Sunday, June 27, 2010

Brian Tracy-- The Key to Motivation

Another great daily newsletter from Brian Tracy
Your Real Goal
  • Your goal is to become a transformational leader, 
    • the kind of person that motivates and inspires people to perform at levels far beyond anything that they had previously thought possible.
Keep People In the Know
  • Transformational leaders empower others by keeping them "in the know,"
  •   People want and need to feel that they are "insiders," that they are aware of everything that is going on.
  • Nothing demoralizes people more then not knowing whats going on in the company.
Give Regular Feedback
  • One empowering behavior practiced by transformational leaders is regular feedback on performance and results. 
  • People need to know how they're doing so they can improve if performance is below standards and so that they can be proud of their successes. 
  • The more feedback you give to people, the better it is, as long as the feedback is objective and not critical. 
  • Ken Blanchard says that, "Positive feedback is the breakfast of champions."
Be Generous With Praise
  • Be generous with your praise and encouragement. 
  • people are the only asset that can be made to appreciate in value by giving them warmth, respect, approval and by creating a climate of positive expectations.


Create An Exciting Future
  • What companies and countries and institutions need today are courageous visionary leaders who are committed to creating an exciting future for themselves and others. 
  • You have within yourself the ability to evolve and grow as a leader and to make a real difference in the world around you.
  • the one thing you can know for sure about yourself is that, no matter what you've accomplished up to now, there is far more that you can do.

Monday, June 21, 2010

The Winners Manual-Jim Tressel

Here is a book that I have reread and enjoyed.  I have included some thoughts that I really liked. http://thewinnersmanual.com/blockolife.asp

He continually Stresses goal setting with his teams. “The Block O of Life”
  •   Two Major goal areas: 1) Purpose     2) Goals   
    • Purposes include: personal/family, spiritual/moral, caring/giving
    • Goals include: strength/fitness, football family, academics/career
  • Too many people define themselves by what they do and not who they are
  •     Inspiration gets you thinking, Motivation gets you moving.  
  •  Nothing is worth more, than this day.” – Goethe 
  •   Your life is either a celebration or a chore. The choice is yours.  
  • Do it right – Do it hard – Or do it again.  
  • Excellence : It isn’t tough to be good from time to time in sports. What’s tough is being good everyday 
  • Every obstacle presents an opportunity. IF you are looking for it 
  • It’s a rough road that leads to heights of greatness.  
  • To win championships you need 2 things. Love and Discipline. If the team loves one another they will not want to let one another down

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Todd Lickliter- Foundations of Butler Basketball

  • • Have a best coaching friend at another level.
    •  Share ideas with
    • Give and take
    • Not competing against each other
  • What they look for in recruits.
    •  We are in the people business, recruit good people (Character)
    •  Vision (how involved are they when not in the game)
    •  Up or down 20, how are they playing
    •  Desire to win
    •  Skill
  •  Our guys enjoyed the success of their teammates.
  •  Hold each other accountable not just patting each other on the back saying its ok
  •  Sacrifice for others
  •  Always exam yourself first.
  •  Has players read QBQ book before each season
  •  1 page write up about the book
  •  Core Values of the program
    •  Each player signs the core value contract before each season
    •  Toughness is doing what is right.
    •  We don’t make them run as a punishment
    •  Fun is Working Together to Achieve (Locker Room sign)
    •  Stay with it even when things are tough because in the end it will work itself out or you have the self satisfaction that your stuck to your values
  •  For players to get their gear @ start of season
    •  Must do some type of community service
  •  System
    •  Don’t care about temp, will play anyway
    •  Offense (mental discipline) = Get the shot we want when we want
  •  New players = 4 stages
    •  Unconscious & Incompetent = they don’t know that they don’t know
    •  Conscious & Incompetent = they know they don’t know
    •  Conscious & Competent = they know, but they don’t flow (robot)
    •  Unconscious & Competent = Everything flows naturally – The best players
  •  Ordinary guys doing ordinary things, but do them extremely well
  •  Body adapts to stress
  •  Jig Saw Puzzle
    •  Put team together piece by piece
    •  Add to the puzzle each day
    •  Can’t afford to start over ¼ , ½ , ¾ way into season
  •  Offensively
    •  Defense breaks down on rotations = Make D rotate
    •  Get inside the defense = will cause rotations
    •  Post Play = Must have a post that demands double teams
    •  Set ball screens
    • Ball Handler = you are the eyes of the receiver
    •  Pass with precision
  •  Zone
    •  We don’t attack gaps
    •  Know who is guarding you
    •  Take him away from his home base
    •  Fill a spot, vacate that spot, fill it again
  •  Defensively
    •  If we don’t turn it over then we aren’t on defense as much
    •  Guard 36% of the court
    •  Bent limbs = athletic stance
    •  Multi task unless on the ball
    •  Steady Diet on defense
    •  Keep them off balance

Monday, June 7, 2010

Brian Tracy on 2 Key Questions for Maximum Effectiveness

These thoughts are from Brain Tracy's newsletter

There are two questions that you can ask on a regular basis to keep yourself focused on getting your most important tasks completed on schedule. The first question is:
"What are my highest value activities?"

or what are the most important tasks you have to complete to make the greatest contribution to your organization? To your family? To your life in general?

Think it Through Carefully
This is one of the most important questions you can ask and answer. What are your highest value activities?  Like focusing the lens of a camera, you must be crystal clear about your highest value activities before you begin work.

Keep Yourself Focused
The second question you can ask continually is, "What can I and only I do, that if done well, will make a real difference?"

This question comes from Peter Drucker, the management guru. It is one of the best of all questions for achieving personal effectiveness.

Every hour of every day, you can ask yourself this question and there will be a specific answer. Your job is to be clear about the answer and then to start and work on this task before anything else.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, make a list of everything you do at work and then select your most valuable tasks from that list.

Second, resolve to start in on your highest value task and stay at it until it is 100% complete.
 

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Rick Pitino

One of my favorite coaches is Rick Pitino.  Here are some of his thoughts.

Discipline is an organized plan of attack- Rick Pitino
Warm Up & shooting:
  • Set shots around paint
  • Jump shots 2 ft behind
  • Do not jack up 3's
  • Shooting is just as much psychological as physical
  • "On every shot, try not to hit the rim.  It helps your focus on arc.
Screen Shooting:
  • Use a tackle pad as screen 
  • "Don't ever come off a screen blind to the defender"  Peek over your shoulder
  • Run the ball into your hands.  " Shoulder to shoulder w/ Screen
  • "You clear the screen" Even on flares. push back and step into your shot
  • The step in drives the right hand, elbow, leg towards the shot
  • never come off screen early, physically make contact with your man (Better to be late on screen)
  • On rip through-Stay low to ground to negate the travel
Finishing
  • Inside the NBA arc (Charge circle) you can draw a foul; take away shot blockers
  • Jail= Under the rim
  • Put defender in Jail with your inside shoulder, shoot with your outside hand.
  • Do not be afraid to go body to body.
Last thought from Pitino
Do not take a challenged jump shot
Under 32 % if challenged
over 42 % if open

Tom Crean 10 things to Building a Program

  1.  Trust your instincts
  2. The more questions you have as a coach-- the more people are going to come to you for answers
  3. 4 expectations players have of coaches:
    1. Be Competitive
    2. Be sincere (what & how you do it)
    3. Reliability
    4. Trustworthy
  4. 3 expecations of Players/Coaches
    1. Come Mentally Prepared
    2. Come with Energy
    3. How to compete
  5. If you have a problem, but have not thought of a solution, you have componded the problem
  6. Invest in time with your leaders
  7. Player is a leader when they are in the program (Legacy of Leadership begins when he leaves your program)
  8. Dealing with Adversity (Only focus on making program better)
  9. One Voice in Program
  10. Focus on the process-- Not just the results

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Jerry Wainwright-- Late Game Situations

  1. One of the most important parts of the game, yet one of the most overlooked.
  2. Majority of games are won and lost by 8 or fewer points (3 or 4 possesions)
  3. Defense, offense, shooting, etc. is taught by repetition - do the same with late game situations every day (He does 3 segments every practice)
  4. Must be more than just a segment of practice, coach it just like it's a game,(From the bench, calling to's, substituting.) 
  5. Each member of the team must know time, score, and situation
  6. Must work on all possibilities- up big, up a little, tied, down a little, down big; different time left, different foul situations, different personnel.
  7. Theory is "you've experienced it before, you know what needs to be done."
  8. Occasionally make bad calls (even fouling out players) maybe even taunting to get a players reaction
  9. Substitutions to stop clock or O/D.
  10. Know best player to go to, best play to call, best D to use (Maybe different home and away)
  11. Have a philosophy- make sure everyone knows and understands it.
  12. Know what you want to do but have a contingency plan.
  13. Should never face anything in a game your players haven't experienced.
Questions to ask
  1. If behind, do you want to foul or go for steal?  If foul, whom and when?
  2. If up 3, do you foul to avoid 3 pointer?  If so, when?
  3. IF down 1,2 or tied, do you want to hold for last shot or take first good one?
  4. After getting rebound/to (or after made shot) do you want to immediately call timeout, push it up and call time, disregard time out and go for score?
  5. Do you like 2 fo 1 situations?
  6. Do you have plays from all locations (Taking time into account)?
Reasons for a coach to call a time out in the last minute
  1. To calm the players
  2. To reinforce and motivate the players
  3. to run a special play or to cover a special situation
  4. To cover individual assignments
  5. To break the opponents momentum
  6. To settle down the crowd.
  7. To make an opposing free throw shooter think about the shot.
  8. To give the players a rest.
  9. To stop the clock
  10. To make a defensive change.

Gene Keady-- Boilermaker Philosophy

Here are some really good clinic notes from Gene Keady.


There are  4 things that all players in all programs say it takes to be a champion
ATTITUDE
WORK ETHIC
COMMITMENT
LEADERSHIP

  • Attitude:  Have a good attitude, a listening attitude, and an attitude of togetherness.  With all this the attitude of the team will be positive.  This seems to be the gist of every story of the teams that won (The team concept).  They wanted to play hard, have fun, enjoy the camaraderie, and listen to what the coaches say because the coach is the boss.  We all have 4 things in common we  must be successful in, to get that positive attitude.
    • Time Management: How do you organize your time?
    • Competitiveness: how do we teach our kids to be competitive?
    • What do we do about discouragement? How do we handle this on a daily basis?
    • How do you solve problems?  
  • Work Ethic:   Succesful players talked about how hard they worked during preseason conditioning and in practice.  The teams that were champions wanted to be the best.
      • Our team won 28 games, second in the big 10 and the biggest cheer I got all year  was when I said "No practice tomorrow."  They hated to practice, therefore we didn't get past the second round.
  • Commitment:  People were committed to being a champion.  They worked on their own self-improvement.  They loved to play.  When we recruit, we want to recruit the IDEAL player.
    • I: INTELLIGENCE:  Common sense and academic sense.
    • D: Dedication
    • E: Enthusiasm
    • A:Ability; Quickness and shooting
    • L: Loyalty, This is the most important thing of all.
  • Leadership: 3 basic rules concerning leadership and what we expect of our players.  If we can do these 3 things we will win a Big 10 Championship.   It is amazing how it works. 
    • Be on time: 
    • Go to class every day: 
    • Try your best
Some more thoughts from Keady:
  • Intensity foundation:  All game habits are set by the same tone of your practice intensity habits.  If you don't practice hard, you aren't going to play hard in the game.  We do a lot of competitive things in practice. This is broken down into practice, games, players, and teams.
    • Practice:  What do you try to get out of  your practices?  Aggressiveness, competitiveness, techniques, and system.  We have to teach techniques more today then before. 
    • Game:  You must have a philosophy and you must sell  your team on your philosophy.  This will depend on your talent level.  
      • You must have goals.  If you don't set goals, your kids won't be motivated.
      • How do you handle the refs?
      • Management:
    • Players:  It is important to have 1-1 meetings with your players.  Tell them what they are good at and what they should improve on.  
      • Honesty: If your players trust you, then you will be able to motivate them.
      • Be positive, but be demanding.  You must have high goals.
    • Team:  6 parts that the team should be centered around.
      • Teach Fundamentals.
      • Be in shape
      • Team morale(Do things other then basketball)
      • Pressure defense on the ball (Keep things simple)
      • Flexible offense
      • Fast Break
4 things to Win:
  1. Control your players
  2. Schedule to meet the needs of your talent level
  3. Be able to adjust to the referees and the rules
  4. Have the administration behind you.