Nick Saban On Being Great

" I don't think it's normal to be great. I think it's special. The human condition is to be average and to survive. And everybody assumes that everybody wants to be as good as they can be all the time, but that's not true. If that was the case, everybody would be doing fantastic out there. So it's special to be as good as you can be. It's special to work to reach your full potential. It's special to go do it every day, day-in and day-out and never give yourself a break."
--Nick Saban

TEAM ATTITUDE

The most critical element of success to any Team, is its TEAM ATTITUDE. Coach Meyer used ATTITUDE as an acrostic and spoke daily on Team Attitude. We have continued that tradition with our camps. Here's the Emphasis of Each Day:

A-wareness & Communication
T-eachable
T-enacity
I-ntensity
T-echnique
U-Unselfish
D-iscipline
E-ffort + Execution= Excellence

Decision Making--Thoughts/ Questions On Deciding Where To Attend College

Listed below are some questions to consider as a student-athlete prepares to make the decision of where to attend college:

WHO
Coaching staff's philosophy of education
Coaching staff's philosophy of basketball
Student population: Too Big/ Too Small
Character and spirit of the campus in general
Can I respect the Head Coach and staff?
Future teammates
Type of players being recruited
School's athletic policy…Guarantee if injured
Position coach
Recruiting coach
What do former players say of their experiences?

WHERE
Miles from home
Availability of air, train, bus travel
Living conditions
Dining facilities
Weather conditions
Size of city or town
Attitude of community to the University

WHAT
Academic reptutation in my desired major
Alternative academic offerings
Academic facilities in my major
Can I compete in the classroom?
Do the athletes succeed in the classroom?
Is there tutoring help available?
Is there study hall?
Can we win?
Practice and workout facilities
Equipment
Schedule
Opportunity to go on and play professionally
Style of play
Can I continue to grow in the church of my faith?
How soon will I play?
Off season programs
Discipline

GENERAL QUESTIONS
Availability of summer employment
Quality of recruiting--How much do they want me?
Wishes of Mom/Dad
High school / AAU Coach's feelings
What does my principal, counselor or favorite teacher think?
Insurance Policy

Ten Thoughts For Our Veteran's First Team Meeting

Ten Thoughts For Our Veteran's First Team Meeting

1. Should/ Could/ Don't= Disaster.
2. Adjust my daily program to take me where I want to go.
3. Exciting to watch people who are inspired.
4. Don't settle for less...on floor, in class, in relationships.
5. Take charge of your own day.
6. Everything is available to us.
7. Influence is powerful and subtle.
8. If you rest too long, the weeds take the garden.
9. We are governed by our thinking.
10. If I change, everything around me will change. Go to work on me

Three Things To Know About Practice

Tom Mullins wrote the "Leadership Game", which contains principles from eight college national champion football coaches. "All the national champion coaches said that the key to going from good to great came in two areas: The preparation of the team and the practice of the players. They were forever upgrading their preparation and sharpening their practices."

Three Things To Know About Practice:

1. Practice enables development
a. Done correctly, practice keeps making you better than you were yesterday.
b. If you don't practice, you shortchange your potential.


2. Practices Lead To Discovery:
a. If you commit yourself to practice, here are a few things you are likely to learn:
i. Practice both shows and build commitment.
ii. Your performance can always be improved.
iii. The sharpening process is better in the right environment
1. You can't discover your abilities and improve your skills in an environment where you are not allowed to make mistakes.
2. Improvement always requires some degree of failure.
iv. You must be willing to start with small things.
v. Very small differences, consistently practice, will produce results.
vi. There is a price to pay to reach the next level


3. Practice Demands Discipline
a. Developing discipline always begins with a struggle.
b. There is no easy way to be a disciplined person.
c. It is a matter of conditions, but of choice
d. Once the choice is made and practice becomes a habit, two things become obvious:
i. A separation between the person who practices and the one who doesn't
ii. The second thing that emerges is a winning spirit.
e. The harder you work, the harder it becomes to surrender.

Leadership & Discernment

"Smart leaders believe only half of what they hear. Discerning leaders know which half to believe."

Discernment=The ability to find the root of the matter, it relies on intuition as well as rational thought.

"Nothing in life is to be feared, only to be understood."

Discernment enables a leader to see a partial picture, fill in the missing pieces intuitively, and find the real heart of the matter.

The closer a leader is to his area of gifting, the stronger his intuition and ability to see root causes. If you want to tap into your discernment potential, work in your areas of strength.

"Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it's enough."

Leadership, Questions & Socrates

Socrates believed that asking the right questions was always more important than proposing the right answers. Ask the questions that will stimulate thought among those who look to you for leadership and generate new insights regarding persistent problems.


Leadership doesn't always mean having the right answers. It means remaining firmly in control of the process for finding them.


Socrates believed that leaders need to be trained to question and probe as they lead. Leaders must understand that wisdom, real wisdom, lies in understanding and accepting the fact that you do not have all the answers and that in the long run you cannot bluff, intimidate or bully people into thinking that you do. The key is asking the right questions and then moving toward finding solutions within that framework.

Steve Forbes 3 Key Leadership Points

1. Character is the indispensable foundation upon which good leadership is built.
2. The willingness to consider other opinions and points-of-view shows strength and confidence, not weakness in a leader.
3. It is a fatal mistake to believe that the success of a business is based solely on the skills and charisma of just one individual and then rely on that person exclusively to get the job done.

Teaching Points On Passing From Our Elite Camp

Some of our Passing teaching points at our Elite Camp:

1. Technique—knowing how to do something the correct way
2. Good technique gives the player with limited ability a chance to be a good or even great player.

General Ideas On Passing:
• Not very many good passers any more
• Everybody likes a good passer
• Good passing teams are happy teams
• Look to point and say thanks

Great passers can do these things:
• Pass with either hand
• Work on passing anytime they have a ball and a teammate
• Understand the people they pass to (right person, right place, right time)
• Zip their passes—with proper spacing you cannot throw a flick pass to hard
• Make the easy (simple) pass and pass away from the defense

Passing
1. Triple threat position
2. Use vertical fakes
3. Look off your pass
4. Step into the pass
5. Put your wrist in their forehead (flick pass)

Lessons from "Crossing The Rubicon"

As Caesar prepared to cross the river on the night of January 10 in 49 BC, he reflected in solitude for a while, then turned to his commanders and gave the order. When they reached the other side, his first words were Alea iacta est (the dice have been thrown). Since that fateful night, the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" has come to mean willingness to undertake a major and risky course of action from which there is no turning back. It is a move that requires foresight, strength of character and willingness to accept the consequences of one's actions, both good and bad. Caesar knew that he was about to plunge Rome into civil war and that as a result he would either become master of the ancient world or be killed. He was willing to accept either outcome.


"Crossing the rubicon" means embarking on a course of action from which you cannot turn back. What is the lesson here? Be sure to think before you act and to understand fully the implications of what you are about to do--the rewards as well as the costs for yourself and others.

10 Lessons I Learned From UCF Elite Camp

Just a few notes I made during our Elite Camp:
1. Camps are the greatest opportunities to improve our teaching skills.
2. Putting players in position to teach reaps great rewards.
3. Teaching skills requires specificity.
4. Kids generally want to learn, want to be taught.
5. Young post players struggle with making and maintaining contact on the seal.
6. Players struggle putting multiple skills together.
7. Coaches must continue to figure out ways to teach stringing skills together.
8. Footwork--especially the "start step" is a weakness in even the best players.
9. Players confuse learning technique with "thinking too much".
10. As coaches we must develop the skill of transferring from Individual Workouts, To Practice, To Games. Slippage occurs in competition.

4 Ways Servanthood Manifests Itself

4 Ways True Servanthood Manifests Itself:

1. Put others ahead of an individual agenda
2. Begins with security
3. Initiates service to others
4. Not position conscious

Lessons From Military Leaders

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination."
- Karl von Clausewitz

So much can be learned from military leaders and biographies in general. This is a great read for all coaches.

9 Areas of Responsibility

A key to success in anything is proactivity. Our ability to choose a response. Dr. Henry Cloud lists 8 areas that we must be proactive in and take responsibility of:

1. Physical Appearance
2. Attitudes
3. Feelings
4. Behavior
5. Thoughts
6. Abilities
7. Desires, Goals, Wants, Wishes, Plans
8. Choices
9. Limits

10 Questions Coaching The Game of Life

Life just as in basketball is Overcoached and Undertaught. It's our responsibility to teach the fundamentals of life. Listed below are 10 questions to think about as we plan to teach the fundamentals of life:

1. What am I doing to prepare (teach) my family?
2. Am I putting my family in an environment where they will have a chance?
3. What things do we substitute for knowledge?
4. What am I sharing, giving away?
5. What thoughts control my mind?
6. Do I teach to have a genuine appreciation for the contribution of others?
7. Am I teaching patience?
8. Am I teaching to be thankful for what we have and that we cannot do it by ourselves?
9. Am I teaching how important it is to fear God and obey his commandments?
10. Am I teaching a Daily Plan of Action?

10 Uses of the Dribble

Use the Dribble
a. Ball protection
b. To the rim
c. To a pull-up by getting your defender to run
d. Obtain a passing angle
e. Do not pick up your dribble without a pass or a shot
f. Speed dribble you throw it out and chase the ball
g. Power dribble versus a quickness mismatch
h. Versus full court pressure use 45 degree angle to the middle of the floor until the defense commits
i. Back Dribble
j. Pull back crossover between legs to protect

7 Ways To Jumpstart Your Personal Development

1.Take responsibility. No one can do this for you. Not your parents. Not your spouse. Not your best friend. And not your employer. All of these people might be able to support you. However, none of them can do it for you. If you wait for your employer to offer assistance or to pay for the workshop, you might be waiting a long time. If you wait for your spouse to buy you the master class in photography you are interested in, you better be patient. Why must you do this for yourself, even for professional development? Because you are the person who benefits the most! Your development belongs to no one but y-o-u. If others offer assistance, dollars or opportunities, great – just don’t wait for that assistance to get started.

2.Create a learning focus. Long before asking, “What did I learn today?” ask yourself, “What do I want (or need) to learn today?” Human beings are learning beings – in some ways we can’t not learn. But to intensify your personal development beyond happenstance or serendipity, you must be clear on what matters most right now. Create a monthly, quarterly and/or annual learning focus. Yes, of course there will be lessons learned at random times, but having this (possibly daily) focus will help you consciously and intentionally learn the skills and knowledge that is most important to your growth right now.

3.Tie it to a powerful ‘why.’ Why do you want to learn? What value will you gain – be it personal satisfaction, pleasure or a leg up for the next promotion? Tie your learning focus to things that matter to you deeply. Reminding yourself of this why will help maintain your discipline, keep you motivated and improve the chances you keep learning.

4.Connect everything together. Now that you have a clear picture of what you are focused on learning along with your powerful ‘why;’ connect everything you read, experience and observe to that learning goal. For example, I lead a group of leaders through the development of a new skill each month. As I prepare and facilitate the learning of those leaders, I am thinking constantly about that topic/skill. This allows my subconscious mind to see examples, lessons and connections I would miss otherwise. Once you have your learning focus in view ask yourself, “How does this experience/situation/blog post/conversation/you-get-the-idea relate to what I need to learn?” This filter will help you learn much more, much faster!

5.Devote time. You can tell me (or yourself) that you want to learn and grow. But the real proof is in your focus and in your calendar. To build important and valuable skills requires you to invest energy, focus and money. And more importantly, you need to invest time. Getting on a serious personal/professional development plan will require you to invest your time differently. However busy you are, it is a matter of prioritizing your learning and growth higher on your list. Get used to it, and get going.

6.Get help. The best in any field or endeavor don’t get there alone. And perhaps more importantly, they can’t stay there alone! Help could be in the form of workshops, mentors and more. But almost certainly the most important help will be in the form of coaching. The coaching you need might be formal or informal, internal to your organization or external, free or paid (or some of all of these). If you are serious about your personal and professional development, then make coaching part of your plan.

7.Take action. All the good ideas in the world are great, but as long as they stay in your head, sit in your journal or remain on this page, that is all they are – ideas. Want to reap the benefits of developing yourself? Take action!

Leadership Strategies For Taking Charge

Thoughts for leaders from Warren Bennis:
1. Leadership is about character.
2. The capacity to generate and sustain trust is the central ingredient in leadership.
You can have the most glorious vision in the world and it won't mean a thing if there's low trust in the organization.
3. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it.
Leadership is the wise use of this power. Leaders direct organizational changes that build confidence and empower their employees to seek new ways in doing things.
4. Many organizations tend to be overmanaged and underled.
They may excel in the ability to handle the daily routine, yet never question whether the routine should be done at all. There is a profound difference between management and leadership and both are important. "To manage" means "to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge of or responsibility for, to conduct." "Leading" is influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion."
5. Leaders are perpetual learners.

Morgan Wooten's Favorite Coaching Concepts

Morgan Wooten
My Favorite Coaching Concepts

1. Never lose sight of the impact you are having on young people’s lives.
2. Teach your players the importance of proper priorities that allow for maximum personal, academic, and athletic development.
3. Evaluate wins and losses objectively, focusing more on effort and execution than on the outcome of the game.
4. Instruct, don’t dictate.
5. Never humiliate.
6. Communicate your approach in a style that is comfortable to you and fits your personality and philosophy.
7. Learn to anticipate problems.
8. Never announce penalty for rule violations in advance.
9. Enthusiasm creates heroism.
10. If you make a mistake and fall down, you must get back up.
11. Always have a “Thought for the Day.”
12. You are constantly being judged on what you are doing and not what you have done.
13. Be yourself.
14. Be eager to learn.
15. Don’t play players only because they have potential if they do not hustle, work hard, and listen.
16. Never discipline to punish, discipline to teach.
17. We are what we continually do.
18. Do to your opponent what you do not like done to you.
19. Play defense with your feet, eyes, and heart.
20. If you want the attention of your players, use compliments.
21. I believe that repetition of fundamentals at any level will make your players winners.
22. Play hard, play smart, play together, and have fun.
23. You must have total control of your program.
24. I will never curse my players, and they will never curse me.
25. I will never embarrass my players, and they will never embarrass me.
26. Do not assume anything.
27. Listen and learn from your players.
28. Excellence becomes a habit.
29. Don’t ever tell your players to win.
30. Never write a plan for practice that takes longer than two hours.
31. Make your players sprint over to you to begin practice on a hustling, enthusiastic note.
32. Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, it’s really hard.
33. Take time to talk individually with the players you are cutting.
34. Have your players write down their academic and athletic goals at the start of every year.
35. Building team chemistry is the most important thing you can do as a coach.

The Search for Meaning--Victor Frankl's Thoughts On Life

Everything can be taken away from man but one thing--to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

In the camps Frankl said he saw many succumb who had the opportunity to survive because they lacked will, and they lacked will because they lacked hope.

Being human is being responsible.

The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity--even under the most difficult circumstances--to add a deeper meaning to his life. He may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation, he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forgo the opportunities of attaining moral values that a difficult situation may afford him. And this decides whether he is worthy of his sufferings or not.

In a way I pity these younger people who did not know the camps or live during the war, who have nothing like that to compare (their own hardships) with...Even today, as I lose my sight or with any sever problem or adverse situation. I have only to think for a fraction of a second and I draw a deep breath. What I would have given then if I could have had no greater problem than I face today.

There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life.