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Archive for the ‘Inventive Thinking’ Category
Who Wrote it Best? Michael vs. Kobe – Love Letters to Basketball
Posted: March 31, 2019 in Inventive Thinking, Uncategorized0
3 THINGS SUCCESSFUL SUPER BOWL COACHES DO
Posted: February 4, 2016 in Coach Successful, Inventive Thinking, UncategorizedTags: Coach Successful
For 50 years, we’ve watched the best teams in the NFL fight the final battle of the season. It’s the final test, the ultimate game to decide who will be remembered and who will be in second place. It is, no doubt, a monumental experience for players, but it is pivotal for their coaches. They are leading the pack. They will suffer the most criticism. They will be left to pick up the pieces and start over.With such high stakes, the Super Bowl becomes a stage for leadership to either thrive or crumble. In looking back over these 50 years of match ups, we are highlighting three winning coaches who epitomize the steps needed to experience ultimate success.
1. SUCCESSFUL COACHES HAVE A “SOFT SPOT.”
Football is not a game for the overly-sensitive or softhearted. It’s a difficult game that demands acute focus. But, Vince Lombardi, two-time Super Bowl winning coach for the Green Bay Packers, knew the value of bringing “feeling” on the field. He understood that unless the team had a strong mutual care for one another, their game would lack necessary connection. The team would be out of sync.
Jim Taylor, one of 10 Packers who played for Lombardi, remembers one of the coach’s tactics that required mutual care and led to their success in the first-ever Super Bowl. “We had established the power sweep,” he recalls. The strategy required a unified force and an unyielding trust in the man on the line by your side. It was based on a foundation of awareness for the other guys on the team. And it led to two Super Bowl victories. “With our blockers we were a ball-possession offense that could move the chains. It’s still only blocking and tackling.”
Lombardi said it this way,
There are a lot of coaches with good ball clubs who know the fundamentals and have plenty of discipline but still don’t win the game. [They’re missing] the third ingredient: if you’re going to play together as a team you’ve got to care for one another. You’ve got to love each other. Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself: ‘I have to do my job well in order that he can do his…’ The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling [the teammates] have for each other.”
Knowing who’s on your team and having a “soft spot” for them, makes the difference to take home the win.
2. SUCCESSFUL COACHES SHARE THEIR LUNCH.
Coach Bill Parcells, like Vince Lombardi, knew that individual players, no matter how outstanding or capable they were, couldn’t carry the ball alone. Team effort was the only way to the win.
Parcells has a sign hanging in his office that states his philosophy plainly, “Individuals play the game but teams win championships.”
In Super Bowl XXV, Parcells’ winning year with the New York Giants, the final score was 20-19 over Buffalo. We can’t contribute that one point to a single failure or success by either team, but the team that worked in sync: setting a record for the amount of time of ball-control offense (40 minutes and 33 seconds) is a good indication that the team was the victor— not any one, individual player.
Giants quarterback Jeff Hostetler converted three third-down plays—an 11-yard pass to running back David Meggett, a 14-yard toss to wide receiver Mark Ingram, and a 9-yard pass to Howard Cross to give New York a 17-12 lead in the third quarter. Hostetler was never a one man show; it took the team.
Parcell’s coaching proves that what we can do alone pales in comparison to the potential we have when we work together.
3. SUCCESSFUL COACHES ARE GOOD AT TRUST FALLS.
Coach Dick Vermeil, who guided the St. Louis Rams to victory in Super Bowl XXIV, prepared for success long before he ever headed to the big game. He’d been learning about his players and becoming a person they could count on since their first practice season.
When asked about his number one priority in leading his team, Vermeil said without hesitation,
Anyone who has coached for long knows that you’ve got to establish trust with your players before you can ever lead your players. Trust is the most essential thing to establish as a coach; trust precedes influence for every leader of a team.
Coaches like Vermeil foresee the thoughts and emotions that will be generated by an upcoming challenge. Then, they have the authority with the players to redirect their mindset away from fears and worries by reminding everyone of their strengths and focusing their attention on the task at hand.
Successful coaches have a history of accountability and loyalty to their team. And, success in the Super Bowl begins with a coach who understands the value of team unity and deep-rooted trust long before dreaming of being #1.
There is an absolute certainty that they can be trusted win or lose, and that’s how they win.
Disheartened after another day of failing to connect with his students, the young teacher trudged upstairs to his office and slumped down at his desk chair in defeat. He was angry, and he had every right to be mad. After all, his boss at the YMCA had assigned him a seemingly impossible task. He had been handed a classroom full of misbehaving mischief-makers whom he somehow was expected to make enthusiastic about physical fitness—within two weeks. His three predecessors each had been dismissed after unsuccessful attempts to interest the unruly young men in exercise. Unless something changed, it looked like he would be following their footsteps out the door.
As for activities, his options were limited. Winter weather had forced the physical education class indoors to the gymnasium, and his students showed absolutely no attraction to the usual calisthenics: push-ups, sit-ups, and the like. Also, since many of the students were notorious troublemakers, any sport lending itself to rough play was off limits. He had found that out the hard way after an aborted attempt to introduce lacrosse had ended in a slew of injuries. He had tried derivations of indoor soccer too, but the students had been completely unreceptive to them.
Mulling over the predicament, the young gym instructor concluded that nothing of the usual variety would hold the attention of his students. He needed to come up with a new game. He then began to think abstractly about the team sports he knew, recognizing that, at root, each involved a ball and a goal. He decided a larger, softer ball would be most appropriate for an indoor game. To eliminate violence, he wanted to move away from a type of goal which encouraged forceful or fast-moving shots as in hockey or soccer. Consequently, he hit upon the idea of a goal with an opening at the top rather than on the side to require an arcing or looping trajectory for shots. Since defenders could easily surround and guard such a box-goal, he chose to mount it above their heads. Finally, to prevent the rough collisions of tackling, he stipulated that the person with the ball could not advance it on foot but only by passing.
After several hours spent pondering how the game would be played, the young teacher drew up a list of thirteen rules and had them typed out. He then asked the gymnasium’s facility manger for two wooden boxes so that he could construct the goals. The building superintendent did not have any boxes but provided two peach baskets instead. The next day the young instructor nailed the baskets about 10-feet above the floor of the gym and put the rules of his newly created sport on display. Not only did the game appeal to his students, within a matter of months basket-ball had caught on at YMCAs around the country. The once-discouraged gym teacher, James Naismith, had invented a sport which would go on to become one of the most popular in the world. In 2010 its original rules, which Naismith had scrawled on two pieces of paper, sold for $4.3 million!
Application
James Naismith faced a crisis; his job depended on exciting a group of cynical, asocial youth about exercise. At this juncture, he could have complained about the unfairness of his assignment or griped about the behavioral problems of his students. However, rather than being consumed by the difficulties in front of him, Naismith stayed focused on finding a way to connect with his students. What sticky situation are you presently facing at work? How can you encourage your team to stay focused on searching for a solution rather than worrying about the size of the problem?
James Naismith’s first few attempts to engage his students failed miserably, yet he kept moving forward. How have you moved on from failures in your life, and what lessons have you learned from those failures? Based on your experience, how might you influence your teammates to respond to failure?
Basketball University - BBallU.net 