BECOMING EVERYTHING YOU ARE CAPABLE OF BECOMING

Another great email lesson from Brian Tracy...so good I am posting it on both blogs so coaches and players but will hopefully read:

The turning point in my life came when I discovered the law of cause and effect, the great law of the universe, and human destiny. I learned that everything happens for a reason. I discovered that success is not an accident. Failure is not an accident, either. I also discovered that people who are successful in any area usually are those who have learned the cause-and-effect relationship between what they want and how to get it.

Determine Your Personal Growth and Development Values
To realize your full potential for personal and professional growth and development, begin with your values as they apply to your own abilities. As you know, your values are expressed in your words and actions.

You can tell what your values are by looking at what you do and how you respond to the world around you. Your values are the root causes of your motivations and your behaviors.

Clarify Your Personal Growth and Development Vision
Create a long-term vision for yourself in the area of personal growth. Project forward five or ten years and imagine that you are developed fully in every important part of your life. Idealize and see yourself as outstanding in every respect. Refuse to compromise on your personal dreams.

Set Goals for Your Personal Growth and Development
Now take your vision and crystallize it into specific goals. Here is a good way to start. Take out a piece of paper and write down ten goals that you would like to achieve in the area of personal and professional development in the months and years ahead. Write in the present tense, exactly as if you were already the person you intend to be.

Determine exactly what you want to be able to do. Decide who you want to become. Describe exactly what you will look like when you become truly excellent in your field and in your personal life.

Upgrade Your Personal Knowledge and Skills
Set specific measures for each of your goals. If your goal is to excel in your field, determine how you will know when you have achieved it. Decide how you can measure your progress and evaluate your success.

Perhaps you can use as a measure the number of hours you study in your field each week. Perhaps you can measure the number of books you read or the number of audio programs you listen to. Perhaps you could measure your progress by the number of sales you make as the result of your growing skills.

Develop Winning Personal Growth and Development Habits
Select the specific habits and behaviors you will need to practice every day to become the person you want to become. These could be the habits of clarity, planning, thoroughness, studiousness, hard work, determination, and persistence.

Action Exercise
Decide today to develop yourself to the point where you can achieve every financial and personal goal you ever set and become everything you are capable of becoming. Write down your goals and make sure to look at them every day, then ponder ways you possibly achieve these goals.

DREW BREES ON HIS FAITH

NEVER A DEAD PLAY

Saints defensive end Will Smith on the Vikings Brett Farve:

"(When playing Favre in the past) one thing we always talked about was his ability to keep the play going. There's never a dead play. We have to stay after him, and make sure when we get our hands on him we bring him down."

What a tremendous compliment! "Never a dead play." Are you the kind of player that plays that way on every possession?

"THREE THINGS" BY BILL COWHER

Three things I've always said:

1. Never quite anything you start.

2. Work harder than the other person.

3. Never be intimidated by anyone or anything."

-Coach Bill Cowher

From "How to Succeed in the Game of Life" by Christian Klemash

THEY DON'T SEE ALL THE SHOTS I MISSED

Boston Celtic assistant coach Kevin Eastman passed on this quote from the Celtics Ray Allen:

"What they don't see is all the shots I missed."

-- meaning in practice drills; in workouts; it takes years to perfect your craft!

CHARACHTER - THE KEY TO SUSTAINING MOMENTUM

The following comes from my Giant Impact email newsletter and is written by John Maxwell. It is a lesson that should be easily learned because it is repeated so often. It seems as if there has been an unending line of talented athletes that have achieved tremendous success only to let their lack of character knock them off the mountain top. It is not just on the professional level either but the collegiate level and even the high school level. No great fall has been made than that of Tiger Woods over the last few months and Maxwell delves into the reasons. For those athletes with great potential, it is a necessary lesson to understand. Here is what Maxwell has to say:

Tiger Woods exploded onto the national stage in 1997, when, as a 21-year old, he won golf's most prestigious event, the Masters. Not only did Tiger win the tournament, he shattered records along the way, making the world's best golfers look like amateurs. Within a year of becoming a professional golfer, Tiger had attained the sport's number one ranking.

Consistent Winning Produces Momentum

Early in 2001, Tiger captured his second Masters title to complete an unprecedented feat: winning all four of golf's major championships consecutively. Golf's popularity soared as its youthful star dominated event after event. People who had never before been interested in golf tuned in to see Tiger. Inspired by him, kids dragged their parents to the local golf course so that they could learn the game. Recreational golfers around the world patterned their swing after Tiger's while practicing on the driving range.

Advertisers flocked to Tiger's side to take advantage of his gathering momentum. He inked multi-million dollar deals to wear the Nike logo, hit Titlelist golf balls, and endorse everything from General Motors to American Express. Forbes described Tiger as "a marketer's dream." Virtually every product he pitched seemed to turn into gold. Thanks to his sizeable sponsorship deals, in September 2009, Fortune estimated that Tiger had become sports' first billionaire athlete.

Character Defects Halt Momentum

Tiger-mania came crashing to a halt in December 2009 after Woods had a bizarre traffic accident in his driveway. The incident initiated a cascade of rumors about Tiger's marital infidelity, which he later admitted. As news coverage intensified, more incriminating tidbits surfaced, and the scandal gained steam.

As this article is being written, a shamed Tiger remains in seclusion. By all accounts his marriage is in shambles. Accenture and AT&T have already cut ties with him, while other advertisers such as Gillette and Tag Heuer have distanced themselves from Tiger by pulling his ads. As for golf, Woods has taken an indefinite leave of absence, and it remains to be seen if he will recover his on-the-course greatness.

Lessons Learned from Tiger's Tumble

1) Momentum can be a leader's best friend or a leader's worst enemy.
In his early days as a professional, Tiger Woods' hard work and talent earned him a flood of victories. As the wins mounted, Tiger's momentum took off. His confidence intimidated opponents, his personality attracted business deals, and every move he made seemed to draw the praise of an enraptured media.

Revelations of Tiger's sordid behavior have generated a mountain of negative momentum, which will be difficult for him to overcome. The tide of public opinion is now squarely against him. Whereas people used to cheer Tiger on to success, many will now root for him to fail. The influence he once had has been dealt a serious blow, and it will be an uphill struggle for him to regain it.

2) Momentum can reverse direction in an instant.
Momentum can be a fickle friend, changing sides at any moment. One day Tiger was being coronated as the athlete of the decade by the Associated Press. Then, seemingly overnight, his name was being dragged through the mud on every conceivable news outlet.

3) Winning generates momentum, but character sustains it.
Tiger's story is a cautionary tale about character. All of the momentum you build through decades of hard work and dedication can be erased if you do not craft the character to support it. Character is forged daily through the decisions we make. It comes from within and cannot be purchased. Be diligent about working on your character so that you become a person worth following and someone worthy of harnessing the momentum of success.

KOBE USES VIDEO FOR MAXIMUM PREPARATION

From one of Coach Eric Musselman's archives is a story about Kobe Bryant's pre-game ritual that had ran in the Los Angeles Times:

There are few things more important to Kobe Bryant before a game than his portable DVD player. It goes wherever he goes before tipoff. On the padded table in the trainer's room. On the floor for a pregame stretching routine. Perched in front of his locker. The Lakers' all-star stares at his 10-inch screen, watching basketball clips of the players he'll be guarding. It is part of his longtime commitment to studying video, one of the foundations of a career still going strong in its 13th season.

The Lakers have had dozens of great players over the years, but according to the team's director of video services Chris Bodaken, "Hands down, he's the biggest video fiend we've ever had. I didn't know if it was possible to be more competitive than Magic was, but I think he might be. It carries over into his preparation, and this is part of that.

"The Lakers' video staff goes "through an opponent's last few games and find key plays from the players Bryant will guard, presenting him with eight to 12 minutes of edited footage."

The goal is for Bryant to pick up tendencies of rival players. Have they added any new moves? Have they been aggressively driving to the basket or have they been satisfied to drift from the hoop and settle for outside jump shots? Kobe's objective is "to find ways to take away comfort zones from opponents."

"It's a blueprint," said Bryant, an eight-time member of the NBA all-defensive team. "So if something goes down, it's not something you haven't seen before. Everybody's got tendencies. If he scores 40 on Monday, he's going to try to do it on Tuesday. You've got to take him out of his spots. That's the key."Says Patrick O'Keefe, another member of the Lakers' video staff:

"It's like a straight-A student who still goes to all the extra study sessions."

LOVING THE RELATIONSHIP THAT GROWS DURING THE SEASON

“I love every aspect about the game of basketball. … The camaraderie of 12 or 13 guys on the team, four coaches and when you are out there on the court, just five against five. You are pushing and shoving and doing whatever it takes to win and whatever it takes to be successful. The relationship that grows during the weeks and months you are with the guys on your team, and trying to get all on one page and then out there on the basketball court.”

-Antawn Jamison

WORKERS

WORKERS get the most out of themselves; when a body has limited talent, it has to muster all its resources of character to overcome this shortcoming.

If you think you are working hard, you can work harder. If you think you are doing enough, there is more that you can do. No one really ever exhausts his full potential.

.

Winning takes character and intelligence. It is the most important thing you can do because it’s a reaffirmation of your character.

-Pete Carril-

THE "PARTS" OF IMPROVING

Thanks to Coach Steve Finamore, here is an excerpt of an article on Darrelle Revis of the New York Jets and his approach to improving. The article was written by Greg Bishop of The New York Times. Great article that shows the combination of the mental and the physical in the improvement and maturation of an athlete.

"When I look at my game, I see that the people who surround me have basically built me into a machine,” he said. “Like I’m made up of all these parts.”

Part 1: memory. In his rookie season, Revis watched film with safety Kerry Rhodes. He did not understand the difference between watching and studying. Now in his third year, Revis studies film daily, during meetings and from 60 to 90 minutes on his own.

This season, Revis stopped viewing run plays, because he reacts to those instinctively. Instead, he watches every play from the current season, dozens of times, of the next receiver he will face.

....
First, he looks for body language. Does the receiver tilt his shoulders forward on a pass play? Has he run go routes with his left foot forward at the line? Does he pop and flex his fingers before running across the middle?

Revis does not play poker, but he said every player has tells, including him. The key is finding what separates a Moss from a Colston, then exploiting that.

“It’s all about memorization,” he said. “I’m in the walk-through calling out routes and formations. To the public eye, in the game, it looks easy. And it is, if you’ve seen it dozens of times and you know what’s coming.”

Part 2: muscle. Revis does additional off-season training at Fischer Sports. He lifts monster truck tires, pulls sleds and runs up mountains in the brutal Arizona heat.

Each week, they hold Festivus Fridays, where fellow professionals like Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb and Revis run through 8 to 10 drills without a break, stop for “halftime,” then perform every drill again.

This year, Revis and his trainer, Will Sullivan, studied each receiver he would face this season and trained accordingly. Revis drew additional motivation from Adrian Wilson, the Arizona safety who followed a Super Bowl appearance by training the same way.

The result: Revis said that he rarely tired during games.

“He just attacks his job,” Coach Rex Ryan said. “If there is one guy I want to cover somebody, with my paycheck on it, I want it to be Darrelle Revis.”

Part 3: mind-set. When Dennis Thurman joined the Jets’ coaching staff last off-season, Revis, already a Pro Bowler, started an early conversation with two words — coach me. Thurman found Revis more advanced than cornerbacks with similar experience, ahead in technique, fundamentals, and knowledge, but still, Revis wanted most to learn.

In Revis, Thurman found the most competitive of cornerbacks, the kind of guy who wishes he could cover the Hall of Famer Jerry Rice. In the off-season, Revis studies the greats at his position, even shoots text messages to Sanders for advice.

Read the entire article: http://tinyurl.com/yhl6odo

THE DISLIKES OF DEREK JETER

Thanks to Coach Eric Musselman for passing along an article by Tom Verducci on the Yankees Derek Jeter -- he is an excerpt:

If you were to draw up a list of Jeter's dislikes, most all of them would be what he regards as obstacles to winning:

1. Individuals who don't care about winning.

2. Self-promoters.

"I never liked people who talked about themselves all the time, gloat," he says. "If you're accomplished and have done things, people will talk about it for you. I don't think you have to point it out. I'm not judging anybody. That's just the way I am."

3. Measuring success by individual statistics.

"In this day and age, not just in baseball but in sports in general, all people care about is stats, stats, stats," he says. "You've got fantasy this, fantasy that, where you pay attention to stats. But there are ways to win games that you don't get a stat for."

4. Injury talk.

"You either play or you don't play. If you're playing, nobody wants to know what's bothering you. Sometimes it's a built-in excuse for failing."

5. Negativity.

Jeter wants nothing to do with negative questions from reporters or negative talk from teammates. He once went 0 for 32 and refused to admit he was in a slump. "We weren't allowed to use the word can't—'I can't do this, can't do that,'" Jeter says of his childhood. "My mom would say, 'What? No.' She's always positive. I don't like people always talking about the negative, negative, negative, because once you get caught in that mind-set, it's hard to get out of it."

POINT GUARD = QUARTERBACK

Thanks to Coach Eric Musselman's archive for this look at point guard Rajon Rondo on what he learned as a high school QB:

"When things go bad you take a lot of pressure. You’re responsible for everyone on the field, knowing where they have to be. You call the plays and you’re also an extension of the coach on the field."

The same goes for basketball:

"I think [QB and PG are] the same exact position, really. You’re the leader, regardless of whether you want to be or not. Even though I’m a third-year point guard I’m still the leader of the team. Offensively I’ve got to get the guys in their sets and knowing what plays to call. I’m playing with three All-Stars. It is what it is. I don’t look at individual goals."

GETTING READY FOR A WHOLE LOT OF YEARS OF US AND THE LAKERS

After a disappointing 1983 season Larry Bird retreated to his newly constructed home in West Baden, Indiana, complete with its full-length outdoor court. He added a step-back jumper to his arsenal, refining it by shooting 800 of them a day. Quinn Buckner came to visit Bird that summer and agreed to participate in his morning workout. They awoke at 7 AM, put on their track shoes, and ran five miles -- uphill. Buckner was amazed by the steep incline of Bird's regular route and was walking by the halfway mark. Bird was not a fast runner, but he had long strides and the determined look of an athlete scorned. he and Buckner did not discuss the Bucks, sweep, but Bird's dissatisfaction was implied in the intensity of his workout.

After his uphill run, Bird hopped on his bicycle and pedaled 20 miles around the country. Then, with the burning sun at its peak, he spent an additional hour and a half shooting 500 jumpers and 500 free throws.

"I was getting ready for a whole lot of years of us and the Lakers," Bird said. "We were young and they were young. They had Kareem. They had Magic. They were making moves. I wanted to make sure we kept up."

From "When the Game was Ours" by Jackie MacMullen

6 AM JUMPERS IN THE SNOW

The following comes from "When the Game was Ours," by Jackie MacMullen. The book details that lives of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, their relationship with each other and their impact on the game. Below gives a peek and one of the reasons why Magic was a great player. It is about a college coach recruiting him while he was a senior in high school.

One cold winter morning, Detroit coach Dick Vitale showed up in Lansing just after 6 AM. He knocked on the door of Magic's house and told politely by Christine Johnson that her son had already left. He was up the street, shooting jump shots in the snow before school.

THE GREAT ONES WANT TO BE PUSHED

If anything, some thought, Dean Smith was a little harder on Michael Jordan every day in practice then he was on other young players, as if accepting his greater possibilities and his own limitless ambition and holding him to it, setting higher standards for him than for the others. Roy Williams was also always pushing Jordan to work harder in practice. “I’m working as hard as everyone else,” Jordan answered.

“But Michael, you told me you wanted to be the best,” Williams once reminded him. “And if you want to be the best, then you have to work harder than everyone else.” There was, Williams thought, a long pause, while Jordan pondered that. Finally he said, “Coach, I understand.”

From "Playing for Keeps" by David Halberstam