A few summers ago, my daughter and I were headed for an open-air concert.
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 [...]
Comfort is the enemy of growth. Navy SEALS know that, and they’re teaching it to U.S. Olympians.
“We’re going to re-set your baseline today,” a SEAL tells a group of athletes as they embark on a grueling session to test and expand their limits.
Olympians and SEALS are just like the rest of us. They have limits [...]
On Wayne Gretzky’s birthday — he turns 51 today — I always think of practice and of Gretzky’s father, Walter.
One day, when Wayne Gretzky was already the greatest hockey player in the world, he was practicing with his team, the Edmonton Oilers. Walter watched from the stands.
Afterwards, the two drove home together.
“You just wasted two [...]
Not long ago, J.J. Watt was delivering pizzas for a living. Yesterday he delivered one of the biggest plays of Wild Card Saturday.
Watt intercepted an Andy Dalton pass and returned it for a touchdown, leading the Houston Texans past the Cincinnati Bengals in the first game of the NFL playolffs.
Watt’s, play according to Houston defensive [...]
What can you do to make 2012 your best year yet?
It all begins in the few precious hours before Dick Clark comes on TV and the ball comes down in Times Square. With one fun exercise you can create a year to remember.
Just use the Banquet Technique. It comes in three steps.
First, imagine that this [...]
The price of your Halloween jack-o-lantern just went up. So did the tab for your Thanksgiving and Christmas pumpkin pie.
That’s because Hurricane Irene wiped out hundreds of pumpkin patches in the northeastern states.
No one (except the pumpkin farmers and distributors) thought much about pumpkins when Irene was causing massive flood damage. There were bigger things [...]
We just finished a TotalGamePlan volleyball camp with 16 young women at the Verona Community Center in Verona, N.J.
The week went well, except for one drill. No one had any energy. No one seemed to want to improve. So not wanting to have a losing drill, the coaches made it a learning drill.
Calling the girls [...]
The other day, with practice only about 10 minutes old, I spoke to some players about their work habits. One of the players protested.
“But that was only warmup,” she said.
Only warmup?
What could be more important than a strong warmup?
Warmup sets the tone — physically, mentally and emotionally — for what will come in the rest [...]
No matter what they major in during college years, coaches need some sense of chemistry. Not molecular chemistry, but human chemistry.
Relationships mean everything to sports teams. Bad chemistry has doomed many a dream. Great chemistry can produce what seems to be an overachieving team.
This subject comes up because of a report from ESPNBoston.com that Rajon [...]
Good news has come just in time for Christmas.
The Dallas Academy girls basketball team, which made national news last year when it lost a game 100-0, broke an eight-year losing streak recently with a 34-33 victory over Johnson County. Her is another account.
Meanwhile, players at Wrenshall (Minn.) High School were trying to fathom a 65-0 [...]