PEYTON MANNING ALWAYS LOOKING TO IMPROVE

Came across the great article via Jeff Boals, assistant men's coach at Ohio State University, that speaks to Peyton Manning's commitment to annual improvement. How committed are you?

“He’s a very unusual guy,” Coach Jim Caldwell said. “Every year he kind of goes through this process where he and Frank will sit down and they’ll take a look at what he was able to accomplish last year, he’ll look at all his strengths and weaknesses. He’ll review every single snap of every game he played. And not just glancing over it, but I’m talking about detail. They’ll take notes of ever single throw, every single play call, every single check.

“And then from that he’ll go through it and then make a determination on where he thought he could improve on that setting. He’ll dissect his entire season that way and then he’ll set new goals for himself in terms of what he thinks he can accomplish. And he seems to certainly keep moving forward, each and every year you see he gets better… I don’t think there is any limitation on him, on what he can improve upon.”

How long does it take? A week? A couple?

“Months,” Caldwell said. “Plural.”

Read the entire article by Paul Kuharsky: http://bit.ly/cAVzjI

KOBE: USED BASKETBALL AS A RELEASE

“I still love to play; I just love the game. It’s something you can play when you’re mad or upset. Even now I will go and I will just shoot and take my mind off things. When I was younger, if I was mad at my parents because they would not let me go out or I was in trouble for something, that’s what I would do. Pick up a basketball and go shoot. They could not stop me from doing that. It’s a little bit of escapism. If you go and you have a ball and a rim, you take yourself somewhere else, in your mind at least.”

-KOBE BRYANT

JERRY WEST, SHOOTING, AND UNDERSTANDING HOW "GOALS" CHANGE

The following comes from the book "Jerry West" by Roland Lazenby. It talks of Jerry West and how he worked on his shot in high school even with a broken arm in a cast:

Stationary in his cast, Jerry West would spend what seemed an interminable amount of time in one spot, shooting the same shot over and over, for hours. He had always hoisted one-handed shots and worked to perfect them. Now he stepped up the pace and made the one-hander his primary shot from each spot that he worked. “Then he would move to another position the next night,” Barbara said. “And I’m just convinced that he became a master shooter because of that. Seeing him shoot, one would see the right arm out and the left with his hand under his elbow, lining up everything. He’s so consistent in his shot.”

In 1992 a reporter walked into the Lakers’ preseason training camp at Klum Gym at the University of Hawaii early in the morning, hours before the first session. There was West, well into his fifties, alone on the court shooting shot after shot, delivering one perfect sixteen-footer after another. The ball would settle through the net and hit the floor with just enough spin that it headed back to West. He hardly had to move to retrieve it. Then he began pausing and studying the goal for an unsettling amount of time between shots. Later the reporter asked him why he was studying the basket so intently, and West said, “Because each goal is different. You have to look at it and figure out what’s different about it.” The reporter later figured that West had sighted the goal probably no fewer than two million times since those grade school days, when he first began lofting a ball at a hoop suspended above the dirt outside his home. And here he was, five decades later, pausing and studying again, as if he were seeing something for the first time, discovering something that others simply couldn’t see. Those moments with the goal were the process of West’s lifetime, the essence of his study of every little detail of the game, his mother’s perfectionism at work.

"I'VE GOT TO WIN"

“I’ve played a couple of hundred games of

tick-tack-toe with my little daughter,

and she hasn’t beaten me yet.

I’ve always had to win.

I’ve got to win.”

....

-Bob Gibson-

HEAD AND HEART

“Some guys play with their heads . That’s okay. You’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more important, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.”

-VINCE LOMBARDI-

LEAVING A LASTING LEGACY

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

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

"Be prepared and be honest."

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"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."

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"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."

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"What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player."

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"

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"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes."

"It isn't what you do, but how you do it."

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

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability."

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."

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"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."

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"Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

"The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team."

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"Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

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Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts."

GOLDEN GLOVE ADVICE

“Associate with those who help you believe in yourself.”

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-Brooks Robinson

DEVELOPING HABITS

Darren Hardy of Success Magazine discuss the development of habits:

My dad used Larry Bird as an example to teach me about habits when I was a kid. "Larry Legend" is known as one of the greatest professional basketball players, but he wasn't known for being the most athletically talented player. Nobody would have described Larry as "graceful" on the basketball court. Yet, despite his limited natural athletic ability, he led the Boston Celtics to three world championships and remains one of the best players of all time. How did he do it?

It was Larry's habits—his relentless dedication to practice and to improve his game. Bird was one of the most consistent free-throw shooters in the history of the NBA. Growing up, his habit was to practice five hundred free-throw shots every morning before school. With that kind of discipline, Larry made the most of his God-given talents and kicked the butts of some of the most "gifted" players on the court.

Like Larry Bird, you can condition your automatic and unconscious response to be those of a developed champion. This chapter is about choosing to make up for what you lack in innate ability with discipline, hard work and good habits. It's about becoming a creature of champion habits.

With enough practice and repetition, any behavior, good or bad, becomes automatic over time. That means that even though we developed most of our habits unconsciously (by modeling our parents, responding to environmental or cultural associations, or creating coping mechanisms), we can consciously decide to change them. It stands to reason that since you learned every habit you have, you can also unlearn the ones that aren't serving you well.

GIVE IT YOUR BEST -- BECAUSE THE RIDE WON'T LAST FOREVER

Following the announcement of Ken Griffey's retirement yesterday reminded me of a passage I read in Ron White's book, "22 Success Lessons from Baseball." Not only should you work hard, but enjoy the work -- there's no guarantee as to how long the ride will last...

Willie Mayes, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Kirk Gibson, Nolan Ryan, Ozzie Smith, Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt, Buddy Bell, Goose Gossage, “Oil Can” Boyd, “Dizzy” Dean and Jackie Robinson. These are all phenomenal baseball players. They also have one thing in common. There is one thing that is true about every single one of them. They are probably many things, but will you think of this one?

One of the common threads these men possess is that their baseball careers are over and for many of them their lives are over. Each of these men is mortal. Each of these men reached a time in their career when they could no longer compete at a high level because their bodies began to rebel against the work regiment and challenges. Some could no longer throw a ball fast enough to zoom past Major League hitters who seems to be getting younger and younger. Many found themselves swinging too late all too often at pitches they once could hit with ease. Their eyes refused to give them a clear picture of where the ball was going and their legs appeared asleep as they scampered to beat out a slow grounder.

Your time will come, just like it did for the Babe, Lou Gehrig, Nolan Ryan and every other player who set foot on the baseball diamond. One day your flesh and bones will be spent. Make the most of every time at bat and every game. Give it your best every day and when you are done, hope your life shows that you did.

Play fast, play the game right, work hard, touch all the bases, and have fun, because one day, you won’t be able to.

FIGHT BACK AND STAY ON YOUR TOES

The following is a conversation with Evander Holyfield in the book, "Three Feet from Gold," by Sharon L. Lechter & Grey S. Reid.

“Okay, Evander, I have got to know—what makes you a better athlete than your competition?”

Holyfield could have dismissed this inquisitive stranger but instead offered an immediate reply: “A higher standard than anyone else.”

“It’s simple really. If you have a car and will not tolerate it being dirty or running badly, you will have a better car than your neighbor. If you see a home where the wife will not accept her husband coming home drunk or the kids being a mess, she will have a better family dynamic. Right?”

“The same applies to sports. I always worked out early, stayed late, and never lost sight of my dream. So much so that we would even come up with new ways to exercise that no one else had thought of. We did this because we had a higher standard than anyone else in the ring. ‘A standard of excellence,’ we called it. And that standard is that I believe allowed me to win a medal at the Olympics along with all the championship belts.”

Then he asked, “But didn’t it hurt getting hit all the time?”

Holyfield looked up and winked. “Look at this face!” Then he added, “I didn’t get hit that much. It’s like this—if you focus on the blows you are receiving, the only place you’ll end up is on your back. I never put much attention on the damage I was getting. I only focused on the damage I was inflicting.”

Greg’s eyes widened as he asked, “Are you saying you never felt the punches?”

“Sure, I felt them,” Holyfield said. “But I never lost my focus on the job at hand. That was to hit my opponent back… but even harder. The same applies to life in general. So many people focus on the hits coming their way. They watch the news that tells them how bad things are; they listen to their friends who are unhappy in life. In other words, they focus on how many blows they are taking, when, in fact, they should change their attention toward fighting back and staying on their toes.”

THE MEASURE OF A TEAM PLAYER

The following comes from John Maxwell's "Go For Gold" and speaks to being the type of player that cares deeply about your teammates and the mission of your team.

Bill Russell observed, "The most important measure of how good a game I played was how much better I'd made teammates play."

Do you consider yourself to be a team player? Answer each of the following questions to see where you stand when it comes to promoting the good of the team:

1. Do I add value to others?

2. Do I add value to the organization?

3. Am I quick to give away the credit when things go right?

4. Do I use my "bench" players as much as I could?

5. Do many people on my team consistently make important decisions?

6. Is our team's emphasis on creating victories more than producing stars?

JON GORDON: BE HUMBLE AND HUNGRY

From Jon Gordon:

BE HUMBLE
• Don’t think you know it all. See yourself as a life-long learner who is always seeking ways to learn, grow and improve.
• See everyone as a teacher and learn from everyone you meet.
• Be open to new ideas and strategies to take your life, school and work to the next level.
• When people tell you that you are great don’t let it go to your head. And when they tell you that you stink, don’t let it go to your head.
• Live with humility because the minute you think you have arrived at the door of greatness it will get shut in your face.

BE HUNGRY
• Follow your passion, continuously improve, and set new goals and milestones.
• Seek out new ideas, new strategies and new ways to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
• Invest the time, energy, sweat and dedication to be your best and let God do the rest.
• Be willing to pay the price that greatness requires. Don’t be average. Strive to be great.
• Decide to leave a legacy. Even at a young age it’s important to think about what legacy you want to leave because knowing how you want to be remembered helps you decide how to live today.

YOUR CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE

I was reading "Go For The Gold" by John Maxwell last night and came across his Law of the Inner Circle. He states:

When we see any incredibly gifted person, it's always tempting to believe that talent along made him successful. To think that is to buy in to a lie. Nobody does anything great along.

To practice the Law of the Inner Circle, you must be intentional in your relationship building. As you consider whether individuals should be in your inner circle, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Do they have high influences with others?

2. Do they possess strengths in my areas of weakness?

3. Do they add value to me and my organizations?

4. Do they positively impact other inner circle members?

This has been a big topic for me this spring with our student-athletes. We have been talking to them about the art of successful people hang around successful people and this union helps both sides to fuel each other.

Several decades ago I took a basketball coaching class from the late Stu Aberdeen at Marshall University. One of his primary teachings was that to be successful, you should hunt out the best of what you want to be and learn from them. If you want to be a lawyer, search one out, befriend him and ask him to mentor you. He gave several examples but it hit me hard that if I wanted to be a coach that I should search some out to teach me how to best become one. As an 18-year old college freshman, I hooked up with some of the best high schools coaches I could find in Doug McElwain and Ron Chambers at Winfield High School and my former junior high coach Allen Osborne. I told them of my desire to be a coach and asked them to teach me -- and that's exactly what they did. Over 30 years ago they are still an influence in my teaching and coaching and I still talk them often about major decisions.

As I got into college coaching I zeroed in on Don Meyer who for some reason took me under his wing and taught me a great deal and allowed me to elevate myself as a coach.

I would add to Coach Aberdeen's philosophy of "if you want to be a coach, search one out, befriend him and ask them to teach you." Be more specific. "I want to be an outstanding girls high school basketball coach." Or, "I want to be a high school coach that plays great man to man defense." Be specific about your vision to find the best mentor.

We are talking to our team a great deal about this subject. We are working to get them to understand that to be the best student possible, go study with a good student -- not a buddy. If you are going to war are you going to pick friends alone or are you going to select the best possible warriors.

By selection who you associate with, you are actually "selecting your own team." You should find somebody that will work with your and push you and help you achieve more than you would by yourself or with others that are equal or less to you in terms of talent and commitment.

At LSU, we occasionally use men to come in and play with our women's team. We might utilize them in some drills and or in scrimmage situations. The men are better -- a little taller, a little quicker, a little stronger. We do that to stretch our team -- to encourage them play a little above what they would play when playing against weaker competition. And we want them to do that in all facets of their lives.

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In shooting, we have our women shoot from the men's 3-point line. On certain days, we may work from the NBA 3-point line. All in effort to "stretch our range."

As a student-athlete, what are you doing on a daily basis to "stretch your range." Who are you associating with on a regular basis to improve in areas that are important to your growth?

The answer will usually show a direct correlation in your commitment (or lack thereof) to be the best you can be.

USING ADVERSITY FOR MOTIVATION

Nothing can motivate a person like adversity. Olympic diver Pat McCormick discusses the point: "I think failure is one of the great motivators. After my narrow loss in the 1948 trials, I knew how really good I could be. It was the defeat that focused all my concentration on my training and goals." McCormick went on to win two gold medals in the Olympics in Helsinki in 1952 and another two in Melbourne four years later.

From "Go For Gold," by John Maxwell

THE ESSENCE OF PERSISTENCE

The race goes not always to the swift but to those who keep running. You have powers you never dreamed of. You are capable of doing things you never thought possible. There are no limitations on what you can do.

From Creighton Burn's newsletter (May 19, 2010)