OFFER RESULTS, NOT ALIBIS

I came across a couple of good items in the Sunday New York Times.  First, David V. Johnson writes about Tennis players.  How come basketball players get bashed for specializing in their sport but no one says a thing about tennis players?  Come on, you know who you are, explain to me why no one says anything or writes on their blog or their books about how these kids stop attending school at 14 to pursue their life long dream of becoming a professional tennis player at 16. Not to mention the 6 hours per day they put in trying to get better at the age of 10?

“You really need to start thinking about home schooling,” Smith, a coach for the United States Tennis Association, told Mkrtchian, 15. “You have a lot of potential, but the problem of going to a strict school is that you’re going to fall behind.”

Come on professional bloggers, go after the tennis kids like you do American basketball players.

Connor Ennis with a Q and A with former football coach  Philip Fulmer.

I said this in another article but my priest, we sat down and talked about everything that happened and one of the things he told me was that before priests become bishops oftentimes they take a year’s sabbatical and they have to study and rest and pray and prepare themselves. That’s the way that I’ve taken this year. I know Coach Coughlin did it, took a year off. I read where he went around to a lotof places and studied.

-Coach Finamore

hoops135@hotmail.com

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

This weekend I watched an incredible movie;  ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ starring Will Smith.   The story is about a guy who perseveres, sacrifices and never gives up.  Three valuable traits we all need not only in coaching but in every day life.

Thanks to my friend Ray LeBov from APBR.org for the following article written by Charley Rosen of Fox Sports.com on former NBA players and how they do in the coaching business.

Why, then, have there been more role players who make the grade as coaches?

Because, in order to merely compete:

They had to learn all of the subtle, detailed aspects of the game.

They understood the necessities of discipline, preparation, teamwork and unselfishness.

Since they could rarely overpower a game, they learned how (and why) to let the game come to them.

They practiced hard and never took shortcuts.

They had to develop their off-the-ball game.

They valued the contributions of role players.

Their psyches weren’t overwhelmed or unduly influenced by the star syndrome.And why have so many great players failed when they moved to the bench?  Because they were good enough to simply out-talent so many of their contemporaries while their knowledge of the game was relatively shallow.

A BIG ASSIST

We love team players.  We love guys who share knowledge.  We love guys/gals who make the extra pass and are always looking to spread the love.

Thanks to blog reader Billy Boyle for this reading recommendation ‘Talent is Overrated’ by Geoff Colvin.

Colvin set out to answer this question: “What does great performance require?” In this volume, he shares several insights generated by hundreds of research studies whose major conclusions offer what seem to be several counterintuitive perspectives on what is frequently referred to as “talent.” (See Pages 6-7.) In this context, I am reminded of Thomas Edison’s observation that “vision without execution is hallucination.” If Colvin were asked to paraphrase that to indicate his own purposes in this book, my guess (only a guess) is that his response would be, “Talent without deliberate practice is latent” and agrees with Darrell Royal that “potential” means “you ain’t done it yet.” In other words, there would be no great performances in any field (e.g. business, theatre, dance, symphonic music, athletics, science, mathematics, entertainment, exploration) without those who have, through deliberate practice developed the requisite abilities.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT 24-7

FORWARD

Yahoo Sports Adrian Wojnarowski on the late Chuck Daly (this article was published May 10th, 2009).

On the Detroit Pistons’ mid-April trip to Miami, Joe Dumars drove with a carload of old guard franchise employees – the trainer, public relations director and radio voice – to Jupiter, Fla., to visit Chuck Daly. They had a sweet time remembering the glory days of the Bad Boys, but the old coach had been watching Detroit’s games between treatments for pancreatic cancer and wanted to talk all about it. He had so many questions for Dumars, still so much curiosity about the plans and perspective of the Pistons president.

When it was time to leave, Dumars was walking out the door when Daly called him back alone. Daly was gaunt, 50 pounds lighter, and yet those eyes had lost nothing. Daly leaned close to Dumars and whispered, “Always go forward in life.”

Never look back, he told Dumars. Never.

“That was his way,” Dumars said softly on the phone Saturday night, “of saying goodbye.”

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT 24-7

GIVING BACK

I was on the phone with a good friend tonight and the discussion was professional athletes giving back.  Mainly, the ones who help out the programs/schools in which they once played for as a youngster.

How often do pro athletes give back?  How much money do they actually donate?  I know it’s none of my business but I just hope that they do.  Because if I had the cash, I would give back to my former school.

Pro athletes have thousands of dollars, some have millions.  Giving back a few thousand to help out would not break them.  Money to help with uniforms, gym upgrades, weight room renovation, help pay for travel, etc.

Muhsin Muhammad, a 1991 Waverly High graduate gives back via Lansing State Journal.

About 400 athletes and 150 to 200 physical education students will use the equipment in a 4,000-square-foot weight room that in 2007 was dubbed the Muhsin Muhammad II Fitness Center, Beckholt said. Muhammad donated $60,000 in money and equipment that year.

Kevin Byrnes, who was Muhsin’s varsity football coach before retiring from Waverly in 2007, said it would have taken two or three years for the district to come up with that much money through fundraising.

“It would have taken tons of people and man hours. With the economy the way it is, it would have made it even more difficult,” he said.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT 24-7