No Room For Excuses

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” You have heard it a million times. However, my guess is that you have never heard it from the mouth of the “rich.” Instead, this echo has most likely bounced to your ear with its origins being an excuse. That’s right... an excuse. Excuses are what many use to pacify their guilt of not accomplishing what they are capable of.

I am not suggesting that wealth is success. My inference is that success is the progressive realization of predetermined worthwhile goals. It may be something as simple as raising a family.

What do these names have in common?

Richard Nixon

Gerald Ford

Jimmy Carter

Ronald Reagan

Bill Clinton

They were all President of the United States, right? They were all the most powerful man in the world at one point. However, I am looking for something else.

Richard Nixon was born in the home his father built. He won an award from Harvard his senior year of high school. However, his family was unable to afford his leaving home for college. He instead attended Whittier College.

Gerald Ford was born as Leslie Lynch King, Jr. In 1913 his mother left her abusive husband and took her son to live with her parents. She met Gerald R. Ford, whom she married and gave her child his name Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. He was the only President to be adopted. Ford worked in his stepfather's paint and varnish store growing up. He coached boxing during college to afford his tuition.

Jimmy Carter was the first member of his family ever to go to college and his father was a peanut farmer.

Ronald Reagan was the son of an alcoholic traveling shoe salesman. He worked his way into show business by broadcasting baseball games. At the age of 40, he was divorced and his career was at a dead end.

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe IV. His father (a traveling salesmen) died in an automobile accident three months before he was born. His mother married Roger Clinton and Bill took that name. Clinton grew up in a turbulent family. His stepfather was a gambler and alcoholic who regularly abused his wife, and sometimes Clinton's half brother Roger.

None of these men were born into wealth and prosperity, yet they each achieved the rank of most powerful person in the world by working hard and not making excuses. These five presidents were born into normal families who struggled. Yet, they refused to use that as an excuse.

Life is too short to make excuses. Set your goals and pursue them. If you have been dealt a “worse” hand than another, it may indeed be a gift that teaches you the value of hard work. Your story will be richer and your success sweeter when you achieve your dreams. Maybe one day I will cast a vote for you as President of The United States!

The information provided in this blog was written by Ron White and is courtesy of Jim Rohn's Newsletter. Visit Ron White at http://memoryinamonth.com/.

Practice Smart

The following was taken from Hoop Tactics on player expectation during practice.

1. Be on time to practice
2. Take care of self and equipment
3. Be in top physical condition
4. Concentrate----Listen and learn
5. Give your best effort at all times
6. Make your teammates better
7. Play through adversity

Go to http://hooptactics.com for some great information.

Temporary vs Permanent

There are a lot of people that want microwave results. They want results right now and fast. Well in reality it's not that easy. It takes a lot of dedication and committment to see real results. Results that are permanent. I see basketball players doing this all the time. They go to the gym every once in a while and expect to see results that will produce habits that will change their game. Take a player that has a bad habit of dribbling with their head down. A coach can tell that player to play with their head up and he may for a few plays, but they will go back to dribbling with their head down. What does it take for a player to change a bad had and form a good habit? Some say 21 days. It could be 1 day, 3 months, or even a year. However long it takes to form a habit I can tell you this, it takes consistency.

So, this is what I want you players to understand. If you meet with a coach once a week to work on your skill set. Or if you attend a clinic, camp, or workshop to improve your fundamentals. You will only get better temporarily. When you are with that coach and he/she may give the information needed to improve, the drills to improve the skill, and the feedback on how you are doing, it's all temporary. To go from that player that dribbles with their head down to the player that has great vision you must practice that skill over and over and over again. Only you can make your skill permanent. Allow the coach of your team or your skill development coach to temporarily make you better, but it's up to you make it permanent.

The Shooters Mindset

Here are 4 tips courtesy of CoachLikeaPro.com that can develop your basketball shooting fundamentals.

1. Confidence - When you have confidence as a shooter you have a short memory when it comes to missed shots. You always believe the next shot is going in. Michael Jordan never thought about the consequences of missing a big shot. Why? Because when you think about the consequences it always have a negative result.
2. Get Open - You must possess the ability to move without the ball. Being able to use various cuts and read and use screens will give you the ability to catch the ball in position to score. This will then allow you to get clean looks at the basket.
3. Think Shot - Shooters must think shot everytime they catch the ball. To think shot you must be shot ready. Your hands must be ready to receive the ball, knees bent, hips dropped, and you must be ready to shoot the ball quickly. Once you receive the ball you must then recognize if you are open. The great shooters not only know when to shoot, but when not to shoot.
4. Be hard to guard - The great shooters like Ray Allen, Michael Redd, and Richard Hamilton are constantly in motion. They know how to separate from the defender, read and use screens, use cuts, and how to create space away from the ball, on the catch, and off the dribble. The great shooters know how to read the defense and then make the correct read to get open. They know when to curl or flare. They know when to cut backdoor or any other purposeful cuts to find an opening and shoot the ball.

http://www.coachlikeapro.com/basketball-shooting-tips.html

Free Shooting Workout

This is a great workout to go through if you need to improve on shooting off the dribble or if you just need to keep your skills sharp. It can be done by yourself or with a partner/rebounder. If you have rebounder you will be able to get through the workout faster. Here are some tips on shooting off the dribble before you go through the workout:

• Use a pound dribble – This gets the ball back in your hands quickly which allows for a quicker shot.
• Sell the drive – When shooting off the dribble you want the defense to believe you are trying to get all the way to the basket. Go hard off the bounce and then stop on a dime and shoot the jumper.
• Be on balance – Basketball is played on the balls of your feet. You must have strong feet when you pull up and shoot. What I mean by this is you have to be able to stop without leaning forward or falling backward on the shot.
• Straight up straight down – I know we see pro basketball players shoot fade away jump shots all the time, but those shots are not fundamental. If you want to master shooting off the dribble then you must be able to stop, pull up, and not fade or lean one way or the other.
• Head up – I know this workout is working on shooting off the dribble but you must be able to have your head up to see the floor and be able to find the open man.

Directions: If doing this workout by yourself then you should spin and catch the ball behind the 3 pt line. If the drill calls for multiple change of direction moves or multiple dribbles then you should spin and catch the ball about 3-5 feet outside the three point line unless the drill specifies differently. Get into a good triple threat position and make moves quickly toward the basket.

1. 1 dribble pull up going to the right (25 shots)
2. 2 dribble pull up going to the right (25 shots)
3. 1 dribble pull up going to the left (25 shots)
4. 2 dribble pull up going to the left (25 shots)
5. 3 dribble change of direction moves: Stagger three cones on both wings and top of key. Dribble toward first cone and change direction at each cone before shooting 1 dribble pull up (Crossover, between legs, behind back, spin move - 25 shots for each move).
6. Double/Combo moves: Place 3 cones in a row (about 3-5 ft apart) on both wings and top of key. Dribble toward the first cone and execute a double move then a rhythm dribble. Continue double move with rhythm dribble at 2nd and 3rd cones before shooting 1 dribble pull up (double crossover, behind back, between legs/crossover, between legs/behind back - 25 shots for each move).

Take 5 free throws in between each set of shots. Total of 300 shots off the dribble taken with 60 free throws.

Team Building

Coach Jim Boone's thoughts on Team Building.

Team building is a Daily Process: You are changing hearts, not teaching technique!

Team concepts should be the most important component of the game to the Coach.

Your players will know what is important to you as the coach, you must emphasize it daily. It's not what you do it's what you emphasize.

1. Teach your Team to put the concerns of others above their own
2. Teach your Team to get involved in something bigger than themselves
3. Understanding and accepting roles
4. Thankfulness
5. Enthusiasm for each other

Visit Coach Boone on his website at http://www.coachjimboone.com.

11 Commandments of a Point Guard

The following 11 commandments are used by Coach Sundance Wicks and the Northern Illinois basketball team.

1. Media, family, friends, pressure, fans, girlfriends, or hangers on, ignore them on matters of basketball, they don’t know what’s happening here.
2. Don’t forget to have fun but don’t be the class clown. Class clowns and leaders don’t mix, Clowns can’t run an on-court huddle.
3. Point guards make defensive plays with their legs more than arms. Sit in your stance and move your feet, have active hands, anticipate and wait for them to make the mistake.
4. Know your job cold. This is not a game without errors, keep yours to a minimum (3:1 assist to turnover ratio minimum).
5. Know your own players, who can shoot, who can catch, who can finish, who needs encouragement, who needs to be pushed…be precise…know your opponent.
6. Be the same person everyday, in conditioning, preparing to lead, studying your homework, studying your scout, studying your game plan. A coach can’t prepare you for every eventuality, prepare yourself and remember: impulse decisions usually lead to mistakes.
7. Deciding to make the safe pass is a good play. Turnovers, reaching fouls, missed free throws and missed lay-ups are bad plays. Protect against those.
8. You must learn to manage the game: control the tempo, get us where we need to be, communicate the play, ball handling, proper reads, well timed passes, accurate passes, quick passes, deceptive passes. Clock, clock, clock, don’t ever lose track of the clock TIME & SCORE!).
9. Points and assists are not how you are going to be judged, your job is to get your team to win, that’s how you are going to be judged.
10. When all around you is in chaos, you must be the hand to steer the ship. If you have a panic button, so will everyone else. Our ship can’t have panic buttons.
11. Don’t be a celebrity point guard, we don’t need any of those. We need battlefield commanders that are willing to fight it out every day, every week, and every season, and lead their team to win, after win, after win.

Visit Coach Sundance Wicks on his website http://www.coachsundancewicks.com/

Average Teams vs Great Teams

Here are some bullet points I got from The Coaching Toolbx on the difference in average teams and great teams.

Which Path Will You Choose?


MOST ATHLETES CHOOSE THE EASY WAY!


AVERAGE TEAMS:

• always show up physically...but mentally?
• have individuals...
• make excuses...
• don't work any harder than they have to...
• are inconsistent --up for one game, down for the next...
• rarely seem to win the big game ...
• live on past accomplishments or future fantasies...
• always think they know more than their coach...
• always think they are better than they are given credit for...
• are a dime a dozen...
  

GREAT TEAMS:

• are self-motivated...
• are intelligent...
• are consistent...
• execute...
• are fundamentally sound...
• out hustle opponents...
• play together...
• don't worry about individual accomplishments. The team is always first...
• win the games they are supposed to...
• can accept constructive criticism...
• believe in their teammates and help motivate them by being a positive complementary player...
• are not just satisfied with a win, but also with how well they played...
• have players who have sacrificed many hours by themselves in the cold, at night, when they could have been somewhere else, in order to become a better skilled individual in order to better help the team...
• are not just born, but are developed by hard work, cooperation, and a common goal...
• unfortunately are seldom found because most choose the easy way...
  THE BEST THING IS, IT IS YOUR CHOICE!