Self-Trust, First Key To Trust

We break our huddles in games and practice with "Trust".  But, I don't know if we have painted a clear picture of what trust is.  We are making a conscious effort to daily define how and what trust looks like, manifests itself and all the intangible that go with it.

The following thoughts come mostly from Stephen Covey's book, "The Speed of Trust"

The First Wave of Trust--Self Trust--is all about credibility.

It's about developing the integrity, intent, capabilities, and results that make you believable to both YOURSELF and to others. It boils down to two simple questions:

1.) Do I trust myself?

2.) Am I someone others can trust?

 

Trust in yourself begins with the little things.

Am I justifying myself for letting things slide "a little at a time?"

Goal is for our commitment to be clear and to act with integrity. Otherwise we continue to lose trust in our ability to do what we had made personal commitments to do.

Repeated failure to make and keep commitments to ourselves hack away at our self-confidence (confidence comes from demonstrated ability).

We cannot borrow strength from position or association. It's not real. It's not ours.

Jack Welch said that a huge part of leadership is building self-confidence in others.

A lack of self trust often limits our ability to trust others.

Cardinal de Retz, "A man who doesn't trust himself can never really trust anyone else."

The good news is that every time we do make and keep a commitment to ourselves or set and achieve a goal we become more credible. The more we will trust ourselves.

"Self-trust is the first secret of success...the essence of heroism."--Emerson

1-4 Entry

We wanted to share a very simple but effective entry for your offense. We do not run "continuity plays" but rather entries into our offense. It doesn't matter what the defense is running or how they are defending, our entries remain the same. We are reading the defense, and taking advantage of what's there.

Most of our entries are designed to get the ball inside. We determine inside as a drive, cut or a post feed; not just a post feed.
Diagram 1
1--attacks elbow, creating space and angle to feed the post
2--spaces
3--occupies defender
4--spaces to high post
5--walks defender down to seal and pin

Diagram 2
1--reads 5's defender--if defense is high side, 1 passes to 2 for feed; if defense is low side, 1 either feeds or reverses to 4 for the correct angle to feed
4--catches and looks to feed high low, if no feed then reverses to 3
3--gets open for reversal

Diagram 3 & 4
1 & 4 stagger screen for 2
5 follows the ball
3 looks to feed 5 or reverse to 2 coming off the stagger

Diagram 5
You can now enter your half-court offense

Simple Process To Average 18 Points In The Post

I'm not sure if I have met a post player that feels they get enough "touches."  They don't believe that they are getting the ball enough, and that if they got the ball more, they would score more.

The following is a "process" to average 18 points with only "2 post feeds".

Process To Average 18 Points In The Post

1.    Run the floor for a layupà2pts

2.    Two offensive rebound putbacksà4pts

3.    Two cheap basketsà4pts

4.    Two post feedsà4pts

5.    Four FT’sà4pts

TOTAL—18pts

5 Rules For Leading Your Teammates

5 Rules for Leading Your Teammates

"It’s not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and THEN do your best."

–W. Edwards Deming

Contrary to what you may have heard, great leaders aren't born. They're made. Exceptional team leaders are shaped by following these five rules.

Rule 1: Be Prepared Team leaders earn the right to lead by being prepared. The prepared leader is always in the process of improving. They stimulate improvement by always asking more of themselves. What am I doing well? Where do I need to improve? How do my behaviors impact my teammates? Leadership grows out of self-knowledge, character, integrity, discipline, competence and commitment to a personal vision of excellence. When these building blocks are in place you have the foundation to model the way for your teammates.

Rule 2: Build Right Relationships The ability to effectively lead your team will be determined by the quality and character of the relationships you build. Exceptional leaders build genuine relationships with teammates based on authenticity and appreciation. Leadership is always a two-way interaction between leaders and followers—between you and your teammates. Exceptional team leaders ground interactions in respect and genuine care, and understand that right relationships emerge when everyone has a mutual influence and impact on each other.

Rule 3: Foster Integrity Leaders function at their best when they are consistent in their values, actions, and words. Part of the sport experience is dealing with losses, failures, and disappointments. How you handle and help teammates work through adversity will influence trust and loyalty among team members. Supporting and reassuring teammates in times of doubt will help others learn, grow, and change. Acting with integrity is the glue to building a cohesive team.

Rule 4: Exert Influence Your success as a leader will be found in getting teammates to go beyond themselves—to give more to the team than they ever believed they were capable of giving. Leadership is fundamentally about change. A common problem is that most people feel little need to move beyond their comfort zone. This requires motivating teammates by persuading and influencing them to change in some basic ways, challenging them get out of their comfort zone. Your actions and attitudes will exert influence through your personal example—providing energy by embodying high standards and demonstrating an unwavering commitment to the team’s vision.

Rule 5: Know Where You’re Going The difference between being an average team leader or an exceptional team leader is knowing where you’re going. Great team leaders cultivate an attractive and inspiring vision for individual excellence and contribution to the team. This requires understanding the Big Picture and using it as your road map and rudder. To motivate others to follow you need to sell the Big Picture, getting your teammates to believe in the team’s purpose, vision and goals.

Taken from Cory Dobbs at Sportleadership.com

Lombardi's 5 Motivators

4 Things Players Want From Their Coaches

All coaches/ leaders work to be difference makers in the lives of their players.




There are four items that players/ employees look for value from their leaders:




1.  Affirmation




2.  Validation




3.  They want to add value




4.  They want to be stretched

Culture of Accountability

We use the term  "ACCOUNTABILITY" daily with our team. Often, I think we use it but do not give them enough information about all that is involved with accountability.  Listed below are some thoughts that we will use with our team and ourselves over the next few weeks while teaching ACCOUNTABILITY.

• Accountability is "Answerability".  Do you willingly answer to someone else.
• We must make ourselves accountable to someone.
• Without accountability we will never be as much as we can be with it. 
• There are many elements to accountability (Trust, Commitment, etc). It doesn't stand on its own.
• Accountability is built on the foundation of Trust.
• People thrive in an accountability culture. They thrive because you are better than you could ever be on your own.
• An environment of, "you do your thing and I'll do mine will never thrive.  Could be good, but never great."
• We must value accountability.
• In an accountable culture there is not an avoidance of difficult conversations.
• The key is to go humbly to address issues, not avoid them.

--Dan Holland, September 18, 2011

New England Patriots Head Coach Goals

1. ELIMINATE BAD FOOTBALL

2. BE FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND

3. BE TOUGH & SMART

UConn's Screen/ Screener Action For Taurasi

Here is good screen the screener action from the UCLA cut.  UConn used this for Taurasi. The other action that opnes up is the lane line drive from #2 and an open block drive for #4 on a reversal.

5 Thoughts On Daily Routine Management

We joke that coaching is actually crisis management.  However, that is exactly what takes place as a leader.  Often, crisis are simply things outside our control, that give no warning.

What I have found in my daily routine is that the crisis or interruptions, unscheduled non expected items are what take up so much of our time.

So, as I traveled this summer I met with people that I respected and wanted to see how they disciplined their routines to accomplish their "Highest Value Activities" and still had the time to accommodate the crisis of the day.

I met with an athletic director, coaches, ministers, business consultants, etc.  Here are a few of the things that I'm working on:

1.  Wake Up & Bed Time--these are the only two times of the day that we actually control.  Get us as early as you need to; Stay up as late as you have to.
2.  Exercise in the morning.  If you don't do it then, it won't get done.
3. Find Your 3rd Place--a place where no one can get to you (family or work). Build up the right attitude to serve early in the morning.  Several people talked about working from Panera, Starbucks, a park, etc. before going into the office.
4. The slightest adjustment in your daily routine can make for big lifestyle changes.
5. List your three highest value activities.  These are the 3 things that must be accomplished today.  These take you to your goal/ vision.

5 Consistencies of Great Leaders

1. Competence
2. Respect
3. Integrity
4. Discipline
5. Resolve

What Tough Players Thrive On:

Tough players thrive on the following:
They make no excuses.
They take responsibility for their actions.
 They believe in preparation with a purpose.
 They fight off all temptations that interfere with their goals, and with their application they apply their values and principles to their purpose.

Responsibility Never Ends

I'm often asked, "What is one thing that you learned while working on Pat's staff".  The following quote best summarizes the lessons Pat teaches:

Responsibility never ends. It’s not a step. Or just a chapter. You don’t finish it and then move on to something more fun or interesting. Responsibility is a constant state of being…”

Giuliani Studies Churchill In Time of Crisis

After dealing with 911 and being up sixteen hours, Rudolph Giuliani went home at 2:30a.m., but instead of going to sleep, he picked up the biography of Winston Churchill and started to read.  Why?  He had to look at how someone else who led overcame the odds and rose above invasion.  From what Giulani extracted and formulated from his reading, he developed his process that led New York city and its people back.
Whom have you studied and who has done what you would like to do?
Who do you know who has beaten the odds?
How hard have you tried to have a meeting with that person?

Harvey Mackay's Networking Circle Breakdown

Breakdown of Network:

5% Family

10% Friends

15% Business/Vendors

20% Associates/Acquaintances

25% Clients

25% Prospects

Guidelines For Dealing With Mistakes/ Failures

Design our lives to make effective use of failures.

  The question is, "What do you do with mistakes?"

4 Guidelines for Handling Mistakes/ Failures

1. Recognize
2. Admit--Don't Blame...Accept Responsibility...Own my part...Do what's required
3. Learn/ Correct--make the mistake work for you...Draw clear lines of responsibility
4. Forget & Move On..Make the Next Best Action

Discipline Is The Highest Form Of Love

Nothing is more harmful to the team than the neglect of discipline;
 for that discipline, more than talent or athleticism, gives one team superiority over another.”

DISCIPLINE IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF LOVE

TEAMS--Toughness & Trust/ Effort/ Attitude/ Motives/Servant Leadership

I was so excited for our team to be able to listen to Coach Meyer talk about leadership and being a TEAM. Those are the two things that I will always associate with my time at Lipscomb and Coach Meyer. Coach once again used the acronym TEAMS yesterday as follows:

T oughness & Trust--

• some players don't do well when things go bad, they end up with the "loser's limp"
• you can't follow someone if you don't have trust in them.
• use the "Foxhole" test as a measure of trust

E ffort
A ttitude 

• these are the only things you contribute yourself
• these are our responsibility
• people look to you as a leader to see how they will react
• what would this team be like if everyone had my attitude?

M otives

• why do I do what I do?
• be careful how I do what I do?
• can't fool people

S ervant Leaders

• if you can turn out servant leaders you're really doing something as a leader

Coach Meyer Defines Servant Leadership

LEADS BY EXAMPLE… Not the main thing, the only thing.
INSPIRES CONFIDENCE AND RESPECT
RADIATES CONFIDENCE
QUICK TO GAIN THE TRUST OF OTHERS
COMMANDS THE ATTENTION OF OTHERS
EFFECTIVELY USES POWER AND INFLUENCE
INSPIRES OTHERS TO BECOME SERVANT LEADERS
HAS THE GIFT OF HUMILITY THAT COMES FROM WISDOM

What Great Teachers Have In Common

In an informal survey, a number of students and teachers were asked to remember a special teacher they had and to list the qualities that made those teachers special. The survey's participants formed a diverse group, which included adults in education, research, business communities, and students in public schools, some who were receiving remedial tutoring. From the descriptions received, 11 common practices of good teaching were extracted, all directly related to challenge and engagement.

 1) THE MAKE LEARNING ENGAGING.
2) THEY HAVE PASSION FOR THE MATERIAL.
3) THEY HAVE DEEP SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE.
4) THEY ARE EXTREMELY ORGANIZED.
5) THEY ARE INTENSE.
6) THEY KNOW STUDENTS NEED TO BE RECOGNIZED FOR EVEN SMALL PROGRESS.
7) THEY TREAT EVERYONE WITH RESPECT.
8) THEY ARE FAIR.
9) THEY BELIEVE ALL STUDENTS ARE NATURAL LEARNERS.
10) THEY MAKE IT IMPLICITLY KNOWN THEY LIKE BEING WITH THEIR STUDENTS.
11) THEY PLACE PRIORITY ON INDIVIDUALIZED TEACHING.

-Swen Nater and Ronald Gallimore, taken from You Haven’t Taught Until They Have Learned, John Wooden’s Teaching Principles and Practices.

Don Yaeger's 16 Consistent Characteristics of Winners

1. It's Personal

They hate to lose more than they love to win.

2. Rubbing Elbows

They understand the value of association.

3. Believe

They have faith in a higher power.

4. Contagious Enthusiasm

They are positive thinkers... They are enthusiastic... and that enthusiasm rubs off.

How They Prepare

5. Hope For the Best, But...

They prepare for all possibilities before they step on the field.

6. What Off-Season?

They are always working towards the next game... The goal is what's ahead, and there's always something ahead.

7. Visualize Victory

They see victory before the game begins.

8. Inner Fire

They use adversity as fuel.

How They Work

9. Ice In Their Veins

They are risk-takers and don't fear making a mistake.

10. When All Else Fails

They know how - and when - to adjust their game plan.

11. Ultimate Teammate

They will assume whatever role is necessary for the team to win.

12. Not Just About the Benjamins

They don't play just for the money.

How They Live

13. Do Unto Others

They know character is defined by how they treat those who cannot help them.

14. When No One Is Watching

They are comfortable in the mirror... they live their life with integrity.

15. When Everyone Is Watching

They embrace the idea of being a role model.

16. Records Are Made to Be Broken

They know their legacy isn't what they did on the field. They are well-rounded.

The 9 P's of Winning

Want to know what all the most successful businesspeople, athletes, celebrities and politicians know? Author Frank I. Luntz says winners (not the Charlie Sheen kind) possess nine common principles that anyone can incorporate in their own life. It’s no magic potion. It’s these essentials:

People Centeredness – Paradigm Breaking – Prioritization — Perfection –
Partnership — Passion — Persuasion — Persistence — Principled Action

People-Centeredness

Winners know what makes people tick, and they connect either to our fears or our aspirations—or both. The job of all winning communicators is to recognize what is missing in others’ lives and then try to address it. Winners help us imagine the possibilities that change our realities. The people-centered approach is to address, resolve, and alleviate personal pain—to focus on “solutions” rather than the management of the problem.

Winning Trait: Discover what people need and help them get it.


Paradigm Breaking

Winners are not improvers; they are game-changers. Remember, as much as we say we want change, it is natural to resist it. As human beings, we innately fear the unknown, even if we simultaneously embrace it. The best communicators know how to position their new product or idea as an improvement that people should expect to have—not a burden they’ll have to bear.

Winning Trait: Present change as an improvement, not a burden.


Prioritization

They (winners) know how to separate what must be done from what should be done—and that has a direct correlation to what they say and when they say it. In fact, identifying and effectively articulating priorities may be the single most important component of successful communication. Winners prioritize their messages. In fact, in the era of texting and Twitter, the longer you speak, the less people hear.

Winning Trait: Carefully select what you say and what you do.

Perfection

If you’re not driven to perfection, you’ll never reach excellence. It’s one thing to work sixteen-hour days because you have to. It’s another to work sixteen-hour days because you want to. Winners who are passionate about their work don’t mind a sixteen-hour day if that’s what it takes for them to be the best they can possibly be.

Winning Trait: You don’t have to be perfect. But you have to be your very best.

Partnership

No one is perfect. Honest, open communication is paramount for a partnership to survive. Without it, trust and respect will simply wither. Partnerships thrive on achieving the right balance that maximizes the “good” and minimizes the “bad” that each side brings to the relationship.

Winning Trait: Don’t let “bad” fester. Communicate clearly with your partner and turn it into “good.”

Passion

There isn’t a winner anywhere who doesn’t bring passion to what they do or how they communicate. There are three language attributes at play:

First, they communicate confidence in themselves and in their products;
Second, the message always rests on results and solutions; and
Third, there is a clear call to action at the end.

But passion is about more than just words and languages. Effectively communicating passion requires focus on style and delivery.

Winning Trait: Passion isn’t something you just have; it’s something you share.

Persuasion

Winners don’t preach; they persuade. They tell you exactly why you should accept their point of view, yet you feel like you came to their conclusions on your own.

Winning Trait: Persuasion is explaining why an idea is great; not how it’s their great idea.


Persistence

Winners know how to succeed over the long haul. In fact, they know that winning is defined by repeat performances and increasing achievements. Winners never give up, never accept defeat, and work as long and as hard as it takes to get the job done right. Winners commonly say, “Don’t tell me why I can’t do it. Tell me how I can get it done.”

Winning Trait: Persist until you perspire.

Principled Action

What good is winning at work if you lose at life? The concluding chapter puts in perspective the essential nature of a set of the guiding principles that define true winners. It focuses on those who gave up their morality, humanity, and decency in the chase for success—and how they fell from grace because winning wasn’t just everything, it was the only thing.

Winning Trait: Winning is whole-life success in all areas, not just one.

–Chapter read and annotated by Ashley Glenn, SUCCESS Marketing Manager.

Snooze you win, Stanford study on sleep and shooting percentage

Snooze you win? It's true for achieving hoop dreams, says study

Young basketball players spend hours dribbling up and down the court aspiring to NBA stardom. Now, new Stanford University School of Medicine research suggests another tactic to achieving their hoop dreams: sleep.

The study suggests that “sleep is an important factor in peak athletic performance,” said first author Mah. In the paper, she and colleagues wrote that “athletes may be able to optimize training and competition outcomes by identifying strategies to maximize the benefits of sleep.”

It’s no secret that lack of sleep can have negative consequences. Extensive research has shown the impact that sleep debt has on cognitive function, mood and physical performance. But, as Mah and her colleagues point out in the paper, very few studies have looked at the opposite: the effect that sleep extension can have on performance. And few other groups have looked specifically at the effect of sleep on athletes.

While things such as nutrition and physical training are part of an athlete’s daily regimen, Mah said competitive athletes at all levels typically do not focus on optimizing their sleep and recovery. They are usually just told to get a “good night’s sleep” before a competition.
“Intuitively many players and coaches know that rest and sleep are important, but it is often the first to be sacrificed,” she added. “Healthy and adequate sleep hasn’t had the same focus as other areas of training for peak performance.”

Mah began working with sleep expert William Dement, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and they turned their attention to the men’s basketball team. Over the course of two basketball seasons, Mah and colleagues worked with 11 healthy players with a goal of investigating the effects of sleep extension on specific measures of athletic performance, as well as reaction time, mood and daytime sleepiness.

The researchers asked the players to maintain their normal nighttime schedule (sleeping for six to nine hours) for two to four weeks and then aim to sleep 10 hours each night for the next five to seven weeks. During the study period, players abstained from drinking coffee and alcohol, and they were asked to take daytime naps when travel prohibited them from reaching the 10 hours of nighttime sleep.

At the end of the sleep extension period, the players ran faster 282-foot sprints (16.2 seconds versus 15.5 seconds) than they had at baseline. Shooting accuracy during practice also improved: Free throw percentages increased by 9 percent and 3-point field goal percentage increased by 9.2 percent. Fatigue levels decreased following sleep extension, and athletes reported improved practices and games.

Using a questionnaire-based sleepiness scale at the beginning of the study, Mah and her colleagues also discovered that many of the athletes had a moderate-to-high baseline level of daytime sleepiness — indicating that they were carrying sleep debt accumulated from chronic sleep loss. She called this one of the most surprising aspect of the study.

“The athletes were training and competing during their regular season with moderate-to-high levels of daytime sleepiness and were unaware that it could be negatively impacting their performance,” she said. “But as the season wore on and they reduced their sleep debt, many athletes testified that a focus on sleep was beneficial to their training and performance.”

The findings suggest, Mah said, that it’s important for sleep to be prioritized over a long period of time, not just the night before “Game Day.” She called optimal sleep an “unrecognized, but likely critical factor in reaching peak performance.” She said the findings may be applicable to recreational athletes and those at the high school, semi-pro or professional level.
--By Michele Brandt

Why Leaders Should Keep Journals

 Why leaders should keep journals?

1. Daily goal-setting

2. Work through confusion

3. Record gratitude.

4. Refocus on what matters.

Keys To Finishing In The Post

How many times have your teams gotten the ball inside and done everything but make the shot.  Coach Don Meyer would always say, "The operation was a success, but the patient died."

We use the "Reduced Rim" in most of our Post Workouts.  Some Observations:
1. Players tend to focus on the "reduced rim" instead of their target initially.
2. We want our players to get their eyes up early. (Sight the target)
3. Their eyes should be on the top near corner of the backboard.
4.  We want the ball to hit on the way down.
5. When we do not use the reduced rim, we emphasize "clean" shots. (The ball doesn't touch the rim).

Coach Don Meyer Leadership Tour

I want to make you aware of a special leadership seminar, next Wednesday, September 7. Coach Don Meyer will be in Winter Springs, FL for part of his national Leadership Tour.

The seminar is based on his “Million Dollar Roundtable Presentations” over the last year.
The seminar addresses two areas of Servant Leadership—
          (1) Do I have what it takes to be a servant leader and
          (2) Building a Team of Servant Leaders

Coach Meyer has a story to tell of how God worked through adversity. His story is one of courage and determination that will inspire you for years to come.

Over the last two years Coach Meyer has broken the record for number of wins, had a near fatal car accident, a leg amputated and battles an inoperable cancer. He received a 2009 ESPY (The Jimmy V Award) and was just honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Hall of Fame.

The event will be beneficial to all those in any leadership position. Coach Meyer is the winningest coach in NCAA basketball; he has been featured on ESPN recently and Buster Olney from ESPN has written a book about him that was released last November.

I had the opportunity to serve and work with Coach Meyer at Lipscomb University as both a student-assistant and later as a director of his basketball camps. Outside of my parents he is the most influential person in my life and my career.

I have included two links, so that you can have a chance to learn a little more about Coach Meyer.

I have a link from his ESPY speech and from Buster Olney’s book.

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you plan to attend.

 The cost is $50 and includes lunch. The event will run from 9-4.

Video link from Coach Meyer’s ESPY Award
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOkHawZKa4

Link to Buster Olney’s book, “How Lucky You Can Be”
http://ballantine.atrandom.com/2010/09/01/read-how-lucky-you-can-be-the-story-of-coach-don-meyer/

Activiate Your Power To Choose

Who decides what direction your life will take? You do.

You and I possess the power to choose. Every day, we make many choices. Some of them seem small. But no choice is altogether small, for even on the most seemingly unimportant choice may ultimately determine the outcome of your life. Someone said that history swings on small hinges. In an almost identical way, human life develops according to small decisions. So we determine our future by our immense power of choice.

4 Essentials of Post Play

1. HEAD--read and under control, 60% FG
2. HEART--want contact
3. HANDS--safely receive
4. FEET--get open, stay open, run the floor

Post Player Daily Emphasis

POST PLAYER DAILY EMPHASIS:

1. Improve Rebounding
2. Sealing & Maintaining Seal & Re-Sealing
3. Four second transition
4. Make scoring simple
5. Defense
6. FT's
7. Fifteen footers
8. Make shots clean in practice

3 Things You Can Do On Offense

3 Things You Can Do On Offense:
1.  Move the ball
2.  Move People
     a.  Player being guarded with ball
     b.  Players away from the ball
3.  Screen