Motivation
Are You Great?
Spring has brought the usual array of new baseball books, and one of them should catch the eye of coaches everywhere.
It’s called “The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent and IQ is Wrong,” by David Shenk.
The content shouldn’t come as any surprise if you’ve read books like “The [...]
The Agony of Defeat
ABC’s Wide World of Spots had it right years ago when it opened the show with the phrase “The Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat.”
You see it all through March Madness as one team advances and the other goes home. It’s sad but true: the more time, effort and passion you invest in [...]
Being the Best
We just finished two weeks of watching athletes who fought to be the best. Now March Madness gives us another example.
Tina Charles recently became UConn’s career leader in scoring and rebounds and stands as quite possibly the best player in the country entering the tournament season.
“She told me when she came to Connecticut, that she [...]
Problems and Possibilities
Every problem disguises a possibility.
And so it is with all the snowstorms, which, among other things, have complicated life for baseball and softball coaches around large parts of the United States.
Fields are covered with snow. One coach in Virginia told me he doesn’t expect to even see green until April.
Even so, the schedule will not [...]
Canada’s New Hero
I first heard of Sidney Crosby years ago when a sports writer friend mentioned a young man who was supposed to be the next Wayne Gretzky. Hockey insiders had even anointed him “The Next One.”
Now, of course, this young man no longer has to be the next Gretzky. It’s quite enough for him to be [...]
How Did America Get So Good?
Today the United States sets the record for most medals ever won at a Winter Olympics. Whether the men’s hockey team captures the gold or the silver against Canada, America will own 37 medals.
By contrast, 30 years ago, when the 1980 U.S. hockey team pulled off the Miracle on Ice, the entire American squad won [...]
No-Cut Policy
Before you ever cut a player, take this quiz. I found it on John Kessel’s excellent blog for USA Volleyball.
Making cuts always involves pain — both for the coach and the players. That alone should be incentive to cut as few kids as possible.
But there’s a better reason not to cut than that it’s a [...]
The First Dysfunction
A coach with whom I’ve been working says that there is something wrong with her team, and she’s not sure what it is.
This happens a lot. Coaches get a vague feeling that things are slipping, and they don’t know what to do about it.
We talked about herteam, and we agreed that the flaw might be [...]
Can You Be Bored to Death?
Attitude is everything. You’ve heard the phrase, perhaps from a coach or from a motivational speaker.
Now science is showing exactly how true that statement is. A recent Associated Press story asks the question, “Can You Really Be Bored to Death?”
It cites the work of two researchers at University College London who tracked civil servants from [...]
Miracle Anniversary
Last night’s U.S. men’s Olympic hockey victory over Team Canada came nearly 30 years to the day after the “Miracle on Ice,” in which the Americans stunned the Soviet Union.
If anything, the victory over Canada underlines exactly how unbelievable the “Miracle on Ice” was. At least this year’s American team is made up of National [...]
