A Coach's Diary

In the book Soup by Jon Gordon, Nancy was hired on as the new CEO of the Soup Inc.  She had to turn around a failing company that was filled with negativity and declining performances. It really is a great read about how the power of relationships and building the right culture can change even the most toxic and negative teams and working environments. Gordon wrote that the leader of the team creates and drives the culture, but every great team has many 'pot stirrers' who do the work of stirring the pot with a shared vision and purpose.  The leaders must set and share the vision, but it is the positive energy of your people that will make this vision a reality.  When you create the 'pot stirrers,' make sure that you are communicating with them, encouraging them, inspiring them, and developing them.  You can't just give them the vision; you have to make sure to help them ( Soup, page 110) Two of the things that Nancy and her team implemented were  ...

Geno Auriemma has a video where he says, 'Great players don't get tired.  When the good players get tired, the great players kick their a**.' Cole Anthony is one of the best players in college basketball.  When asked if he gets tired, he says, 'I do get tired, I just do a great job of faking it.' Everybody gets tired; the best just keep going. Bill Belichick once said, "The great equalizer is your mind.  It's not that you can't do it, it's will you do it." The best don't let being tired become an excuse.  They work hard to make sure that they are in the best shape possible and they keep pushing you. On Get Up on ESPN , analyst Louis Riddick said, "The difference between a back-up and a starter is not always that the starter is better, its that the starter can do it more consistently.   It's a mindset.   It's a mentality. Mental toughness. Resilience. Grit. It's whatever you want to call it...

"A lot of teams focus on strategy and ignore culture, yet culture trumps strategy every time." - Jon Gordon Culture is a big buzz word in sports and business, and rightfully so.  Teams and organizations whose players and employees are actively engaged tend to be more successful . We praise sports programs like the Duke basketball, Clemson and Alabama Football, and Belichick and his Patriots for their ability to sustain winnings on such high levels, and there are books and articles and studies based on their leadership and their programs' cultures. According to Jon Gordon in his book, Soup , culture is a direct reflection of the leader and of the people and their values, character, and habits. Culture and character drives behavior, and behavior drives habits.  Your culture and the character of your team influences what they do, how they do it, and when they do it.   Having a strong culture is reflected in teams in so many ways.  Having a strong cult...

Athletes just don't seem to have the same TENACITY that they once had.  Life has become so automated.  In some ways, life is harder than it used to be, but in many ways, life is so much easier. We all like things easy, but when things are too easy, it ends up not being good for us.  There are always going to be times in your life and in your career when things get tough, and you are either going to have to give up or you are going to have to do a little pressing. Pressing means to press against the pressure.  It means that adversity is coming against you, and instead of you just letting it defeat you, you say, 'No way, I know what God's word says, and whatever he told me that I can have, I will have it.  I will not quit and I will not give up.' As long as you are believing, God is working.  Just because you don't see or feel anything, that does not mean that God is not doing anything.   Don't get discouraged and ...

Load management is important so that we don't wear our kids' bodies down before high school. Mind Management is important so that we don't wear our kids down mentally before they are in high school. About 70% of kids quit playing sports by the time they get in high school, and a lot of it has to do with the wear and tear that we put on our kids' minds and bodies before they are even teenagers.  Another major part of why so many kids are quitting is because they just aren't having fun anymore. Select sports and the time and pressure that it puts on kids can wear them down and out before it even starts to matter.  Very rarely will a kid get a scholarship for what they do as a pre-teen .  It doesn't really matter how good you are at 14; it matters how good you are at 16,17 and 18. Us parents have to be mindful of this. We have to manage how many hours of work they are putting in each week. We also have to be mindful of how hard we push them me...

The Difference Makers Are Creators For Themselves and Others To create, you have to get more touches.  Try to get your foot on more balls.  Just try to redirect it.  When you get more touches, you create more opportunities.  You might make more mistakes, but you get more chances too, and that's what being a difference maker does; they create for themselves and their teammates. The next step is pushing through your mistakes without getting too fustrated.  The best don't worry to much about their mistakes and they don't let mistakes stop them.  The best just keep going.  Greatness starts with talent but it's really about who can handle the most adversity.  Who can mess up the most and keep learning and getting better without getting too fustrated, without shutting down, and without quitting. Kobe Bryant said that he wasn't worried about missing shots.  He said if he missed several shots in a row, he would shoot ...

Don't let the mountain of SELF-PITY destroy your career or destroy your life. You can be PITIFUL or you can be POWERFUL, but you can't be both. Cut pity out of your life.  Don't waste your time feeling sorry for yourself and making excuses.  Don't let self-pity destroy you. Don't let it keep you down.  Don't sit around and feel sorry for yourself any more. If things aren't going right for you on the field, on the court, and in life, it is your responsibility to fix it. Change your behaviors, change your habits, chsnge yout mindset, chsnge yout work ethic, and then your results will change. .... Don't let the mountain of blame destroy your life. Take accountability for your actions.  Tell yourself "I know what I did was wrong, and there is no excuse and I am not going to blame it on anybody else because I am responsible for my behavior." If things aren't going right for you on the field, on the court, and...

Tyrese Maxey was an all-EVERYTHING guard in high school.  He came off the bench in his first college game for Kentucky to score 26 points and hit big shots for the Wildcats in their win. Dick Vitale said during the game, “Make a coach play you.  Produce.  In practice, in limited minutes, every opportunity you get - PRODUCE. I don’t know a single coach who doesn’t want a guy who produces.” Maxey came in a PERFORMED, and he stayed on the court because of it.  He didn't pout on the bench.  He was up cheering for his teammates.   When he got his chance, he PRODUCED.  This is a great lesson for all players: - Stay ready so you don't have to get ready. - Perform when your name is called. - Players say "play me and I'll show you", coaches say "show me and I'll play you". - Parents say "coach plays favorites" or "my kids the best," but that is another post for another day!

For athletes is really simple: DO YOUR HABITS MATCH YOUR GOALS? What you do everyday either gets you closer to your goals or pushes you further from your goals. Look at what you do today.  Look at what you did yesterday.  That will show you how you will perform tomorrow. The quality of our lives and our performances depend on the level of our habits.  If you keep living with the same habits, you end up with the same results.  If you want to improve your life and your results, you have to improve your habits. Even small changes in habits can lead to big changes over time.  Start small.  Try to get 1% better.  Be consistent with your effort.  Success is the product of daily habits, not once in a lifetime transformations.  What matters is that you are on the right path to success.  You get what you repeat.  Your outcomes are a lagging result/measure of your habits.

Jon Gordon is a bestselling author on leadership and positive culture.  On this episode of his Positive University Podcast, Gordon talks with Patrick Lencioni.  Pat and his team at The Table Group help leaders improve their organizational health.  Here the entire podcast here:  https://player.fm/1yJMHr Below are my notes from this great episode about establishing and maintaining a healthy culture. Dysfunctional Teams Don't Work A team can't be successful if it is dysfunctional.  We have natural dysfunctions because we are human and we are imperfect and broken and we have a natural tendency to focus on ourselves before others.  We have to learn how to be a part of a team.  Caring about others and loving others is not natural, but that is how teams find success and wholeness. Other-Centered View - The Low Hanging Fruit of a Team  When you take attention away from yourself, when you think about the whole, and when you better unde...

I am currently in the 3rd chapter of The Inner Game of Tennis , a book that teaches how to play and live in 'The Zone.'  Many great coaches like Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks praise this book, and some coaches like Steve Kerr read it at the start of each new season. 'The Zone' is the feeling that athletes get when they're are performing at their best.  In the book author W. Timothy Gallwey calls it 'Peak Performance,' and he writes that Peak Performance comes from a quiet and focused mind that just performs and doesn't overthink. Overthinking gets in your body's way when it is trying to perform.  Practice, practice, practice, but when it is time to play, trust your body to do what it needs to do and get your mind and your negative talk out of the way. Another thing that gets in the way of Peak Performance is the voices in our heads.  What we think and tell ourselves plays a big part in how we play.  The ultimate goal is to play comp...

I was watching The Shop, a show produced and put together by Lebron James and his team of people that airs on HBO when they started talking about the importance of combining talent with work-ethic to reach the next level of success. I am always looking for different forms of motivation for myself and my daughters, and The Shop had about a 5-minute conversation on how important it is to combine work ethic and talent. Here are a few quotes that I took from the show: LeBron James:   Everyone is blessed with the ability to do something.   Once you find what you are talented at, you have to have that DRIVE to want to be great and the DRIVE to go through it.   Yes, you might have the talent and a vision, but once you have the vision, there is going to be something,  OBSTACLES, that are going to be placed in front of you.  We all go through adversity.  But the successful people have a will that won’t let them stop. Bill Hader (Saturday Night Li...

To all coaches starting or taking over a new program, I am praying for you and cheering for you. Remember that changing a culture is hardwork.  Rememeber that 10% won't like what you are doing not matter what choices you make. Remember that some studies show that it takes 3-5 years to truly change a culture. Focus on the work.  Focus on the good.  Focus on the majority that is following your lead and continue to work to move more and more of the negative 10% on your side or do what you need to do to find their replacement. Have good reason for the choices that you make and be consistent.  Have a good plan, but be willing to adjust and edit as needed.   Have mercy and grace for yourself throughout the process.  Some days will go great and you will feel like you are making big strides only to face setbacks on other days.  Keep fighting on those tough days, find ways to get just 1% better, and find positive sources of inspirati...

FOR COACHES AND PARENTS:  Leadership is about influencing.  How well do we influence behaviors?  How well do we influence others to do better or be better? All of the knowledge in the world doesn't matter if we can't use that knowledge to lift others. Its easy to get upset when others don't follow our lead or listen to our well-researched advice.  It is very frustrating when our players and/or kids don't listen when we try to give them the keys to success. We KNOW what we are talking about.  But, it's not enough to know what to do.  We have to be just as good at communicating what to do and how to do it and why to do it.  We have to be able to give our message in a way that it inspires, motivates, and influences action. FOR PLAYERS:  Basketball season is here.  If there was no tomorrow, how hard would play today?  Don't leave any drill, any practice, any game, or any season with any regrets.  You only get one sh...