HOW DO YOU IDENTIFY YOURSELF?

The following comes from "Coaching The Mental Game" by H. A. Dorfman:

"The measure of a man's real character is what 

he would do if he knew he would never be found out."

-Thomas McCauley

What I say it, "You identify yourself by what you do when no one is watching.  The supervised athlete may be the hardest worker, the most selfless and responsible competitor.  But how he practices when no one sees him, how he interacts with teammates when the coach is not within listening distance -- that's when he defines himself.

Theodore Roosevelt extended the definition to self-awareness and independent self-evaluation, saying, "I don't care very much about what I think of what I do.  That is character!"

FOCUS NOT ON PERFECTION BUT CONSISTENCY

We constantly preach to our players about being an "NBA Player" -- meaning "Next Best Action."  The best players don't dwell in the past.  They are on to the next play.  If they are thinking about the last play -- a missed shot, a turnover, a poor play be a teammate, a bad call by an official -- then they are not give 100% of their mental capacity to the most important play of the game -- the next one.  After all, as Sue Gunter would constantly tell her teams, "The next possession is the only one we have control of."

By now I am hopefully that you've all heard of The Players Tribune.  If not it needs to be a must read for you.  It is articles that are written completely by athletes.  Not coaches. Not writers.  It gives you an amazing perspective and insight into what some of the best are thinking in so many different situations.

One of the more recent entries came from Cal Ripken, Jr. in an article titled "The Best Play I Ever Made."  One of the take aways from the article was when Cal had failure on the field, an error or poor at bat, he always seemed to follow it up with success -- a good defensive play or a hit.  This is the Next Best Action attitude.  This is a look into Cal's mentality: 

"More often than not, whenever I made an error, I’d get a hit in my next at bat. If I struck out a few times, I’d be more likely to make a nice play in the field. Whatever I was struggling with, I tried to excel in another area to balance it out. I always viewed baseball as a constant internal battle within myself. You have to keep your emotions low when pressure is high, but play with passion when pressure was low. It’s not about focusing on perfection so much as on consistency."

ARE YOU COMPETING OR COMPARING

The following comes from the book "Burn Your Goals" by Joshua Medcalf and Jamie Gilbert and I challenge those student-athletes reading this to take some time and reflect and then ask are you competing or comparing.

A lot of times in many contexts in life much of our inability to scratch our potential or play hard is down to the fact that we are comparing rather than competing.  Competition is great between players on the same team.  Someone beats you and you try hard to improve to play better next time.  The Bible talks about this as iron sharpening iron.

Comparison is different.  Comparison is about worth.  He beat me so he is a better person.  She trains with the national team so she is always going to get the starting spot.  He has closed more deals for the company this year so why should I even bother to try harder?  Comparison usually leads to diminished or inflated worth and takes our focus and energy away from things we can control.

WISE WORDS FROM COACH WOODEN

"Your strength as an individual depends on how you respond to both criticism and praise.  If you let either one have any special effect on you, it's going to hurt us...You have little control over what criticism or praise outsiders send your way.  Take it all with a grain of salt.  Let your opponent get all caught up in other people's opinion.  You don't you do it."

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS TO IMPROVE UPON TALENT

Nolan Ryan is a Hall of Fame pitcher -- and with great reason. While his lifetime winning percentage was .526, Ryan was an eight-time MLB All-Star, and his 5,714 career strikeouts rank first in baseball history by a significant margin.[1] He leads the runner-up, Randy Johnson, by 839 strikeouts. Similarly, Ryan's 2,795 bases on balls lead second-place Steve Carlton by 962—walking over 50% more hitters than any other pitcher in MLB history. Ryan, Pedro Martínez, Randy Johnson, and Sandy Koufax are the only four pitchers inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame who had more strikeouts than innings pitched. Other than Jackie Robinson (whose number was retired by the entire MLB), Ryan is currently the only major league baseball player to have his number retired by at least three different teams: the Angels, Astros, and Rangers. Ryan is the all-time leader in no-hitters with seven, three more than any other pitcher. He is tied with Bob Feller for the most one-hitters, with 12. Ryan also pitched 18 two-hitters. 

What you might know know is that through his first five seasons with the New York Mets his record was only 29-38.  No one in major league baseball had a more talented arm or could throw the ball harder, but talent is never enough if you are interested in being the best.  

Here is how Ryan explained is process of improvement in "Good Leaders Ask Great Questions" by John Maxwell:

"All I knew was to throw as hard as I could for as long I could.  Early in my career in the big leagues, when I would get in trouble I would resort back to that mindset.  Finally, after being unsuccessful with the approach -- I learned that when I was just throwing hard I was throwing wild and walking guys and losing games -- it finally dawned on me.  If I didn't make an adjustment or change, then I was going to be one of those players who was very gifted, but didn't make a lot out of it...A lot of people get here with the God-given ability, the gift that they received.  But to stay here and have a lengthy career takes a commitment to make sacrifices that most won't continually make.  Talent may get your here, but it takes work, real work, to stay here, and it takes development of the mental side of your game to separate yourself on this level."

MONE ON WORK ETHIC, DEDICATION AND STEPH CURRY

I am obviously a huge Seimone Augustus fan -- was incredibly blessed to have coached her.  But there is a reason I'm a "fan" of Mone -- she gets it!  And she got it at an early age.  You can read here a blog post I wrote a few years ago about what made her one of the best to ever player the game.

Yesterday, in Instagram, I saw this post from Seimone and wanted to share it because I thought it was outstanding:

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.  HINT: Steph Curry in the photo below.  But all you can do is KEEP WORKING, BELIEVE in yourself, STAY FOCUSED and let the universe take you an amazing ride!

WINNING IS SOMETHING YOU BUILD

"For me, winning isn't something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream."

-Emmitt Smith

THE BEST FOCUS ON THE PRESENT

One of the terms we utilize with our players comes from Coach Don Meyer.  We tell them we want them to be NBA players.  NBA stands for Next Best Action.  In other words, we want them constantly player in the future and not in the past.  Great shooters have poor memories.  They never remember their last missed shot but instead, work to get their next make. 

It is the process oriented teaching that Coach Nick Saban drives home to his players.  He is not interested in his players checking the score or time on the clock as that information has nothing to do with them "dominating their opponent" on the next snap. 

While at LSU, baseball coach Skip Bertman had a small toy toilet in the dugout.  When a player had a bad at bat, a fielder committed an error, or a pitcher had a bad inning, they came in and "flushed" the toy toilet as a physical symbol that it's over -- it's gone -- time to focus on the here and now.

Of course this isn't an easy habit to develop -- especially for great competitors.  In his book "How Champions Think," Dr. Bob Rotella recalled a conversation where Dean Smith spoke to Michael Jordan about letting go of a bad game:
 
I remember hearing Michael Jordan speak some year ago about a lesson he’d learned from Dean Smith about dealing with failure. Michael had left the University of North Carolina and player a couple of years in the NBA. But he returned to Chapel Hill in the off-season to play pickup games with other Tar Heel alumni and talk with Coach Smith. 
 
On this occasion, he was talking to the coach about how hard it was for him to accept the seemingly cavalier attitude of his Bulls teammates toward losing. After a loss, he said, he would stay in the shower for an hour, replaying everything he did wrong as the hot water pounded over his body. Or he’d sit by his locker with a towel over his head, marinating his brain in images of mistakes. His teammates, on the other hand, would shower and get out of there. Michael thought they didn’t care.
 
Dean Smith disabused him of that notion. He told Michael that if he wanted to become the player he could be, he ought to give himself no more than ten or twenty minutes to reflect on a bad performance. That would be enough to learn everything that could be learned from it. After that, he advised Michael, he ought to think about playing great basketball in the next game—or do something else and not think about basketball at all. “If all you do is keep reliving your mistakes, you’re going to destroy yourself,” Dean said.

7 MONTHS SIDELINED

I have never had the opportunity to meet Amy Jump, a three-point shooting guard that plays for Wright State.  But she has a big fan in me.  Amy has spent the last seven months rehabbing an injury...being away from basketball as she has known it for the better part of her life.  But instead of wallowing in self-pity she has utilized the time to look at herself and the game through a different set of lenses. 

One of my friends made through our relationship with Coach Don Meyer is Keith Freeman who is an assistant coach at Wright State.  This past weekend at the PGC/Glazier Coaching Clinic we were talking about Coach Meyer, basketball and student-athletes that had great attitudes and worked hard.  This morning, he shared with me a paper written by Amy in which she speaks to the process she's gone through and how she has grown from it.  Our team at Texas A&M currently has three players rehabbing from injuries and I will share this with them as well.

Thanks for sharing Amy and continued success in your rehab:

7 MONTHS SIDELINES

As a basketball player you prepare yourself everyday. Offseason, regular season, and post season, you are always preparing. Preparing for practices, games, individual workouts, lifting, and if you want to get more specific, studying your plays and opponents. However, the last thing you prepare for is an injury, especially a long-term injury. We can handle full court presses thrown at us and 1-3-1 traps but as soon as an injury happens, it is natural to immediately hit the fetal position. The way I see it, when an injury occurs you can still look at it as if it is a full court press. How you handle and overcome an injury can either be a quick turnover or a hard- earned layup at the other end.

For seven months I wondered everyday if I would play basketball again. Some of those days I wondered if I would ever walk, sit, or stand without pain again. Back injuries can be severe and scary. For those seven months I was not only thinking of basketball, I was envisioning my life outside of it. My injury taught me about myself and about others. It opened my eyes to things I have been blind to everyday. It showed me the hard knocks of life and how to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It showed me the game stripped down from the sidelines everyday.

I could never deny that I was angry, scared, and frustrated everyday. But I also was thankful that God entrusted me enough to throw something of this caliber on my shoulders and know I would make it through. Because I know I would never be given something I could not handle. Although some days seemed the complete opposite.

Like I said, you are always preparing in basketball. What I did not realize was my injury was preparing me for life, whether I liked it or not. For seven months sidelined I wrote down notes of what I realized and learned about life and basketball from my coaches and teammates. Although no two injuries are the exact same and everyone handles them differently, my hope is, these notes may help some basketball player trying to break a full court press of their own.

There is enormous value in being a good friend and teammate.

You never accomplish all that you accomplish alone.

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

The most important stat for players to pay attention to: Leading your team in effort.

Three attributes for backup point guards:
◄Rarely turns the ball over.
◄Defends the dribble.
◄Respects the starting pg.

Be grateful for every ounce of talent and opportunity God has given you. He chose you to give them to. Be thankful.

Opportunities are not seen with your eyes. They are seen with you mind.

High character players all have these in common:
◄Works hard everyday.
◄Accepts their role.
◄Coachable

YOU CAN WIN WITH THESE PLAYERS

Fear and frustration only has two goals:
◄Ignore grace
◄Forget joy

If you only look at what you don’t have and what isn’t there, you will never enjoy what is there and what you do have.

You may have succeeded in high school off of raw talent, but you will never succeed in college without a tremendous work ethic and tremendous attitude.

Sometimes the biggest obstacle in life is getting over yourself. BE HUMBLE.

Enjoy all there is to enjoy about basketball because one day, no matter who you are or how great of a player you are, one day that ball will stop bouncing.

Your coaches and teammates learn a lot about you from the way you handle things being thrown at you. Not just what you do with a ball in your hands.

A choice to have a great attitude is something that nobody or no circumstance can take from you.

A rising tide will raise all boats. Make the people you are surrounded by better!

How great of a teammate and a leader you are isn’t determined by how much power you have. It’s determined by how much you serve and sacrifice for the people around you.

Be a servant leader, you’ll never regret it.

You can only hold your teammates accountable if you can be honest with yourself and accept your role.

You have to recommit yourself everyday to the cause. Some days you won’t feel well or don’t want to be there, but that’s never an excuse. Be committed.

Great teammates want to see the guy next to them succeed just as bad as they want to succeed themselves. Be selfless.

When you wake up in the morning, one positive thought in the morning can set the course for the entire day.

Find a way to win the day.

Coaches Pet Peeves:
◄Missed layups with no defense
◄No box outs
◄Dumb fouls – contest, make them shoot over you
◄Bending down for loose balls and not diving for them
◄Not knowing plays – be prepared when your name is called
◄Not screening a body in set plays
◄A silent bench with selfish teammates – don’t suck the life out of the gym

It’s all about the process. Putting people together that believe in each other, play hard for each other, are accountable for each other, and are selfless. If a team can buy into that then they can be successful.

5 Things That Kill Offenses:
◄Weak screens
◄Lazy, non credible cuts
◄Poor spacing
◄Holding the ball too long
◄Over dribbling

Too many people forget that happiness doesn’t come from getting what we don’t have. It’s about recognizing and appreciating what we do have.

When you have something taken from you. Whether it’s a short or long amount of time, it’s humbling. You become even more grateful for having the opportunity to do something you love.

Life is too short to be bitter. Bitterness never takes away from the pain, it adds to it.

When you have a 4 low baseline out of bounds offensive play, make sure your pass will be caught. If not, no one will be back for transition defense.

Even experiences we think are awful can carry the seeds of a great blessing.

Less is more. Don’t try to be a player you aren’t.

It’s important as a guard to have a go to move and a counter move in transition.

When you have the right culture it will attract high-level players.

Players think little about body language! Be aware that your body language to your teammates and coaches doesn’t whisper, it screams!

One of the main things I learned about leadership: People always say leadership is not about you. I disagree. I think is about the example YOU set and example YOU live for OTHERS. Be conscious of your actions and your decisions.

There’s a huge difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in something, you do it only when you feel like it. When you are committed to something, you do it ALL the time.

The problem with players today is, they are only committed when they are conditionally bought in. Meaning, when things are going well for them, then they are committed to the cause. If things are going well, then they have a good attitude and they are coachable, they listen. But if it’s not, they are the complete opposite. They think it’s ok to not be coachable, to have a bad attitude, and to be a bad teammate.

Don’t fear making mistakes! That is the greatest mistake you can make in life is to not take enough risks. That is how you grow! Not by doing everything perfect.

You become your habits in pressure situations.

Make the right decision. Never make the easy decision because more than likely it isn’t the right one.

Peer govern your teammates if you are a leader. Don’t just worry about yourself and making sure you do right, make sure your teammates do right also.

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.”

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.

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."

KD35'S WORK ETHIC

Scott Brooks on Kevin Durant:

 

"He works like he has no talent. 

He works hard everyday like

he wants to make the team."

THE ARCHER'S MENTALITY

"When an archer misses the mark he turns

and looks for the fault within himself.  Failure

 to hit the bull's eye is never the fault of the target. 

To improve your aim, improve yourself."

 

-Gilbert Arland

CHAMPIONS BELIEVE YOU LEARN AND GROW FROM ADVERSITY

"If it weren't for the dark days, we wouldn't

know what it is to walk in the light."

-Earl Campbell

Champions believe if you remove the adversity, you remove the victory.  As a result, they tend to view adversity as a challenge through which learning and growing occurs.  Their world view is evident in the way they describe the adversities they face. While average people choose the path of least resistance, world-class performers operate at a higher level of awareness.  They understand that stress and struggle are the key factors in becoming mentally tough.  While average people watch television and hang out at happy hour, the great ones continue to push themselves mentally and physically to the point of exhaustion.  Only then will you see them in rest and recovery situations.  Adversity to average people equals pain.  Adversity to world-class performers is their mental training ground.  It's how they become mentally tough.  Average people scorn adversity.  Those who are world class don't welcome adversity; yet they see it as the ultimate catalyst for mental growth, as well as the contrast needed to recognize the beauty of life.

From "177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class" by Steve Siebold

THE GREAT ONES STUDY GREAT ONES

"If he had 30 points, nine rebounds and eight assists,

I can tell you exactly how he did it, what type

of shots he made and who he passed to."

 

-Kevin Durant (on analyzing LeBron James game) 

PERFORM IN THE MOMENT

Game performances occur in the present, not in the past or future.

Although recalling positive memories of past performances and visualizing future ones can be useful, the best state of mind to be in is in the present.

George Mumford, who also work with the L.A. Lakers when Phil Jackson was coach, currently works with sports teams at Boston College. He still remembers his best student on the Bulls, none other than Michael Jordan "Michael made no distinction between practice and a game in terms of the effort he puts in," Mumford recalled. "He was the first one running sprints and doing all the other drills. He didn't have to prove anything, and yet he was always pushing himself. Not in an abusive way, but because he was truly in the moment and enjoying what he was doing."

Before, during and after practice and competition, constantly remind yourself, "Right here is the best place, and right now is the only time."


From "The Winning Spirit" by Joe Montana and Tom Mitchell

WHAT IS YOUR PICK UP GAME MENTALITY

The following comes from Steve Hale who was one of Michael Jordan's teammates:

Hale noticed another thing about Jordan: Even in pickup games, he has become unusually purposeful. There was a tendency in games like this, when there were no coaches around, for players to resort to what they did best, to reinforce their strengths and avoid going to any part of their game that was essentially weak. But Jordan, Hale believed, was constantly working on the weaker part of his game, trying to bring it up. It was, Hale thought, one more sign of his desire to be the best.

From "Playing For Keeps" by David Halberstam

ARE YOU UP FOR THE CHALLENGE?

THE GREAT ONES HAVE NO OFF SWITCH

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