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Showing posts from August, 2014

Arrogance--not an attractive quality

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Arrogance and conceit in a person may be recognized by three signs:  When alone does he feel gloomy and in company feel happy? When people praise him, does he perform more and better work? When people speak badly of him, does he perform very little work? _______________________________________________________________ David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants    

Dependability

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Teams Go to Go-To Players Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.—Wolfram Von Eschenbach Dependability is more than ability alone.—John C. Maxwell Dependability is important to every team's success. You know it when you have people on your team upon whom you cannot depend. Everyone on the team knows it. Likewise, you know the ones you can depend on. The essence of dependability: Pure motives. When it comes to teamwork ,motives matter. Aristotle believed that "all we do is done with an eye to something else." Evidently he believed that you can't trust anyone's motives. I don't agree with that. Most of the time I give people the benefit of the doubt. I try to keep my motives right, and I encourage my teammates to do likewise. However, if someone on the team continually puts himself and his agenda ahead of what's best for the team, he has proven himself to be undependable. Responsibility.  New York Times best-selling author and former edi

Power Thoughts

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The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that's when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it. --John C Maxwell Every noble work is bound to face problems and obstacles. It is important to check your goal and motivation thoroughly. One should be very truthful, honest, and reasonable. One's actions should be good for others, and for oneself as well. Once a positive goal is chosen, you should decide to pursue it all the way to the end. Even if it is not realized, at least there will be no regret. --Dalai Lama One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity. --Edward de Bono There a

Practice Organization

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Here's a handout received many years ago from Jerry Wainwright a coaching lifer & terrific person! Even though it s written with basketball in mind it is very relevant for any sport.  Set a specific time for players to be on the floor ready to go. Punish those who are late. Allow no one to miss practice without your expressed consent in advance. Issue basketballs to players only after they are dressed and ready for practice. Practice is a time for work. Do not permit horseplay. Players should stop at once whatever they are doing when the coach calls for their attention. Players should report any sickness or injury to the coach at once. Displays of temper will not be tolerated. Cursing will not be tolerated. Coaches should dress the part during practice sessions. Each practice session should be planned to the minute and kept for future reference. Have a system for issuing and caring for equipment. ________________________________________________________

Learn to Welcome Differences

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A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco. "Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring home with me." Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him." "There's something you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us." "I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live." "No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us." "Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home a

Kevin Costner--What I've Learned

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You can learn a lot more by what a man does than by what he says. I just watched how my father did things. He worked for the Southern California Edison company, and often when it stormed, the lines would go down. The phone would ring at two in the morning. And my mom, knowing that he'd been out working for two straight nights, would tell him, "I can say you're not back yet." And he'd say, "No, hand me the phone." If you want a job, and you're not as good as the next guy, then work longer than the next guy. Work faster. Be there before him — because talented people show up late, and sometimes shit needs to get done. People see me as very successful now. They aren't willing to put my life in reverse. They don't want to know that on the construction site I had to choose between the Ding Dongs and the chocolate milk. Every day the lunch truck came by when I was framing houses. I wanted the chocolate milk. But it cost more than the plain

General Traits of Most Successful Coaches

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They have an excellent understanding of tactics but they have the ability to synthesize complex ideas into simple concepts easily understood by their players. They possess outstanding communication skills which are used both to express clearly team and individual player objectives and roles but also the sense to listen to players with respect but not necessarily letting rudder the ship. They have the ability to get everyone on the same page and realizing that the sum of all the individual parts are greater than any individual part alone. They use words cautiously and judiciously when communicating within team members and with all the people who interact and serve the team from outside the immediate team family. They have a steely will, unfettered determination to everything possible to prepare the team to win, and fortitude under duress when the team isn't going well. They can remain in control of their emotions under pressure and have the ability to make qu

Three Pronged Team Leadership

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The following was written by a good friend, Stan Jones, associate head basketball coach at Florida State. Coach Jones is one of the top character people in all of coaching. His leadership advice is relevant for any team.  One of the top principles of our man-to-man defense is ‘fronting the post’. This is an intricate part of our defense leading the country in field goal percentage defense in both of the last two seasons. In addition, Coach Hamilton and our staff also were statistical champions in this area in 1997-98 at the University of Miami. As the old saying goes, “the true test of success is the test of time.” We must be doing something right on the defensive end of the court. For our dead front principle to work, we always emphasize to our team that this is not just an individual responsibility but it requires a ‘three-prong’ coordinated effort of, 1) the man guarding the ball to apply the right kind of pressure on the ball and in the vision of the potential passer, 2) the

Effective Evaluation Methods for Coaches

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Sit down at the end of each practice or game and write out notes about what worked well and didn't. These notes become invaluable both in planning future practices and handling specific game situations, and can be used at the conclusion of the season to look for specific patterns that repeat themselves and may have led to your team over or under performing. Check your season goals and time schedule against your practice schedule to see if you are "growing" according to your expectations or not making the kind of progress desired.  When evaluating your practices, check to see if the areas you are spending a considerable amount of time are showing up in terms of  improved game performances. Do not just look at the last game, but look at say 2 or 3 week blocks of time. Are you improving the things you have been spending more time on.  The reason this is important is because if you are spending time in practice and not seeing results, you may seriously