Applying Team Attitude

TEAM ATTITUDE--this week we are talking with our team about two of the most influential parts of our Culture.  The first comes from Coach Meyer and the acrostic from ATTITUDE.  The second is the Definite Dozen from Coach Summitt.  I'll be sharing from both this week.

ATTITUDE
Successful teams have an overriding purpose that is brought to the forefront of their program and is kept as a focal point for everyone.  We have decided that in order to play championship basketball and develop players in all areas of life, we must emphasize a Team Attitude.  Coach Meyer took each of the letters of attitude to develop an acrostic to help teach our players what we think are the essential qualities a solid team possesses.

A--wareness & Communication
T--eachable
T--enacity
I--ntensity
T--echnique
U--nselfish
D--iscipline
E--xecution

We'll start today with AWARENESS & COMMUNICATION:
"In order to be a successful player in a championship program, you must be aware of what is happening on the floor and off the floor as it relates to your team's success.

Awareness involves a perception of how you are really doing in classes, you relationships with other people, and your ability to  perform on the basketball floor.  Once you are aware of aspects that will influence the success or failure of the basketball team and your teammates, it is essential that you communicate with teammates and coaches at every opportunity.  The team that communicates on and off the floor is the team that most often shows the maturity and discipline necessary to do the right thing in games and more importantly in life.

Coach Meyer Meeting With Team

We got off to a good start with our first practice on October 1st.  We began practice with our Athletic Director speaking to our team and then praying for our team, staff, university and season.  A truly unique way to start the season.

Practice concluded with a surprise visit from Coach Meyer.  As always, Coach was honest and direct with them.   Below are a few thoughts he shared with us:

TOUGHNESS

• Can take being yelled at.   Some of you have never been yelled at.  Means you are probably soft.
• Take hard coaching
• This will be a war
• Don't cash your chips in
• This pain is minimal...Wait till childbirth...
• Your job is to bring your skill level up.
• Be a good teammate..It's a special thing.  Mickey Mantle tombstone--"He was a great teammate"

TRUSTWORTHY

• To be where you are supposed to be
• Keep your mouth shut
• Drugs and Alcohol alter your perceptions of reality
• Winners can deal with reality...Can't run and hide.
• Be a problem solver--look for solutions vs blame
• Collaboration--teamwork
• Critical thinker--extra stuff/ study/ this is what separates the great ones.

CANCERS

• Some are slow acting
• Coaches have to treat cancers by cutting it out
• Selfishness causes cancer
• We all want to play
• You can control selfishness
• Not so bad to be dealt a bad hand in spots.  Because "life" will deal you some bad hands.
• Value of human life--decisions
• Don't make decisions because they are--Convenient, Easy or Popular.  Make them because they are right.

MARK TWAIN:

• "Kindness is the language that the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
• Our example isn't the main thing. It's the only thing.

Best Things I've Seen In Coaching--Game Management

Add caption

Listed below are twelve thoughts we discussed recently at the Texas A&M Coaches Clinic. It has been a great process reviewing and putting these thoughts on paper as we prepare for our upcoming season. 

Obviously so much of "game management" is the preparation put in during the pre-season, team meetings, staff meetings, IDW's and practices.  However, below are some specific concepts to look at while preparing for these in game moments.

 

GAME MANAGEMENT

1. Process oriented mentality discussed earlier
2. Players want reassurance during timeouts
3. Half Time 3 Offense/ 3 Defense
4. Players write on board at half-time
5. Pat--"How can we help them?"
6. Pat--each assistant watched and responsible for element needed during that game…added that to practices as well
7. What you accept in victory, you must accept in defeat
8. How do you want to lose?? How can you put your head on your pillow, knowing you did everything you could to help the team prepare and compete?
9. Game Sheet--notes/ adjustments
10. Post Game breakdown--evaluate the scouting report and go over where the breakdowns were with the team on the following day
11. Correction period on day after game
12. Timeout organization--how much time wasted before going into the huddle…What's the manner for communication…What's to be communicated…What's your process??

Best Things I've Seen In Coaching--Culture

I recently had the opportunity to speak at the Texas A&M Women's Basketball coaches clinic.  Coach Starkey and I talked about sharing the experiences and lessons learned from working with Coach Meyer and Coach Summitt.  

One of Coach Meyer's best DVD in his series is one called "The Best Things I've Seen In Coaching", so we decided to steal his title.  I tried to hit 12 bullet points on 10 Topics.  Listed below are is the outline I used to talk about "Culture."

CULTURE--not the WHAT, but the HOW

1. The "Hokey "Pokey"--Started every camp with the rookie coaches on stage in the alumni auditorium demonstrating along with the campers the concept of "Putting your wholeself in."
2. No one looking for shortcuts.
3. Appreciation of the past, anticipation of the future.
4. Eliminate bad basketball, be fundamentally sound, be tough and smart
5. Players can recite our vision and what we represent
6. Team vs Bunch of players running around in the same jersey
7. Six things generally make 80% of the difference-->Seek, Study and Go To Work On
8. NBA--Next Best Action (actually Next Best Thought)
9. Deserve--merit earned through hard work
10. Daily choices--some conscious/ some unconscious..but every choice affects the team
11. What's Us vs What's Not Us-->Evil is anything that imperceptibly lowers our standards just a hair
12. We get what we Expect, Inspect & Accept

Shooter's Mental Checklist

Shooter's Mental Checklist

1. Know my shooting range.
2. Know my own shooting capabilities.
3. Eliminate every distraction from the shooting process.
4. Be aware of tempo of the game.
5. Determine the best shot in certain situations.
6. Study defensive man for weaknesses.
7. Work hard on playing the defensive man; "score without the ball".
8. Aggressively, patiently, probe the defense.
9. Do not let previous defensive mistake distract me.
10. Do not let a previous ballhandling error distract me.
11. Do not let a previous shooting error distract me.
12. Take GREAT SHOTS to become a GREAT SHOOTER.

Taken from "Becoming A Great Shooter" by Coach Don Meyer

5 Teachable Moments With Coach Meyer

We had another great opportunity to spend a couple of days with Coach Meyer on his trip to Orlando.
It's always fun as he comes to Orlando and stays at our house.  Coach Starkey blogged earlier about his message to our team.

I wanted to share a few teaching points that he made throughout the day.  They were "teachable moments." Below are 5 of the first teaching points...I want to blog over the next few days about these "teachable moments."

TP 1--"The teacher appears when the pupil is ready".
This applied to all of us--team and staff.  Coach Starkey and I were loaded with notepads and hard sheets at lunch and I made sure I kept my notepad close as we sat in our living room and he played with my 18 month old and 8 year old.

TP 2--"Adapt vs Adopt"
One of Coach's greatest gifts is his ability to  take all the things he sees, reads, hears, etc--Simplify them--repackage them and make them his own.  Then he has the gift to apply to multiple situations.  Whether it's talking about the St. Louis Cardinals, to Doug Moe and Snow Valley camps, there are so many stories and applications to adopt and apply.

TP 3--"The Innocence of a child"
As he played catch with my two boys in the living room he talked about how he marveled at the innocence and attitudes of children.  That is the spirit and quality we should strive for in our own lives. Which lead to the 4th teaching point.

TP 4--"As parents and coaches, our examples aren't the main things in influence, it's the only thing."

TP 5--"It's all about relationships"
We left the house and went to the UCF vs Tulane Men's basketball game.  It was fun to catch up with our good friends from Tulane (Head Coach Ed Conroy and Assistant Doug Novak) before the game.  After the game the stories, ideas and thoughts carried on to my house.  Coach Meyer, Ed, Doug and myself laughed and told Academy, Camp and other stories until after midnight.  Here are two coaches that just played a game, a coach who has a 5:00am flight to Los Angeles together laugh late into the night. That's the magic of Coach Meyer.  We all talk about the number of nights spent at his house during camps and the summers of Academies.

Coach Meyer Thoughts on Internal Leadership

Internal Leadership Thoughts And Components:

•Understand the importance
•You can be the greatest leader but if you don't have players who can lead internally, you will have problems.
•Warren Buffett ◦ Gave away $41 billion to Bill Gates charities because he thought Gates could do a better job.
     ◦He told Tom Osborne 3 things that he looks for when hiring:
          ■Work ethic
          ■Intelligence
          ■Character
     ◦The first two, without the last will kill you.

•Leadership emerges. You can pick captains, but you can't pick leaders.
•Nurture the kid that emerges as a leader.
•Wooden's Essentials on Internal Leadership ◦Less self, makes you selfless
     ◦Good leader praises team after a win as if he hadn't been involved with their sucess.
•Don't draw attention to yourself. Don't be like the guy who coughs just before he puts the coin in the collection plate at church.
•Can't be like the coach at the athletic banquet that said, "These boys did a nice job too."
•Do not measure youself in comparisoin to others, but rather on the quality of your efforts to improve--Wooden

Key To Coaching

Coaching is an art not a science. The key is finding a different way to reach every kid on our roster.

We are teaching kids how to play basketball and how to live their life. We're not coaching basketball, we're coaching kids.

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

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/

Philosophy for Entries & Plays

1. Reasons for plays:
a. Special plays for special players
b. Some plays fit certain players, find what fit plays fit yours
c. Move your personnel to make the plays fit your team.

2. Run plays into your motion or continuity

3. Run plays at the end of a possession, end of quarter, game

4. Run a play for your post player to start your motion ( the idea is to give your best player a chance to score every time down the floor.)

5. If you are going to run plays...try to use the same alignment.

6. For plays to work..you should have:
a. Vocal Call
b. Visual Call.

7. Realize you can't use every good idea. Adapt what you can.

Two Things To Be Great

Coach Meyer spoke to our baseball team at UCF this past fall. One of the things he talked about were the "Two Things To Be Great":

1. Get Past Failure
a. Trevor Hoffman couldn't take the failure of an off night.

2. Get Past Success
a. For every hundred that can handle failure, but one can handle success.
b. Be Hungry--don't mess with people that have a hungry look

Buster Olney on C.C. Sabathia's Attitude

Some thoughts passed along by Buster Olney on the Attitude of C.C. Sabathia:

C.C. Sabathia would breakdown & cry on the mound in grade school. His mom would stand outside the dugout & point whenever he would do that, & tell him to go home.

He was a sophomore in H.S. 6’8 250 lbs. The best at every sport. His mother keeps him out of basketball because he got a C in Spanish.

He gets traded to play for the Brewers & he wants to pitch on 3 days rest, because his team is in the playoff hunt. His agent calls Management & pleads for him not to pitch. C.C. calls agent & says “NEVER DO THAT AGAIN. Now let me take you to dinner.”

Most Important Part of a Program

Serving could be the single most important lesson we learn in this program.

Response to Seth Godin's Blog Re: Coach Meyer

As a coach, not a blogger, or a writer I want to respond to Seth Godin’s blog. I apologize for the stream of consciousness writing, but I saw this and wanted to respond.

He blogged about Buster Olney’s book, “How Lucky You Can Be” about Coach Don Meyer. He concluded from the book that it was a “sad book”. Not because of the accident, but because of the misguided management technique used by Coach Meyer.

Coach Meyer did push everyone in the program to excellence. ARETE. Godin’s blog stated that Meyer’s misguided attempts do not work and do not last.

This is so far from the truth, as the book points out. He set expectations to challenge us in all areas of our lives. When you look at players, coaches and student assistants that have come through the program you see, “the power of self direction and the benefits of mutual support” and we continue to seek it out over and over again.

The lessons from Coach Meyer have lasted long past any game, season, and 4 year career. The ideals of excellence, honesty, hard work, making the next best action, and on and on have not only carried me through my career, my family and onto my children.

It is not a sad book. It is sad that Seth Godin didn't see what all of us who have worked or played with Coach Meyer have seen and continue to see. The book is a great example of a legacy that Coach Meyer has left that extends far beyond the locker room.

Please read the book and decide for yourself.

Simplify--Simplify--Teach--Simplify

SIMPLICITY

Pete Newell described two groups of coaches: those who believe in simplicity and execution and those who believe in surprise and change. Obviously, he and I are part of the simplicity and execution group
—Bob Knight

Simplicity and execution: How something is most effectively done.
Simplicity says, “Less is more.” It allows players to have a sense that there are specific techniques and strategies that are basic for their success—the success of the team. They gain confidence because of their familiarity and consistency of purpose.

Simplicity demands execution. If every athlete knows what to do and every opponent know what will be done, the anticipation is one of predictability. This is comforting for those who execute and seemingly comfortable for those who believe themselves to be ready to respond.
The coach who uses complex strategies and trickery cannot expect his players to execute them with any consistency, because they are not easy or familiar.

Simplicity says, “I will eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary can be perfectly expressed.”

The greatest truths are the simplest.

Simplicity is an indication of trust of what a coach believes in. No garnishes, no garbage. The desire to be clever sometimes overwhelms the understanding of how to be effective.

Emerson said, “To be simple, is to be great.”

Coach Meyer 9/25/85 Rules On Winning

Taken from Richard Taylor’s notebook, In Buster Olney’s Book, “How Lucky You Can Be”

1. Work hard
2. Stick together
3. Have the right mental attitude.
4. Be positive; don’t criticize, look to compliment.
5. Improve every day, especially as a person.
6. “How badly do I want it?”
7. Know that no one can beat you; you beat yourself. Morale is what motivates the best to get better. As you think, so you shall be. A spirit of devotion and enthusiasm for the team and purpose…Until you find a purpose higher than winning, you will never win.

Coach Don Meyer To Speak In Orlando

I am so excited to announce that Coach Don Meyer will be speaking at an event our church here in Orlando has organized on September 29th. His wife Carmen will speak have a women's only session entitled, "Blessings Through Adversity".

If you are interested in attending the free event or would like more information please email me (gbrown@athletics.ucf.edu).

Also, Buster Olney's book, "How Luck You Can Be" will be released on November 9th.