Jeremy Lin has become a dream for the NBA and the New York Knicks, but he’s a nightmare for coaches. That’s because Lin and his performance with the Knicks force all of us to wonder what we may be overlooking on our own team. Since joining the Knicks, Lin has brought skill and energy to […]
Here comes the next frontier in training. It’s the brain. Evidence suggests that an athlete’s gray matter is fundamentally different from another person’s. And if this is the case, then the brain — more than ever — controls all three aspects of performance: physical, mental and emotional. In the April issue of Discover magazine, author […]
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, […]
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 […]
This time of year brings to mind one of my favorite stories from my days of covering pro hockey. The New York Islanders were deep into the playoffs, and one of their top players, Bryan Trottier, was being interviewed after a victory. Someone asked Trottier how he felt about the way things were going. “Scared,” […]
How do you win a seven-game series? The obvious answer, of course, is to win four games before your opponent does. But doing that is tricky. Winning a playoff series is a psychological minefield in which each team must fight the temptation to put the math ahead of the moment. “It’s all about staying in […]
How do you win a seven-game series? The obvious answer, of course, is to win four games before your opponent does. But doing that is tricky. Winning a playoff series is a psychological minefield in which each team must fight the temptation to put the math ahead of the moment. “It’s all about staying in […]
“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” ~ George Washington Carver With the NHL and NBA teams battling it out in their respective playoffs, a great postseason story comes to mind: Colorado’s run to the 2001 Stanley Cup. Winning any title is hard enough, but the Avalanche […]