Article from SI.com. Coaches worst nightmare

http://m.si.com/news/to/to/detail/4679908
Operation hookshot

Habits

Just excited to be blogging from the phone.

Here is a quote we use often with our teams:
"Men really don't decide their future, they decide
their habits and their habits decide their future."


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Love irresistible

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.

- Robert Frost

Napoleon Hill

"The ability to influence people without irritating them is the most
profitable art known to man."

 

-Napoleon Hill

Ronald Reagan

"A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one, must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough. "

-- Ronald Reagan, 40th U.S. president

If you’ve never had the pleasure of hearing the legendary Coach Don Meyer speak…

Hurricane Meyer

by Alan Stein

If you’ve never had the pleasure of hearing the legendary Coach Don Meyer speak… you are missing out. Not only does he have more W’s than any coach in the history of college basketball… he is a tremendous public speaker. To say he is a wealth of knowledge would be an understatement. Coach Meyer has forgotten more about the game than most coaches will ever know!

I have had the pleasure of hearing him speak on three different occasions in the last 5 years… and each time I was blown away. Each time I furiously took notes until my hand cramped. Everything he says is of value – there is no fluff. I have also had the privilege of speaking privately with Coach Meyer, which was a real honor. He is the epitome of a servant leader and is overwhelmingly humble, genuine, and authentic.

Even though we have only met in passing, and don’t really know each other, he has had a profound impact on my coaching career and philosophy. I will be forever grateful to Coach Don Meyer.

If you haven’t checked out his site, you need to do so as soon as you are finished reading this blog. True to form, he has a FREE Power Point (140+ pages!) you can download on leadership. It is outstanding. You can find it at www.CoachMeyer.com

Also, if you haven’t read How Lucky You Can Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer (by Buster Olney), add that to your list. It is hands down one of the most powerful stories I have ever read. It will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you cheer. You can order it at www.Amazon.com

If you follow me on Twitter (www.Twitter.com/AlanStein), you know in the past few months I have dropped a hurricane of Tweets on a variety of different topics. This past weekend at the MBCA Clinic in Minneapolis, Coach Meyer spit too much knowledge for me to Tweet. Yes, you read that correctly, too much for even me to Tweet!

So here is Hurricane Meyer:

NOTE: I’m not going to bother with adding quote marks… everything that follows came straight from his mouth!

·         I’m just an old basketball coach… so I don’t know everything like these young coaches today do.

·         Coaching = Leadership (you can’t coach if you can’t lead)

·         You can play, coach, or officiate. Pick ONE.

·         I don’t make decisions because they are easy, popular, or convenient. I make them because they are right.

·         A scared team is a quiet team. Great teams are vocal and communicate!

·         A great coach sees the little things. A great coach looks at Cindy Crawford and only notices the mole.

·         Great coaches balance repetition with variety.

·         Your goal: to be the best team on your schedule!

·         Sad reality: every parent would rather their son/daughter make All-State than for the team to win the State Championship.

·         Fundraising idea: set up an auction and buy your players for what they are worth and sell them for what their parents think they are worth!

·         Be your own worst critic. Be your own best expert.

·         Foundation of Coaching: know who you are and know what you stand for.

·         Make the big time where you are.

·         Choose battles small enough to win but big enough to fight.

·         Be a skill coach, not a drill coach. You must teach the game!

·         Practice the way you are going to play in games.

·         A good player knows where they are on the court. A great player knows where everyone is on the court. The best players know where everyone is and what they should be doing!

·         Kids today don’t listen, but they do watch. Set the example with your actions!

·         Every day you should make a ‘needs assessment.’ What does my team need from me to get better?

·         Let your players know these 2 things every day: here is one thing you are doing well (and why) and here is one thing you can do better (and how).

·         Always plan, prepare, and practice like you just lost your last game.

·         It costs you nothing to do the right thing. It can cost you everything when you do the wrong thing.

·         You can choose captains, but you can’t pick leaders. Leadership comes from within.

·         Whoever controls the locker room controls the team. Do you control it? Or do your players?

·         Everyone needs to have someone believe in them. For players from ‘broken’ homes, the coach may be the only person who does!

·         If you coach for any reason other than the love the game or because you want to impact kids, you are in the wrong business.

·         You can only reach your potential as a team if your best player is your hardest worker.

·         Don’t do 50 things one time to get better, do one thing 50 times (repetition = improvement).

·         3 people on your team need to ‘bring it’ every day: the head coach, the point guard, and the best player.

·         Expect greatness. Inspect greatness. Accept greatness.

·         It’s always easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. Don’t accept that as an excuse very often!

·         Don’t coach on emotion. Get mad, calm down… then act mad.

·         Celebrate every win… until you get to the locker room. Then move on to the next game.

·         The worst day in coaching is still better than the best day doing just about anything else!

·         Plan your week on Sunday. Plan the next day, in greater detail, the night before.

·         Great teams are good enough to win even when the ‘ball doesn’t bounce their way.’

·         Rules for individual workouts: personal and purposeful

·         You must practice with the poise and effort of a championship team to become a championship team.

·         Great coaching: clear, concise, complete

·         It’s not who we play or where we play, its how we play that matters.

·         You must teach all 6 phases of the game:

o   Defensive coverage (transition, talk, point)

o   Shot pressure (contest, alter shot)

o   Rebound (block out, pursue, chin the ball, outlet)

o   Value the ball (move the ball, hard cuts, set screens)

o   Shot discipline (Who? Where? When?)

o   Offensive board coverage

·         The more you think, the slower your feet move.

·         Don’t give directions that can be understood, give directions than can’t be misunderstood.

·         If you have to tell everyone you are great… you aren’t.

·         Gossipers say behind your back what they won’t say to your face. Flatterers say to your face what they won’t say behind your back.

·         Positioning, anticipation and technique create quickness. Therefore, you can always get quicker.

·         You can never work too much on shooting.

Well there you have it, a ton of knowledge from one of the best ever.

Please honor Coach Meyer and forward this blog to at least one other coach. Help me spread his message.

I appreciate you and wish you the best this season,

Alan Stein

www.StrongerTeam.com

www.Facebook.com/StrongerTeam.com

Why confrontation is important and passive aggressive doesn’t work.

 

What happens when we do nothing Gavriel's Horn

Can you give an ounce more?

As a coach, I ask the players on our team to give all they have. “Give 100 %.” The smart coaches ask their players to give 110%, somehow they have figured out how to get an extra 10% out of their player.

Recently I visited with a friend that was going through a struggle in a relationship. I asked if they thought they could give an ounce more of compassion in this situation. Could they see that the person had a difficult background and tough circumstances to overcome? If they offered an ounce more of compassion maybe that would help the relationship and would make the irritations less irritating. My reasoning is to see things from the other person’s point of view and understand the difficulties they are under.

An ounce more of compassion might be your best option. Being frustrated is not helping and not bringing any healing. This person may not change ten years from now. What has to change is how we treat that person. It is the only thing we can control.

Then I thought about myself and thought that is what I need to tell myself. An ounce more compassion and understanding would help me in all my relationships. We seem to have the best advice for others that we need to use on ourselves.

Use an ounce today.

Friend-o-meter

We all have friends and carry on conversations that take place at different levels. Different levels of emotions, different levels of caring, different levels of intentness.

Bill Gothard, in his Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts, has identified four "Levels of Friendship".

They are (1) acquaintance, (2) casual friend, (3) close friend, and (4) intimate friend.

I think we should also develop some type of friend-o-meter. How we measure our friends and how much we value their friendships on the different levels. It is a way you judge how many close friends you have and how comfortable you feel.

The circle of 5 advertisement by the certain cell phone carrier is a great indicator of where we sit with our friends and family. Also I think it helps as we look at those in our larger circle. What about our circle of 20, 50 or 100? So if we graded on a friend-o-meter with 100 of your contacts in your phone or database how would you come out?

If you took 100 people from your contact list how many could you put in the following categories:

Random things of an acquaintance/casual friend:

Those you could ask for an extra quarter if you are short at the drink machine.

Help you out with cash at lunch one day you forget your wallet (my friends all know my trick).

A ride from the mechanic when your car is in the shop. Getting a ride to or from the airport.

Watching someone’s house, picking up their newspaper, getting the mail while out of town.

Items with a close friend:

Counsel shared from either and knowing it won’t leave that room.

Listening to frustration and not trying to fix anything just listening.

Coming by the second time during the day to see if they are really ok (because you know when they said everything was ok the first time they weren’t telling the truth).

Calling them to check on them even when you are tired and you know they many not want to talk.

Driving by to see them even when it’s out of the way and you have a to do list that isn’t half way done.

“No, really it’s ok I have time to talk.” When you have to be somewhere. I can remember being in the certain places where I had heard the tough news from different friends, whether it was in my car, in my office or face to face. (I also recall the times I didn’t make the call when a call was probably just what a friend needed)

Intimate friend

Those you can share anything without being judged.

Those you can say what you want to say without fear.

Those who will tell you in time what you may not want to hear, but they will say it anyway in love.

5% club

Percentage wise we all differ. I would venture when we get down to it we all have a list of about 5% (or 5 out of that 100) you can count on to share the things you really want to share.

One of the worst ways to hurt is hurt emotionally. Most people don’t know what to say or how to handle it in the most effective way. So they do the best thing they think possible; they turn the other way. They go and completely ignore the person hurting emotionally.

The person who has lost his job, lost his health, or lost his family is less intimating than the man who is struggling emotionally.

We know how to reach out or put people on a prayer list for a list of illnesses. We know what to pray or counsel for when people lose something tangible.

It is hard to put down that this person is hurting emotionally and sometimes feels the weight of the world. Or this person has a feeling of loneliness that makes them not want to go on. The feeling of being kicked in the gut and not knowing how to get up off the floor.

        Where are you?

It’s why I do what I do. I love to be able to visit with young men and talk with them about their struggles. I told our team my job was to get the absolute most our of their potential whether they liked it or not. Today’s kids have less fear. They are willing to put in time, but sometimes resist change and teaching at times. “Don’t hamper my ability to teach you by involving your emotions. You have to allow me to do my job to the best of my ability so I can help you be at your best. If you resist if hurts our chance to grow as a team and your chance to grow as a player and young man,” I told them.

I wonder sometimes why we limit ourselves. We limit ourselves in our relationships. We limit ourselves in our own ability to grow. We limit ourselves by worrying about what others think.

Expand your 5%. Expand the people you feel close to and who you can share with when you struggle. Most young people struggle and never have someone to talk with about their issues. I want our young men to find people they can talk to so they can “empty the bucket,” That’s my phrase for being able to get everything out. You have to have someone you can “empty the bucket” with or it gets stuffed inside. I’ve seen the young adults and adults that stuff it inside and it doesn’t work.

My challenge is to see how you can be there for other people and whose 5% are you in?

Who would call you in time of need? Not superficial need, but real need?

Who would you call and what are you doing to improve that relationship?

Article on Jerry West by Jonathan Abrams

This is an article by Jonathan Abrams from Grantland.com on the great Jerry West. West is open about is life long battle with self-esteem issues. Also previews his new book which comes out today (Oct.18): West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life. click here for the article