Suggestions for Being a Great Teammate

Tom Izzo said, "Championships and great seasons are won in locker rooms."

Great teams have great teammates.
• They own their roles.
• They care about each other.
• They commit to each other and the team.

A great team isn't made up of individual superstars, it's made up of… pic.twitter.com/DIVqV8eGqB

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) April 24, 2024

Choose to be a great teammate. Make it a priority. Have joy in preparation, practice, and competition. Celebrate the experience and your teammates.  

Lagniappe. 

Derek Jeter asked Bruce Bochy after a World Series Championship. “How come everybody that comes up here doesn’t talk about themselves? All they care about is the team and all they want is to win for their team? How is that?”

Bochy: that’s how you win.

~ via @CoachJoshLynn

— Coach the Coaches (@WinningCoaches) April 22, 2024

Lagniappe 2. Harsh reality that great players adopt...can you be feminine and the beast. MVB greats navigated that conflict. 

“Everybody wants to be the beast but everybody doesn’t want to do what the beast does,” Nick Saban
🎥 @SupremeLending pic.twitter.com/1TXIK4QfXN

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 26, 2024

 Lagniappe 3. Don't allow the little things to go unnoticed. 

DEATH BY 1,000 CUTS
KILLS MORE CULTURES
THAN A FATAL BLOW:
🩸 showing up late
🩸 taking plays off
🩸 sloppy practices
🩸 poor execution
🩸 skipping reps
🩸 grumbling about roles/PT
🩸 eye-rolling when coach talks
🩸 not holding people accountable#CutsKill#CultureWins

— Jeff Janssen (@janssenleader) April 22, 2024

Metaphorical Dog Days

Your 'dog days' haven't even arrived. Excellent players aren't made in September through November. Jump ropes and jump boxes, trips to Hartford or Hershey, to the gym and to the weight room are separators. Kettlebells not kettle corn create champions.

How do you stay motivated, focused on the horizon? Easy answers don't exist.

Chart from Simply Psychology 

If our character exists by the time we're six or seven, then 'autocorrect' our mindset. Reject a 'fixed mindset' of 'that's the best I can do' and adopt the growth mindset of "I love challenges, I can be better, I will be better." 

Warriors coach Steve Kerr promotes an organizational philosophy of mindset, mentors, and culture. MVB has a mindset of achievement, a learning culture, and exceptional mentors in Coach Scott Celli and his coaching staff. 

Make the dog days your future halcyon days. 

Lagniappe. Be on top of the ball.

 

 

Hold the Mayo

"Hope springs eternal." Last night the Patriots selected quarterback Drake Maye with their first choice.

Nobody knows how any draft choice will do. Coach Jerod Mayo, discussing the quarterback situation said, "it's about competing and it's about going out there every day striving to get better." 

MVB tryouts start in a little less than four months. How you use that time is your choice.

I wrote this to a former player of mine, "What I think life teaches is that others will value your output. Yet, what is more important for your family, your hopes and dreams, is your input." 

Lagniappe. Recovery into defense is vital to keep balls alive. 

 

Finding Your Way

Coach Dean Smith is a HOF Legend.

He led "The Carolina Way."

Here are some insights from Coach Smith that shed some light on his greatness. pic.twitter.com/zbV9O4k6IW

— Greg Berge (@gb1121) April 25, 2024

Progress by studying teams, players, and coaches. Coach Dean Smith earned a degree in Mathematics from Kansas while playing college basketball for a National Championship team.

He was a pioneer in studying basketball analytics and was best known for coaching Michael Jordan, and for his commitment to social justice, including integrating ACC basketball. 

Study the list about some of Smith's principles. As he would say, "A lion never roars after a kill."  

Themes - Stick to Your Process

This is a huge problem in our world today.

- You cannot skip the process.
- You have to accept the struggle.
- You have to find joy in the journey.

There are no shortcuts. And if you have this mindset and approach to life, you will go far.

No Deposit - No Return! https://t.co/hKQtnXPq7N

— Greg Berge (@gb1121) April 23, 2024

Rick Pitino wrote a book years ago called Success Is a Choice. MVB has enjoyed remarkable success by choosing commitment, consistency, and culture.

Spurs' Coach Gregg Popovich teaches, "pound the rock," meaning you can't skip steps. You have to hit the rock a hundred times until it breaks. 

Geno Auriemma's UCONN women started practice with two laps with nobody cutting a corner. Champions don't cut corners. 

Success in volleyball converges with success at home, school, and work. "The magic is in the work." 

Your predecessors have done this. You can and you will.

Lagniappe.  

Relationships Are Coaches Top Priority

In 1985, the UCONN A.D. told the women's basketball team that he would get them the best woman coach he could find. They asked for the best available coach. 

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Learn to Love This

Thirsty for success? Learn to love this.  

“Find out how to love practice, enjoy it, love it, love the grind…and ask yourself, are we in?or are we out? Every single day,”
Dave Roberts
Master the fundamentals with an enthusiastic spirit.

🎥 @BaseballBros pic.twitter.com/BEQqAiDE5p

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 24, 2024

Don't think "have to." Think "get to."

Lagniappe. Dumbell only exercises to improve strength and ultimately spike touch.   

 

Elevate Your Communication

All opinions expressed in the blog are solely my own.

Apply knowledge across all domains. Expressing sorrow or apologizing reflects maturity. But sometimes, it lowers us.  

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This thread points out that "thanks" amplifies our voice.

Better to say, "thank you for working hard at practice," than "I'm sorry for making practice so tough."

Tell your parents, "thank you for supporting my extracurricular activities," instead of "I'm sorry for having to drive a couple of hours to a tournament."

You matter. Better communication is consistent with the first of The Four Agreements, "Be impeccable with your word." 

Find ways to grow.

Lagniappe. Write it down. Be thankful. Plan the day. Highlight your days. Improve your plan and plan your improvement. 

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Talk and Touch

ELO (Electric Light Orchestra, Xanadu)

ELO - early, loud, often. Talk matters. The sport differs but the concept does not. Talk adds value. Talk energizes. Talk intimidates.

MVB has the Queen of Talk. She alone is not enough. 

Lagniappe. Communication is a skill.  

WINNING TEAMS TALK AND TOUCH

This is an ELITE LEVEL SKILL!
IF YOU HAVE IT, YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY TO JOY AND WINNING 🏆

Celebrate - Communicate
Direct - Correct

GET A WORD!
YOUR WORDS CREATE YOUR WORLD 🌎

🏀 GET AFTER IT 🏀 pic.twitter.com/1yQ2RY5FoL

— Ganon Baker (@GanonBaker) April 23, 2024

Department of Redundancy Department

Excellence intersects skill, game understanding, physical and mental toughness.

Look at the past three MVB "Triple Crown" winners - Elena Soukos, Gia Vlajkovic, and Sadie Jaggers. All had exceptional athleticism - quickness, vertical jump, strength (attack). Nobody becomes elite as an  'average' athlete. 

Keep training simple:

- Sprint to get faster
- Jump to get powerful
- Lift to get stronger & build resilience
- Condition to repeat outputs over & over
- Play your sport to build task specific skills

You don’t need gimmicky drills.

You need consistent & well planned training.

— Keith Ferrara (@keithjferrara) April 20, 2024

Conditioning requires leaving your comfort zone. You have to go harder for longer with sprints, jumprope, or 'stadiums'. You don't have a cycle ergometer system to measure maximal oxygen consumption (complex measure of fitness). You can do a Cooper 12-minute run test and see how far you run in twelve minutes. You can do this on a track or a treadmill (easier). 

Lagniappe. 

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Lagniappe 2. Repetition is the mother of excellence. 

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Transformative

Coaches have potential to influence players both positively and negatively. Telling a player or team, "I believe in you," can make all the difference.

That doesn't mean that coaches should overhype players. But when we confirm our belief in a player, it can be transformative. Players remember genuine expressions of confidence in their work and progress. 

Coach Scott Celli and his staff practice transformative coaching in a variety of ways including expanding roles in season and moving players up from junior varsity during the season or postseason as appropriate. 

Transformative techniques:

1) "Speaking greatness." "That was great BUT" underperforms "That was great AND..." Kevin Eastman says, "you can't fool kids, dogs, and basketball players." 

2) Video. "Video is the truth machine." Showing players positive video shows proven success. And Bill Parcells says, "confidence comes from proven success."

3) Media recognition. 'Statistical leaders' get regular media attention. Noting players who get less 'ink' supports players who impact winning yet may be less well known. 

Lagniappe. Bill Walsh changed everything for John Lynch. 

Your words and belief in someone matters.
In 1994, John Lynch was a backup safety at Stanford. For 3 years, he'd barely played.

He wanted to quit, but that year, Stanford hired Bill Walsh as its head coach.

One call with Bill changed everything for John.

He called and said, "I… pic.twitter.com/QbZbeLHICw

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) April 23, 2024

Levels of Accountability

Live three levels of accountability - hold your team accountable, be accountable to your coaches, and stay accountable to self.

Your hard work and communication shows teammates an example. It's not possible or appropriate in high school, but the UNC women's soccer team grades every player every day. If you finish 25th at practice, you cannot possible believe you will see the field on game day. 

Be accountable to coaches. Teaching translates, the attitude and culture translate. If you can't be coachable, understand the defensive rotation and find ways to execute well consistently, how can you play? 

Be accountable to yourself. What is your TODAY plan? What are you doing to grow skill, strategy, physical and mental toughness? Focus is a skill. Hard work is a skill. Resilience is a skill. "Professionalism" is possible for teens. 

Coach Don Meyer preached, "make practice hard so games are easy." 

If you practice accountability to team, to coaching and to yourself, you should fear no one.  

Standards Matter.

Standards are about “how” you do things.

- How you practice
- How you compete
- How you show up

UCONNs standards are why they win.

🎥 Alan Steinpic.twitter.com/QirdC9qEco

— Greg Berge (@gb1121) April 22, 2024

Lagniappe. Study the video of strong players and your own. "Video is the TRUTH MACHINE."  

Muffet Is no Nursery Rhyme

Former Notre Dame women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw is a straight shooter. She hired only women assistants because she said that women deserve the same treatment as men often get. In fact, less than half of NCAA Division 1 head coaches are women. 

Her teams won at the highest levels, including the NCAA championship. Hear her brief commentary.  

"I think the important thing that sports teaches is so many life skills.

You learn - how to handle adversity, how to sacrifice, you learn discipline...and a lot of commitment.

If you want to really be good, you have to be willing to make the sacrifice."@MuffetMcGraw pic.twitter.com/LcIpqulpMy

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 20, 2024

Coachspeak repeats themes worth embracing. Commitment, sacrifice, work, sense of urgency are the stuff of winners.

Lagniappe. Diving.   

Find Inspiration, Try These Check-ins

Inspiration drives us, motivating actions that pay dividends. Seek ways to figure it out. 

I suggested two books to a patient, The Positive Dog and The Compound Effect. She said, "PD was garbage. Compound Effect was life-changing." That's why they sell vanilla and chocolate. 

"The grind" isn't for everyone, whether you believe in the controversial "10,000 Hours" or not. Public school, 180 days a year, 5 hours of real work a day, 900 hours a year. 12 years equals 10,800 hours. 

Suggestions for check ins: 

@JonGordon11

pic.twitter.com/babZJ9mWyz

— Jon Gordon (@JonGordon11) April 21, 2024

The Athletic Transformation Coach 

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@thewinningdiff1

“It’s exciting when you win and it’s exciting when you lose because the process should be exactly the same whether you win or lose. You go back and find things that you could have done better. The hardest thing is to face that stuff. It’s a really tough challenge,” Kobe Bryant… pic.twitter.com/XvEKjtipRN

— The Winning Difference (@thewinningdiff1) April 21, 2024

@WinningCoaches

“It’s about relationships, it’s not about championships!” -- Pat Summitt

— Coach the Coaches (@WinningCoaches) April 21, 2024

@gb1121 

5 simple ways to help your team WIN.

1. Stay mentally prepared
2. Be your best at practice
3. Cheer for others success
4. Maintain your composure
5. Lead your team in high fives

Control the Controllable.

— Greg Berge (@gb1121) April 20, 2024

Inspiration plus perspiration yields a shot at success. 

 

Mimic the Farmer

History provides many coaching analogies. Coaches are teachers, healers, orators, psychologists, disciplinarians. Find themes that resonate.

Conductor. The conductor directs the orchestra.

Chef. The chef nurtures people. - Thomas Keller, Michelin 3-star chef

Director. "The director is the keeper of the story." - Ron Howard

Coaches help teams stay focused. 

Foreman. A foreman supervises factory production. 

General. A general leads an army. "Every battle is won before it is fought."

Painter. The artist crafts a masterpiece. 

Sculptor. Pygmalion animated his statue to life. 

Theatrically, Henry Higgins refines Eliza Doolittle's English. 

Lagniappe. 

Best coaching advice… pic.twitter.com/ypP3OPJ8ud

— Barry Rose (@BRose2344) April 20, 2024

Difference Makers

Some get hung up on titles. Others focus on the product not titles.  

Winning Coaches and Impactful Elite Trainers have a BLUE PRINT, A GAME LIKE PLAN, A FOUNDATION TO THEIR COACHING

For Me it’s knowing all the steps Solutions and Strategies to be able to Teach Offense Defense and Winning Culture !

Get a Real Applicable Philosophy! pic.twitter.com/653NiNW33S

— Ganon Baker (@GanonBaker) March 5, 2024

Cliches and platitudes don't make winners. Inspirational quotes don't make winners. Titles don't make winners. 

Organization, teaching, buy-in, and value for players and team creates 'sustainable competitive advantage'.

For player growth, they need the same blueprint, commitment, and follow-up. Stick with your program. 

A lot changed over three decades:

• A winning tradition emerged. 
• High expectations became the norm. 
• A high volume of players play off-season, high level volleyball. 

Nothing works unless you do. 

Lagniappe. VDE - vision, decision, execution. If you can't see the hitter, how can you defend her?