A Coach's Diary

"Don't be afraid to stand out. Normal people don’t change the world." - Serena Williams Are you willing to speak up and challenge group think? Great teams don’t just need hard workers and role players — they need truth-tellers and difference-makers who are willing to speak up, hold people accountable, and raise their hands when everyone else stays quiet to question a plan that doesn’t feel right. But speaking up against the group can be hard. In the 1950s, Solomon Asch gathered groups of college students and told them they were doing a vision test. He showed them a line and asked which of three other lines matched its length. The answer was obvious, but when everyone else in the group (who were actors) gave the wrong answer out loud, many students went along with them instead of trusting their own eyes. It showed that people often follow the crowd to fit in, even when they know the truth. We are wired to conform, and this phenomenon has been called group-think bias. Our b...

Greatness doesn’t require great conditions, but it does require a great mindset and great belief in yourself.  The sports world is full of people who have had to overcome a lot of fears, doubts, and anxiety to become successful, and the  most important things we can give our students and athletes is a positive self-image and the confidence to try, fail and try again. Author and sports psychologist Gary Mack wrote, "Limits begin where vision ends, and humans are the only species that get in the way of their own growth." He also said most of the work he does is to "stretch," not "shrink" the athletes he works with. We need to help our athletes stretch and expand their comfort zones by encouraging them to take risks and giving them the tools and support they need to be successful.  We also need to help them see themselves as success stories waiting to happen. If you can't see yourself succeeding, or if you don't feel like you deserve to win, you proba...