Hall of Fame Coach Marianne Stanley once shared a story of talking to Coach John Wooden and asking him what made Bill Walton such a great player. His response was "He didn't get bored with the repetition that you need to be great."
How many players are good but don't work at something long enough and hard enough to excel at it? The word Marianne used was "mastery." She said the great ones didn't mind the constant repetition because their goal was to master the parts of their game.
I love this passage from one of my players Seimone Augustus:
“The most common questions I get asked as a professional basketball player is, ‘What drills do you do to get better? How many shots did you take a day? What all did you focus on to be a better player? I hate being asked that. My answer is the same — I can’t count the number of shots I took, I can’t tell you what drills I did because I used everything from a lawn chair to a bowling ball glove to help with getting better, as well as watched a VHS tape of Pistol Pete until it didn’t work anymore. An still when you reach what you think is your goal or dream, people will still doubt you and will be uncertain of your success at the next level. But all you can do is keep working, believe in yourself, stay focused and let the universe take you on an amazing ride!”
