// archives

Archive for March, 2009

Attitude or Talent?

“Success is due less to ability than to zeal.”  — Charles Buxton As Opening Day of baseball season draws near, Mike Piazza enters his second year of retirement, bringing him one year closer to induction into the Hall of Fame. (According to Hall of Fame rules, a player must be retired for five years to […]

Great Ventures

“In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.” — Unknown Talk about March Madness. And February Madness. And January Madness. Paul Ridley landed on the Caribbean island of Antigua yesterday, completing three months spent crossing the Atlantic Ocean. He rowed it. Alone. Ridley undertook the voyage as […]

Guarding Against the Self

“The mark of the champion is to be everlastingly on the lookout against the self.” — Golfer Bobby Jones No matter how experienced you are as a coach or athlete, you face an enemy more powerful than any oponent. That enemy comes from within, in the form of the temptation to sit back and get […]

Problem-Solving

“Don’t find fault, find a remedy.” — Henry Ford Where would life be without a machine to wash clothes? On this date in 1797, Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire received a parent for such a machine. Perhaps you’re not interested in Briggs or the history of his invention. But if you’re a coach or an […]

Your Mission

“When you’re wrestling a gorilla, you don’t quit when you get tired. You quit when the gorilla gets tired.” The people in Fargo, N.D., have worked long hours in subfreezing temperatures, trying to fill and place enough sandbags to protect their town from a flood. They are using strength that they never knew they had. […]

The Beautiful Difficulty

“Everything worthwhile, everything of any value, has its price.” — Loretta Young  No major-league player has ever hit a home run in five consecutive times at-bat. Johnny Blanchard may have come the closest. Blanchard, who died Wednesday at age 76, hit four in a row in July of 1961. The fifth time, he hit a […]

A Question of Ego

“People hate me because I am a multifaceted, talented, wealthy, internationally famous genius.” — Comedian Jerry Lewis Ego is a three-letter word with the reputation of a four-letter word. To many, excessive ego is a vice, while a lack of ego is deemed praiseworthy. For instance, Mike Dunlap recently received laurels in a Tucson Citizen […]

Life is a Skill Game

“Even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one’s financial success is due one’s technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering, to personality and the ability to lead people.” — Dale Carnegie  How much of life is skill and how much is something else? It’s an important question […]

Winning Made Simple

“Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition — in having put forth the best within you.” — Henry J. Kaiser Coaches and players often make things too complicated. It’s this simple: In order to win, you simply must play better than the opponent. You don’t have to be bigger, stronger […]

Three Powerful Words

“If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.” — William James A childhood game can instantly improve your chances of reaching your goals. Melissa Johnson writes about it in Saturday’s New York Times, recalling Harvard’s epic upset of Stanford in the 1998 NCAA women’s basketball tournament. Johnson profiles Kathy Delaney-Smith, who […]