Few things are more important that having confidence and belief in yourself and your abilities. Of course what is sometimes overlooked is all the preparation and hard work that must come before -- otherwise you are dealing with false bravado. In his book "Go For The Magic," Pat Williams told a great story about hitting great and Hall of Famer Stan Musial. During Musial's playing days with the St. Louis Cardinals, one of his teammates entered the clubhouse whistling and obviously in a great mood. As he walked past Musial he said, "I feel like I'm getting two hits today. Every feel like that Stan?" In which Musial replied with a smile, "Every day!"
Remember that big shot Ray Allen hit for Miami to force a game 7 and eventually lead them to a championship? What it you were told he'd practice that shot numerous times? That great ones prepare for everything.
Spoelstra, of course, had heard stories about Allen. People called him "Everyday Ray" for a reason.
He was obsessive and then some about his basketball routines. He'd come to the gym early and often, repeating the same motions, the same routes over and over.
"Like a wide receiver," Spoelstra says.
But even still, Spoelstra couldn't believe what he saw during that first workout in September 2012, the week before Labor Day.
Spoelstra laughs about it now. Allen was laying on his back under the basket. When a Heat assistant coach blew the whistle, Allen would get up off his back, backpedal to the corner as if being chased, and somehow precisely place his feet in the slot between the 3-point arc and the out-of-bounds line with only inches to spare. All in one motion. All without looking down.
After all that, Allen would catch a pass and rise up for a 3-pointer.
"Pat [Riley] and I invented so many dumb drills over the years, but that," Spoelstra recalls, "that ... was a new one on us."
After watching the then-37-year-old do it dozens of times, Spoelstra stopped him.
"What on earth are you trying to accomplish here?"
Allen replied matter-of-factly.
"Offensive rebound, say I get knocked down after a layup and need to jump out for the corner 3," Allen told him. "Gotta get in the habit. You never know."
Allen performed that drill religiously for the ensuing weeks. And nine months after that September workout, Allen made perhaps the most famous clutch 3-pointer in NBA Finals history to force a Game 7.
Offensive rebound. Backpedal out to the corner 3. In one motion, without looking down. Bang.
If you ever wondered what has madePeyton Manning one of the best football players to have take the field, this might be the most important reason:
"I love being coached. I get angry when I'm not coached. I ask a lot of questions and certainly appreciate any insight and feedback. I think if you ever stop listening to coaching or stop asking questions, you probably need to be doing something else."
Peyton didn't say he "he was coachable." He didn't say that "he appreciated coaching." He said he "LOVED" being coach. That's an amazing mindset. In fact, Peyton is notorious for detailed preparation. Here is advice he would give to rookies:
"If I could give them a couple pieces of advice, I would start with this: ‘Don’t ever go to a meeting to watch a practice or a game without having already watched it by yourself.’ That’s one thing that I have always done. When the coach is controlling the remote control, he’s gonna rewind when he wants to rewind. He’s gonna skip certain plays. He’s not watching every single detail. When you can control the rewind button, you can go in there and you watch—first, you better watch your mechanics. Watch what you’re doing. Is your drop good? How’s your throw? OK, now rewind it again. Now you better watch your receivers. OK, looks like Demaryius Thomas ran a good route here. Not sure what Julius Thomas was doing here. Then you better rewind it again and watch what the defense is doing. So, there’s time in that deal. You have to know what they were doing so you can help them. So that has helped me. When I go in and watch it with the coach, I’m watching it for the third, fourth, fifth time. That’s when you start learning."
We loved this quote from Ray Allen. It is something we speak about often -- to our team and to our campers. The great ones always make it look easy but it is always the result of hard, intentional work:
"I've argued this with a lot of people in my life. When people say God blessed me with a beautiful jump shot, it really pisses me off. I tell those people, 'Don't undermine the work I've put in every day.' Not some days. Every day. Ask anyone who has been on a team with me who shoots the most. Go back to Seattle and Milwaukee and ask them. The answer is me -- not because it's a competition, but because that's how I prepare."
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.
Coach Mike Kryzyzewski on LeBron James "I’ve seen him grow from a great talent to an outstanding player to the best player; he’s the best player.”
”He’s in a position right now in our sport, which I call Mastery. In other words: he can guard any position, he can play any position, he’s brilliant, he’s an amazing leader, has a great leadership voice, easy to coach, and when you’re just with a group of people, he’s as funny as can be.”
”If you would see his preparation every day, and what he puts into the game, it would knock people out.” ”He’s 6’9’’ 260 and he runs like a deer, he thinks like a wizard, he leads like a general, he’s got it in every way. I’m proud of him.”
Greg Maddux is the only pitcher in Major League Baseball history to win at least fifteen games for seventeen consecutive seasons. He recalls some advice he one received from then Cubs manager Tom Trebelhorn. "You know what they problem is with players these days?" Trebelhorn said. "They are always looking forward to something. They're never trying to something today. They're always looking forward to the next off-day, the All-Star break, the end of the season. They never stop and enjoy the day that's here."
Maddox says that he thought about that and saw that Trebelhorn had a point. In fact, Maddux realized that he had that same mind-set of looking only to the future and never enjoying the present moment. From that day forward, Maddox concluded, "I started enjoying each day...and really started loving the games from that day on."
When Kobe Bryant was asked what makes one guy a champion above the next guy he responded with this:
"It's drive. It's the will, There are certain people that have a tremendous hunger. There are certain people that have a will, determination and hunger that you need to be the best in the world. Those people -- and those people alone -- become champions."
The following is a poem written by Dan Clark for Anthony Robles. It comes from Roble's book "Unstoppable." Want to learn more about Robles? Check out one of our previous blog posts: http://goo.gl/mwgVC.
Every soul who comes to earth With a leg -- or two -- at birth Must wrestle his opponents knowing It's not what it is, it's what can be that measures worth. Make it hard, just make it possible And through pain I'll not complain, My spirit is unconquerable Fearless I will face each foe, for I know I am capable, I don't care what's probable Through blood, sweat and tears I am unstoppable.
How bad to you want it? Look closely and see how many NBA "stars" you recognize. Than take a moment to understand that all of these clips have them working out not with their team but with individual trainers they hire to grow their game. How bad do you want it? The "stars" of the game weren't born that way! They got there through tremendous hard work on a continuous basis. So ---- how bad do you want it?
The stories about Jerry Rice's unparalleled work ethic are as much a part of his legend as numbers that made him the NFL's greatest receiver.
The young boy who gained his speed by chasing horses. The dedicated son who learned about determination from his father while catching bricks during sweltering Mississippi summers.
The teenager sent to the football coach because of the speed he showed running away from a principal while playing hooky. And the frequent 2½-mile uphill sprints that kept him in tiptop shape as an NFL star.
For former teammate Steve Young, the story that best describes Rice's drive comes a few weeks after the San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowl in January 1995.
Young arrived one day at the team's practice facility to clean out his locker and saw Rice out on the field running sprints and catching passes from the groundskeeper nearly seven months before the start of the next season.
"When people talk about Jerry's work ethic and say, 'Oh it's really extreme,' they do it a disservice," Young said. "There's an iron will to it. It's over his dead body. Jerry to the core was driven. You belittle that drive by saying he had just a great work ethic. Most people have an off switch and they choose when to go all out. Jerry didn't have an off switch."
"There was no way I was going to be denied," Rice said. "I kept working hard and my dream came true. I tell kids do not let any obstacles stand in your way. If you want to achieve something, go for it. I'm living proof with my background and where I came from. I didn't give up and I wanted to be the best football player I could possibly be in the NFL and I was able to accomplish that."
Rice struggled with some drops early in his career, leading some to question why he was a first-round pick. But Lott saw something right away in Rice, who beat the future Hall of Famer with a sly double move on one of the first days of practice.
Then teammate Ronnie Lott saw Rice's reaction to the drops and knew he would become a star.
"You didn't see many rookies with the ability to perform precision routes like that. It just seemed natural to Jerry," Lott said. "After he had a rough game with a couple of drops, I saw him sitting at his locker crying. For a lot of people when they lose, it's not personal. For him it was always personal. It showed how much he wanted to be great."
From an Associated Press article -- read the entire article: http://bit.ly/sZDeFR
“I’ve never seen a player that didn’t want to win when the ball was tossed up...but I’ll tell you when better want to win — you’d better want to win the day before and two days before and three days before because the will to win the game is not nearly as important as will the will to PREPARE to win the game.”
1. When a winner makes a mistake, he says "my fault"; when a loser makes a mistake, he throws the blame on someone else.
2. A winner credits his "good luck" for winning on being fundamentally prepared; a loser blames his "bad luck" for losing on bad breaks even though he is not fundamentally prepared.
3. A winner works harder than a loser and always finds time to do what is expected of him; a loser never finds the time and when he does, he works on the wrong things.
4. A winner makes commitments and sets goals with his heart and sets out to accomplish them; a loser makes "promises" with his mouth and never sincerely means to keep them.
5. A winner shows he's sorry by making up for mistakes; a loser says "I'm sorry" but does the same thing next time.
6. A winner thinks, "I'm good, but not as good as I should or could be." A loser thinks, "I'm not as bad as some of the others."
7. A winner would rather be admired for his ability than liked, although he would prefer both; a loser would rather be liked than admired because he knows he hasn't worked hard enough to be admired.
8. A winner hates to lose; a loser could care less although he may put up a good front.
9. A winner is fundamentally sound in all aspects of the game; a loser is not!
10. A winner knows that strength, agility and quickness are the keys to success in athletics and works hard to attain those things; a loser may know, but never attains.
11. A winner takes constructive criticism from the coach, realizing that it will help him and the team; a loser pouts and thinks he's being picked on.
12. A winner thinks of the team first and never wants to let the team down; a loser thinks of himself first and the team last.
“When you’re in the locker room before the game starts, and you’re sitting there and there’s still silence, almost like a silence sweeping over the locker room. You don’t know what it is. You can look in the eyes of your teammates. Sometimes you get to see the other team. A lot of times I look in their eyes. You can see fear. You can see excitement. You can see nervousness. It’s that before-the-game moment. In my mind, it’s like everything is silent. It’s like another realm, another world. It’s like, ‘This is it, it’s all on the line.’ For me, every game, it’s all on the line. Just that little moment, knowing it’s all on the line, right now, there’s no second chance on this game, there’s no getting a player over, that’s something that excites me. I love to see other players, especially defenders, if they’re nervous. Yeah, that gets me excited.”
The following comes from Alan Stein's website: http://www.youtube.com/user/StrongerTeamDotCom It asks the question of players "are you waiting for your next workout or are you preparing for your next workout?" A short video but well worth the time for each and every player (and coach for that matter).
Thanks to Rick Allison for bringing Alan's video to my attention.
One of my most favorite inspirational examples about persistence is the story of an Asian Bamboo species that even after five years of watering, weeding, and fertilizing is barely visible. Then, in a span of about six weeks, it grows two and a half feet a day to 90 feet and higher. It grows so fast that you can literally “hear” it growing. The question to ask is did the bamboo grow 90 feet in six weeks or did it grow 90 feet in five years? Obviously it grew 90 feet in five years, for all the time when growth wasn’t visible it was developing a massive root system that would later support its magnificent growth.
There's a rodeo bull rider I know, a fellow named TuffHedeman. He's won three world championships in his sport, which is very difficult to do; he's the Joe Montana of bull riders. After he won his third one, Tuff didn't rest his bull rope to party or go to Disney World or hit the talk-show circuit. He just moved his gear on to Denver where the title hunt would start all over again...and as Tuff said:
One of my most favorite inspirational examples about persistence is the story of an Asian Bamboo species that even after five years of watering, weeding, and fertilizing is barely visible. Then, in a span of about six weeks, it grows two and a half feet a day to 90 feet and higher. It grows so fast that you can literally “hear” it growing. The question to ask is did the bamboo grow 90 feet in six weeks or did it grow 90 feet in five years? Obviously it grew 90 feet in five years, for all the time when growth wasn’t visible it was developing a massive root system that would later support its magnificent growth.
There's a rodeo bull rider I know, a fellow named Tuff Hedeman. He's won three world championships in his sport, which is very difficult to do; he's the Joe Montana of bull riders. After he won his third one, Tuff didn't rest his bull rope to party or go to Disney World or hit the talk-show circuit. He just moved his gear on to Denver where the title hunt would start all over again...and as Tuff said: