, 2 o’clock in the morning and asked him if he had a gym for him, and so Marco found him one and he went there to shoot with him.

“And he (Belinelli) was like, ‘I thought we were going to just get some shots up, but we had like a full workout.’ Things like that. That’s work ethic, real worth ethic. It’s not just coming in when you have to and going hard. It’s doing extra, going above and beyond.”

Griffin hangs his hat on that credo.

“Work ethic has always been a big part of what I do,” he said. “I’m a firm believer, the more work you put in, the more you get out. You know, I love hearing stories about the Kobe’s and the LeBron’s and back in the day, Michael Jordan, how they work and how sometimes they’re a little different about it. That’s what makes them unique.”

THE DEFINITION OF SUCCESS

The following comes from "The Champion's Mind" by Jim Afremow:

"My favorite description of what excellence in the sports world looks like comes Anson Dorrance, the legendary University of North Carolina women's soccer coach.  He was driving to work early one morning, and as he passed a deserted field, he noticed one of his players off in the distance doing extra training by herself.  He kept driving, but he later left a note in her locker: "The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching." 

The young woman, Mia Hamm, would go on to become one of the great players in the history of the sport.

HOW MOTIVATED ARE TO YOUR WORK: WIN OR LOSE

"After every game, I used to ask Michael (Jordan) one question: Five, six, or seven? As in what time are we hitting the gym tomorrow morning. And he’d snap back a time and that was it. Especially after a loss, when there wasn’t a whole lot to say. No discussion, no debate, no lame attempt to convince me he needed the morning off. You good? I’m good. See you in the morning. And the next morning at whatever time he’d decided, he’d awaken to find me standing outside his door. No matter what happened the night before-good game, bad game, soreness, fatigue- he was up working out every morning while most of the other guys slept."

From "Relentless" by Tim Grover

SABAN ON IT TAKES TO BE A GOOD PLAYER

"To be a good player on your team, you have to affect someone else on the team. You have to cause them to play better by the way you play. You affect other players with the character and attitude. To be a great player, you have to affect your entire unit. If you are a great player, every player on that unit plays better when you are on the field. The number one thing on any team that will keep your players from being selfish is respect for the other players. Having respect leads to trust and from that they begin to believe in each other. That is the way it works and that is the way it has to be."

-Nick Saban

WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE?

BE THE BEST YOU

DO THE SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN DO

We ran across the words of poet Everett Hall and thought what a wonderful mindset for players.  It doesn't matter what your role is with your team.  Maybe you are a starter that is expected to continually set screens for your shooters.  Maybe you are the first sub off the bench expected to come in and be lockdown defender.  Maybe you are someone who gets in the game only when the margin of victory or defeat merits it. 

Let's take it a step further.  Maybe you aren't even a player.  Maybe your are a manager.  Maybe you are the person that films the games or keeps the stats.

Whatever your role is with the team it is important and valuable -- even if you don't see it or realize it.

As Everett Hall wrote:

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

If you are the starter counted on to screen -- be the best screener in your conference.  Execute your screening angles as well as any player before you.

If you are the lockdown defender coming off the bench -- be the best lockdown defender your program has ever had.  Come off the bench with intensity and determination to not allow your man to score.

If you rarely play except when the game is already decided -- be the most enthusiastic player on your bench.  Be the person that lights the fire under those that play.

If you are a manager, statistician or video person -- make sure no one does their job better than you.

"I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."