Thursday, May 5, 2011
Vince Lombardi - What it takes to be #1
Vince Lombardi is one of the greatest football coaches of all time. In his famous keynote speech, he laid out the principles that brought him to greatness.
Tim Tebow's Promise
Tim Tebow's promise and pledge became true, as the Florida Gators became National Champions. They defeated The Oklahoma Sooners record-setting offense in the BCS National Championship game at Dolphins Stadium in Miami on Janurary 8th, 2009, final score 24-14. It was a great game, props to the Sooners and Sam Bradford, they had a great game. Tim Tebow had his signature "jump pass" to score the final touchdown of the game, but it was the defense that held the Sooners that was the X-factor of the game. Tim Tebow fueled this team with passion and determination, and now after their win, this speech is now a more amazing moment in sports.
Even if the Gators would have lost, Florida and The Gator Nation would still be proud of this team, they played with so much heart. Tim Tebow is an amazing player and inspirational figure
Even if the Gators would have lost, Florida and The Gator Nation would still be proud of this team, they played with so much heart. Tim Tebow is an amazing player and inspirational figure
When you don't give up you can not fail!
1992 DEREK REDMOND THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT. He is best remembered for his performance at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona where he tore his hamstring in the 400 metres semi-final but fought through the pain and, with assistance from his father, managed to complete a full lap of the track as the crowd gave him a standing ovation. The incident has become a well-remembered moment in Olympic history, having been the subject of one of the International Olympic Committee's 'Celebrate Humanity' videos and been used in advertisements by Visa as an illustration of the Olympic spirit and featured in Nike's "Courage" commercials in 2008.
How Does A Child Spell Love?
I recently read a story of an elderly man that had gone to the attic to recover a picture of his deceased wife. It seemed that on this particular day his heart longed for the nostalgia of days gone by. His heart ached and his mind was drawn to a particular photo of the love of his life.
The gentleman pulled out one photo album after another being swept away by the memories that stared him in the face. As he continued on he happened upon a journal that belonged to his son as a young boy. The man had never seen the book before and was unaware that his son had ever kept a journal.
“Opening the yellowed pages, he glanced over a short reading, and his lips curved in an unconscious smile. Even his eyes brightened as he read the words that spoke clear and sweet to his soul. It was the voice of the little boy who had grown up far too fast in this very house, and whose voice had grown fainter and fainter over the years. In the utter silence of the attic, the words of a guileless six-year-old worked their magic and carried the old man back to a time almost totally forgotten.” *
As the man read through the pages he was troubled that the boys recollection was far different than his own. He remembered that he had kept his own journal detailing his business dealings and left the boxes and the pursuit of the photo that had begun his searching and made his way to the den.
As the elderly man opened his journal his eyes fell upon an entry that was noticeably shorter than the others. It read:
Wasted the whole day fishing with Jimmy. Didn’t catch a thing.
He then found the corresponding entry in his son’s journal for June 4. In large scrawling letters the entry read:
Went fishing with my Dad. Best day of my life.
This post is a retelling of the story used as an introduction to the book To a Child LOVE is Spelled T-I-M-E. I trust that this story fell as heavily on you as it did me. The most valuable commodity you possess is your time because it is the one thing that can never be recovered once it is gone. If you will give that which is priceless to your children while they are young you will be rewarded beyond your wildest imagination with memories that are equally as priceless. That’s because your child spells Love: T-I-M-E
To the world you might just be one person,
but to one person you might just be the world. *
but to one person you might just be the world. *
John Wooden Pyramid of Success
John Wooden in my opinion was one of the best coaches of all time. His Pyramid of Success that was passed along to me as a young athlete and something I always tried to aspire to growing up. His idea of how to define success was something that always stuck with me.
"Success is a peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable"
The Ultimate Story of Strength, Courage, Commitment, Dedication, Love & Perseverance!
If you have not seen this story before, please take the time to watch this video! It is an amazing story about a fathers love.
MORE ON THE STORY
Dick and Rick’s achievements are staggering. As of August, 2008, Team Hoyt had completed 229 triathlons, 84 half marathons and 66 marathons. Wow!
Their achievements include these personal bests:
MORE ON THE STORY
Dick and Rick’s achievements are staggering. As of August, 2008, Team Hoyt had completed 229 triathlons, 84 half marathons and 66 marathons. Wow!
Their achievements include these personal bests:
- A 2:40:47 marathon
- A 59:01 10 miler (Are you kidding me? That’s running sub 6-minute miles!)
- A 17:40 5K
What is Failure
WHAT IS FAILURE - Failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success.
I have little doubt that you’ve heard the advice, "practice makes perfect". Or, "perfect practice makes perfect". I do appreciate the sentiment that those phrases are usually delivered with, however, perfect play is unattainable. I realize this seems harsh, but baseball is a game filled with failure. Therefore, instead of working on baseball drills, and receiving baseball instruction with the mindset that one day you’ll achieve perfection, I have a different mindset. It is absolutely vital that athletes understand the role of failure and be taught how to put in place a strategy to use failure as a positive and not as a negative. It takes some mental rewiring in the mind of a competitive athlete, but it is well worth the time spent to learn this mental skill. If you have been listening at practice lately, you will realize that I am reiterating to the kids that the PHYSICAL mistakes are OK, but it’s the mental ones we need to avoid. This is the first step in becoming mentally tuff and without mental toughness baseball is an almost impossible game.
I would like to explore briefly how failure can be utilized during baseball drills, practice, and competition in order to create more fundamentally sound baseball players.
For many youth athletes today, failure is uncomfortable at the least, and terrifying at the most. This fear of failure isn’t isolated to baseball. Many youth are afraid of messing up in class, afraid of receiving an "F" on a piece of homework or test, and afraid of being rejected in general. Failure is everywhere and; it is an integral part of our daily lives. I have a problem with focusing on failures. The problem I have is that it tends to paralyze many from attempting to achieve. Let me clearly state that I am not trying to do away with things or scenarios that cause failure, or to shelter youth from experiencing it, I'm simply pointing out that we need to focus on how failure can HELP US.
Batting Practice is a great example!
I would like to explore briefly how failure can be utilized during baseball drills, practice, and competition in order to create more fundamentally sound baseball players.
For many youth athletes today, failure is uncomfortable at the least, and terrifying at the most. This fear of failure isn’t isolated to baseball. Many youth are afraid of messing up in class, afraid of receiving an "F" on a piece of homework or test, and afraid of being rejected in general. Failure is everywhere and; it is an integral part of our daily lives. I have a problem with focusing on failures. The problem I have is that it tends to paralyze many from attempting to achieve. Let me clearly state that I am not trying to do away with things or scenarios that cause failure, or to shelter youth from experiencing it, I'm simply pointing out that we need to focus on how failure can HELP US.
Batting Practice is a great example!
As a coach I most often see failure when players step to the plate. Let’s face it, all eyes are on you, and hitting is one of the most complex kinetic movements the human body is asked to perform; in my opinion.
When training hitters, I will watch closely how they approach their batting practice sessions. Obviously during batting practice all hitters desire to do well. It's their time to shine, to impress their coach, their teammates, and their own ego. However, it usually only takes a few missed pitches, a few ground outs or fly outs before the hitter becomes frustrated and loses focus. This frustration just compounds the problem and makes it significantly worse.
The problem is never the missed pitches or the poor results the hitter experienced while hitting a baseball. Instead, the problem is the perception of what the poor hits mean to the hitter. The hitter sees the missed opportunities as a sign of inferiority, weakness, and lack of ability. This feeling will eventually create a belief that the athlete himself is a failure. Once this sets it, it’s near impossible for a hitter to maintain confidence in his game.
Well-trained hitters view mistakes in batting practice far differently. A few missed pitches, repeated ground outs or fly outs simply mean that there is something not quite right with his swing. He will begin to problem solve with his understanding of his own baseball swing until he finds the part that is out of synch. Instead of focusing on the feeling of personal failure, a non-emotional response is used and the mistake is never personalized. As a coach, I can typically tell you if a kid can hit just by the way he looks in the batter’s box. There is a certain confidence that great hitters exude when they pick up a bat. These are the type of players that have used failure while hitting thousands of balls BAD, and have overcome the initial feeling of failure to adjust their swings and mindsets.
The key differences between an emotional, untrained hitter, and a mentally strong hitter is how each hitter deals with failure. In the first example the hitter allowed the mistakes he made to be an end result and evaluation of his performance. The mentally successful hitter viewed the mistakes in batting practice as a compartmentalized problem that simply needed attention. This approach let him maintain composure and concentrate on a solution rather than the problem. ß This is the key to not only becoming a great athlete, but a successful person in life.
When training hitters, I will watch closely how they approach their batting practice sessions. Obviously during batting practice all hitters desire to do well. It's their time to shine, to impress their coach, their teammates, and their own ego. However, it usually only takes a few missed pitches, a few ground outs or fly outs before the hitter becomes frustrated and loses focus. This frustration just compounds the problem and makes it significantly worse.
The problem is never the missed pitches or the poor results the hitter experienced while hitting a baseball. Instead, the problem is the perception of what the poor hits mean to the hitter. The hitter sees the missed opportunities as a sign of inferiority, weakness, and lack of ability. This feeling will eventually create a belief that the athlete himself is a failure. Once this sets it, it’s near impossible for a hitter to maintain confidence in his game.
Well-trained hitters view mistakes in batting practice far differently. A few missed pitches, repeated ground outs or fly outs simply mean that there is something not quite right with his swing. He will begin to problem solve with his understanding of his own baseball swing until he finds the part that is out of synch. Instead of focusing on the feeling of personal failure, a non-emotional response is used and the mistake is never personalized. As a coach, I can typically tell you if a kid can hit just by the way he looks in the batter’s box. There is a certain confidence that great hitters exude when they pick up a bat. These are the type of players that have used failure while hitting thousands of balls BAD, and have overcome the initial feeling of failure to adjust their swings and mindsets.
The key differences between an emotional, untrained hitter, and a mentally strong hitter is how each hitter deals with failure. In the first example the hitter allowed the mistakes he made to be an end result and evaluation of his performance. The mentally successful hitter viewed the mistakes in batting practice as a compartmentalized problem that simply needed attention. This approach let him maintain composure and concentrate on a solution rather than the problem. ß This is the key to not only becoming a great athlete, but a successful person in life.
Failure in general, if not embraced will crumble an individual’s confidence. My job as a coach is to build the confidence of these young players through hard work, dedication and consistency. As these players are learning new skills, I too am striving to be a better coach. This will be an evolutionary process, but we are going to be focusing on embracing failure, learning from it, doing our best not to repeat the same mistakes, and moving on!
Here are some famous baseball quotes:
Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.
--Yogi Berra
It took me seventeen years to get three thousand hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.
--Hank Aaron
There is a fine line between success and failure. In baseball, the difference between a.350 hitter and a.250 hitter is only a 1/4 inch up or down the bat.
--Mortimer Feinberg
Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.
During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.
-- Mickey Mantle --
Below is the road map, we as the Florida Blackhawks, are going to use to teach the boys how to deal with failure! These concepts will be passed out at Practice on Sunday and each player will have to sign the contract, stating they are going to “DO THEIR BEST” to work this system and get better at keeping failure in perspective. My last email described what failure was, this one is more of a strategy on how I intend to teach the kids to embrace it and learn from it.
1 Understand that EVERYONE Makes Mistakes: This is a key component to keeping the boys confident. Mario Garza a former pro player, long time good friend, and someone I very much respect & admire, said it perfectly to me one time. He said, “the guys in the pro’s are just regular guys who play baseball exceptionally well”. I remember talking to him in depth about the topic and then discussing the conversation with my own son. It’s amazing what we as parents take for granted in terms of what kids think about people they look up to. After that conversation, the goal of playing professional baseball seemed obtainable to my son in his own eyes and he wanted to know everything he could do to obtain his goal. Regardless, if any of these kids play baseball, or any sport at the professional level, striving to get there, and knowing all those who are there now have dealt with much adversity and failure, is a life lesson we need to cultivate and embrace.
2 Attempt to make Less mistakes and limit our failures:
3 Work hard to correct our mistakes: Confucius said, "A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it is committing a MUCH LARGER mistake." Winners take mistakes as an opportunity to make good, to move on, and to learn from the situation. We need not sweep our mistakes under the rug, but use them as a tool to TEACH and try not to repeat. With the age group of players we have our biggest challenge is to ALWAYS STAY POSITIVE while correcting mistakes they make. This is challenging, but something we need to get better at!
4 Take responsibility for their Failure or Mistake: to grow and change, we must see all of reality and we must deal with that reality. The first step in gaining control over our errors is admitting that they exist. This is a hard thing to do for anyone, but if we start encouraging the boys to take responsibility for their actions now, and not pointing fingers, they will each blossom into leaders in their own regard. What a DREAM JOB for a coach; to have a TEAM FULL of LEADERS!
5 Work hard to not repeat our mistakes: "He that's cheated twice by the same man is an accomplice with the cheater." Thomas Fuller said this to encourage us to learn from a mistake, vow to never repeat it, and to move on without reservation or fear of making other mistakes. When dealing with the boys this will be geared towards MENTAL mistakes. They are 7 & 8 so they are going to make physical mistakes in the game of baseball, but they are going to be challenged to do things like, get to practice on time, wear proper practice Gear, maintain good BODY LANGUAGE after failing, looking people in the eye when speaking, etc…
6 Fail Fast And Move On: Business guru Tom Peters says "Only with failure can you verify wrong ways of doing things and discard those practices that hinder success." Winners cultivate an attitude of "lead, follow or get out of the way". They are voracious for success, and devour any mistake that can take them closer and faster to that success. GREAT PLAYERS and SUCCESSFUL people in general become so supremely confident that failure is the anomaly that when it does happen they move on fast! They have spent their whole lives dealing with failure and have learned from it that they get over it fast: SUPREME CONFIDENCE! BOTTOM OF THE 9th, Bases Loaded, Two outs, We are up 1 and YOU JUST committed an error on the last play to load the bases on a routine ground ball that should have ended the game! There are two people in this type of situation. One wants a strike out so he can leave the field ASAP and the other WANTS ANOTHER CHANCE TO END THE GAME. His mind is racing saying PLEASE hit the ball to me… WHO ARE YOU GOING TO BE?
7 View Failure As A Detour or Delay; BE PERSISTENT: "I think and think for months, for years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is wrong. The hundredth time I am right." Albert Einstein knew that persistence was key in being "creative". The answer did not just drop out of the sky. He worked at it. He stayed with it. Being consistent and persistent are something I have been preaching to these boys for a long time! Getting in good habits both mentally and physically all start with those two ideas; consistent and persistent when detours slow us down!
8 Prepare: My high school & College basketball coach, Ron Johnson, was and still is the most influential person in my entire life! He taught me what the meaning of work ethic was and cultivated my dream of playing Division 1 College basketball, and ultimately made it a reality for me. He was and still is an incredible motivator, with a presence when he walks into a room unlike anyone else I have ever meet. It is no wonder that in the past 10 years he has won 4 State Championships, 2 in Florida and 2 in North Carolina. He has moved from school to school BUILDING PROGRAMS, taking them to their promise land (State Championships) then moving on to do it again. For him the Journey is the prize not the ultimate goal and being able to take different groups of kids on that journey is what I believe drives and motivates him! People have asked me before what is the 1 thing you learned from him, and my answer is always the same! “PREPARATION BREEDS CONFIDENCE”, this holds true for any challenge we will face or our kids will face in life. If we prepare them in the classroom, the playing field, etc they will be confident in any situation. The most gratifying experience for me as a coach is when a player I have worked with starts to gain self confidence. Confidence is a powerful thing and something that can be brought out in EVERY CHILD regardless of how unconfident they were. In closing, I believe if we follow these rules as a program and consistently prepare using the guidelines above we will not only have 10-12 very special young athletes on our hands, but some very mature and wise beyond their years young men!
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