Transcending Ordinary Effort

Ordinary effort is when you're comfortable. That's mediocrity. A lot of athletes work within their comfort zone, physically and technically. They don't feel like they are going to lose control, or pass out from fatigue. But when you practice within your comfort zone you are not preparing yourself for a game. In a game situation, the other team is trying to take you out of your comfort zone. So, as soon as they do, you're in unfamiliar territory. You panic. You make a mistake, or lose the ball.

The challenge for you as an individual athlete is to find a way to elevate your environment. That's not easy. It's tough to keep yourself on edge independently. But this is what separates the truly great players apart. It is their capacity to do what Dorrance calls "flame on"--to hit a button and just ignite.

Take your practice to the most intense level and then your improvement is going to be remarkable. It will separate you from the ordinary.

--Taken from The Vision of a Champion by Anson Dorrance

Mentality of Champions

What often separates champions is their mentality. It is a skill that coaches must develop just like any other skill set.

A few areas to focus on from Anson Dorrance:
1. The objective is simple--Excellence
2. Three key ingredients to every player's success
A. Self-Discipline
B. Competitiveness
C. Self-Belief
3. Work to identify the fragile areas for each player
4. A player's development is largely based on her ambition.
5. Evil is anything that lowers our standards just a hair.

All Of Us Can Be Excellent

Steps Toward Personal Excellence

All Of Us Can Be Excellent

EXCELLENCE IS ACTUALLY MUNDANE

Excellence is accomplished through deliberate actions, ordinary in themselves, performed consistently and carefully, made into habits, compounded together, added up over time. Since it is mundane, it is within reach of everyone, all the time.
So this is your challenge:
· Through deliberate actions (the things players do in training)
· Ordinary in themselves (everyone is doing them, there are no real secrets)
· Performed consistently (done on a regular basis)
· And carefully (with high standards and consummate focus)
· Made into habits (coached into your technical, tactical, psychological and physical fabric)
· Compounded together (with an understanding of harnessing all the elements)
· Added up over time (done when appropriate on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis)

--Taken from Anson Dorrance, “The Vision of a Champion”