It shows little boys who lived in a village built on stilts in water. They wanted to learn about soccer, but had no place to play. So they built a raft to use as a field!

They turned every disadvantage into an advantage. Their playing area was small, so they learned precise ball control. When the ball went into the water, they had to jump in to get it, so they became comfortable playing wet.

They never stopped being hungry, and their program turned into a great one.

Many thanks to one of my former athletes, Taryn Tabano, for sending it to me.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

Yesterday I was home looking for a pen. I checked the drawer, but saw only a pile of old crayons, markers and pencils. After moving one or two of them without finding anything, I wandered around the house in a futile search.

Finally I returned to the pen drawer and did what I should have done all along: dug deep into the pile. Sure enough, there were two pens! But in the meantime, time, effort and who knows what else were lost.

A wise person once said, “Genius is the ability to evade work by doing something right the first time.”

Or to put it another way, if you don’t have time to do things right, how could you possibly have time to do them wrong?

This quote is attributed to Coach Bobby Knight: “Do what needs to be done. Do it when it needs to be done. Do it as well as it can be done. Do this all the time.”

Ollie Gelston coached basketball for many years at Montclair State University in Northern New Jersey. He had only one rule: Be in the right place and the right time, and do the right thing.

No matter what words you use, it’s time to make quality a part of today’s living. Start by starting correctly.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

We had tickets on the lawn, while much of the crowd — and the band — would be under shelter.

That meant that the show would go on, despite the wind, rain, thunder and lightning.

We could barely see as we drove. We stopped once. We listened on the radio for any hope that the storm would pass.

There’s just one thing we didn’t do. We never said one word about turning around and going home. We wanted to see the show, and gave no thought to not seeing it. And we saw it!

Funny thing about that storm. If we had been going to school, to work or on an annoying errand, it would have been a perfect excuse not to go.

It’s the same way with you. Lots of the reasons you give yourself for not doing something are just excuses.

In Juneau, Alaska, where it rains about 220 days per year, the people say they never postpone an event because of bad weather. If they did, they could never get anything done. They don’t use weather as an excuse.

Back to the concert for a moment. I can’t recall exactly, but I’m sure that those of us who made it to the show were congratulating each other on our perseverance. There’s just one thing wrong with that picture. Real achievement doesn’t come from doing the things you want to do. It comes from doing the things you need to do. No excuses.

How about you? When you decide not to do something, do you have a reason or an excuse?

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No wonder! Taking that first step is a huge moment for any baby. It separates the past from the future, and opens the way for a different life.

You’re just like a baby in the sense that first steps don’t end when you grow up. Life is full of first steps, and you can take them any time you want. You can go from out-of-shape to buff, from addicted to sober, from sick to healthy or from jobless to employed. In each case, that first step is the one that can transform everything. Nothing happens without it.

Just as with a baby, that first step isn’t easy. You may fall a few times. You may be a bit rocky on your feet. But those things are soon forgotten when you’re on your way to a new life.

If you’re not getting what you want from life, you can change it all with that one step. You can start doing something you haven’t been doing, or you can stop doing something harmful.

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova took a big step in her life. Years ago, after winning a major or two, she faced a choice: She could rest on her laurels or become one of the all-time greats. She chose greatness, and began by overhauling her diet. She became great, maybe the greatest of all time. It began with the one step of fixing her diet.

What step can you take today that will transform your life?

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Take a first step toward a new life today with “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success.”

It was my first trip there since the series ended, and, upon walking in, I asked the waitress, “Where was Tony?”

There were no more words needed. She knew that I was asking “Where was Tony sitting in the final episode?”

It reminded me of the only time I’ve ever visited Dealey Plaza, the place in Dallas where president John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

As new tourists arrive in the plaza, they ask two questions. The first is, “Where was he?” There are no extra words needed; the question refers to where the president was when the bullets hit.

The second question, accompanied by a gesture toward the Texas Book Depository, is “Which was one was it?” That question refers to the window where police say the assassin perched.

I asked my friend and fellow blogger Larry O’Connor, who sees deep into the human experience, about what these sparse conversations meant. He said that they reflected an understanding so embedded among some groups that words were scarcely necessary.

For a fan of “The Sopranos,” the question, “Where was Tony?” is sufficient. For an American who remembers JFK’s death, few words would be needed in Dealey plaza.

It made me wonder about my team — and yours. What values, thoughts, habits, are so embedded and perfectly understood that no further explanations are needed?

If you play for the New York Yankees, the expectation is clear: win the World Series. If you played hoops under Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee, you knew you were going to work hard. If you join the women’s soccer team at the University of North Carolina, you better be ready to compete in practice, because that program is about internal competition.

In my years as a sports writer, I worked with certain understandings: you’re going to write a story, you’re going to get it in on time, and it will be the best story you can possibly produce in that amount of time.

We’re talking about your team culture. How are things done? How well are they done? How often are they done?

In my earliest days in the newspaper business, I got a lesson in team culture. One day our department was getting a lot of heat from the big editors. “Don’t worry,” said my boss. “It will blow over in a day or so.”

That editor knew from experience that the sudden emphasis on quality and accountability would not last long.

How about in your group? The people there have a deep understanding of something. The question is, “What?” What do they really believe about the way things are done? Will you keep your emphasis on quality, or will things blow over? The answer to that question will determine how successful your team is.

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That question more and more is drawing the attention of businesses. In this Harvard Business Review article, researcher Sandy Pentland concludes that patterns of communication mean more than factors like intelligence, personality, skill, and the substance of discussions combined.

But what exactly are patterns of communication?

Pentland has developed a badge that measures the energy, body language and even the places where people communicate. Strangely enough, the badge doesn’t measure — or care about — the substance of the communication. It just collects data on how people interact.

If you’re a coach, boss or leader of any kind, the video in the article can help you think about your team.

As a clue, listen to what Pentland says about the personality type that best predicts a team’s success: a charismatic connector. This is the person who goes from team member to team member, asking their opinion on certain issues.

This Psychology Today article goes into the subject of charismatic connectors. It said, “In brainstorming sessions with teams whose social style was similar to these charismatic connectors, the resulting quality of the talking was characterized by high levels of listening, more even-handed turn-taking, and high levels of engagement, trust, and cooperation.”

Who knows? Perhaps Jeremy Lin is a charismatic connector, and that helps explain why the New York Knicks improved with him in the lineup.

Do you know enough about charismatic connectors? Do you have one on your team?

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She also said, with not as much pride, that her daughter can only do one thing at a time.

Only?

By being able to do “only” one thing at a time, her daughter owns the key to success. Doing “only” one thing at a time is a gift, not a limitation.

“I can’t do two things at once,” said Helena Bonham Carter. “I can’t even do one thing at once.”

Great things come to people who can define a task and then stay with it through completion. Narrow focus helps you beat the odds, win the big prize. It’s a basic part of your mental game. Multitasking is the enemy of quality.

“Multitasking is a way of screwing up several things at once,” a wise person once said.

Besides, the ability to focus on more than one thing at a time is a myth. You can switch quickly from one thought to another, but your brain cannot hold two simultaneously.

“To do two things at once is to do neither,” said ancient writer Publilius.

I’m not sure what the woman who can 12 things at a time does for a living, but I would bet on the quality of the work turned in by the daughter who can do “only” one thing.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

Writing in The New York Post after Rivera tore his ACL in a freak pre-game accident, Sherman says the relief pitcher is more than just a baseball player. He is the embodiment of greatness, not in the cheap, hero-a-day way so common today, but the kind who transforms his part of the world.

Sherman even uses the word “nobility” to describe Rivera, and he’s not wrong. Rivera has survived two decades in the New York spotlight without any hint of  blemish. He never did anything you wouldn’t want your children to see. He never brought embarrassment to  himself, his team or his profession. In Rivera, you are talking about a special kind of person.

And when that person can be the very best in the world at his job, you have someone who inspires reverence from teammates and opponents alike. In my book “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success,” there is a chapter on staying on guard against the self. The secret lies in four words: respect, humility, curiosity and hunger. Those words apply to Rivera. As Coach John Wooden said, “Talent can get you to the top, but character keeps you there.”

It doesn’t matter whether you like the Yankees or not. Any time you can see greatness, you want to look, appreciate and study. For instance, Sherman writes, “I would dare say I have never heard an opponent speak badly of Rivera.”

That in itself might be a bigger feat than all of Rivera’s saves.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

It reminds me of the best parking job I ever did. Late for practice, I gained a few precious seconds by slipping gracefully into the parking space and racing into the gym. Only then did I realize that I was at the wrong gym. It was Wednesday, when we practice in the gym across town.

Moral of the story? It doesn’t matter how well you park if you’re in the wrong lot.

All this comes to mind because of a Baseball Prospectus article by Mike Ferrin. In discussing the trade in which the New York Yankees acquired pitcher Michael Pineda, he points to an article by Tom Verducci that cites research from Stan Conte, head trainer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Conte indicates 50 percent of starting pitchers and 34 percent of all relief pitchers will wind up on the disabled list this year.

Think of that for a moment. If the citation is correct, you’ve got to wonder about modern routines. Despite all the advances in conditioning and in medicine, half the starting pitchers in the big leagues will be hurt badly enough this season to miss at least two weeks.

It makes you wonder if these advances are really advances at all. Are we doing the right things? Are trainers, managers, pitching coaches, etc., in the right parking lot?

I don’t have any data, but I wonder how today’s injury rate would stack up against the rates from 50 or even 100 years ago.

It seems to me that there are fragile pitchers in all eras, and durable pitchers in all eras.

Years ago, starting pitchers would work every fourth day, and sometimes fill in as relievers. Nowadays, starters work every fifth day, and hardly ever appear in relief. Nowadays, teams carefully monitor the number of pitches that every pitcher throws. Some teams even have special rules for how often the pitcher can work.

The Yankees did it, not too successfully, with Joba Chamberlain, and the Washington Nationals are doing the same with Stephen Strasburg, who is more than a year removed from surgery.

Is all of this producing more durable and more productive pitchers? If you have any data, I’d love to see it. In the meantime, you can’t help but wonder if, when it comes to nurturing pitchers, big-league baseball teams are in the wrong parking lot.

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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”

Those words capture so much of what coaching should be about. The job of a leader is more than just giving orders or creating wins and losses. It’s about making a difference in lives.

At the school where I coach, headmaster Tom Nammack gathers the coaches for a talk before the school year begins. He always makes it a point to say, “The two hours the child spends with you every day might be the best two hours of his or her day.”
The older I get, the more I appreciate what he is saying. No one has it all, and the one you least suspect — the person who seems to have everything together — could be suffering on the inside.

That’s why leaders should look at those under their care as more than pieces to be placed into a strategic puzzle. They are human beings, who need support, guidance, challenge, fun and meaning.

Coach Pritchard, who is my co-author on “Ten Things Great Coaches Know,” told me another quote that leaders can keep in mind. It goes, “Never let the problem be solved become greater than the person to be loved.”

My friend Dr. Carl McGown, who has coached championship volleyball teams all over the world, has said, “It’s not important whether they love you. What’s important is that you love them.”
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Would you like to improve at what you do? “The Improvement Factor: How Winners Turn Practice into Success” can show you how! Are you a coach? “Ten Things Great Coaches Know” can make you a better one.