Thus morning my wife and I went shopping, trying to find as much value as possible for our money.

You see more and more of that in the recession.

If only you saw the same urgency to find value in the gym! If coaches spent their grocery money the way they spend their precious practice minutes, they soon would be broke and they would have nothing left in the fridge.

Everything has a value. A good coach will look at a span of time — let’s say 15 minutes — and decide what is the best use for those minutes. Three questions should resonate for any coach:

Am I doing the right thing?

Am I doing it the right way?

Am I doing it as often as possible?

Early in my career as a coach, I ran my practices based on anecdotal information I picked up from coaches here and there.

It turns out that the information was wrong. So it turns out that I was doing the wrong thing. And I was doing this all the time. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered an approach to my sport that made complete sense. Now, using this system, we are having lots of success.

The best coaches in the world seek out the best coaches in the world. Even when he was winning national titles year after year, John Wooden spent his off-seasons trying to learn more. He made sure that when he went into his practice sessions, he was doing the right thing.

The next time you practice, ask yourself if you are doing the right thing. Because if you are not, then you are wasting practice minutes.