This Is Not Just About Sports!!!
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THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT SPORTS!!! “The difference between the hero and the coward is one step sideways." Gene Hackman The difference between winning and losing is NOT taking that sideways step. Take it head on - Whatever “it” is. - Take the pain head on - Take the hunger head on - Take the confusion head on - Take the rejection head on. Bill Parcells is one of the greatest football minds of all times. He has always been looking for the player who did not take that one step sideways. This is an except from an article written about Parcells by Michael Lewis in the New York Times on September 12, 2007: At the back of Parcells’s personal binder there are a few loose, well-thumbed sheets that defy categorization: a copy of a speech by Douglas MacArthur; a passage from a book about coaches, which argues that a coach excels by purifying his particular vision rather than emulating a type. Among the papers is an anecdote Parcells brings up often in conversation, about a boxing match that took place nearly 30 years ago between the middleweights Vito Antuofermo and Cyclone Hart. Parcells loves boxing; his idea of a perfect day in the off- season is to spend it inside some ratty boxing gym in North Jersey. “It’s a laboratory,” he says. “You get a real feel for human behavior under the strongest duress — under the threat of physical harm.” In this laboratory he has identified a phenomenon he calls the game quitter. Game quitters, he says, seem “as if they are trying to win, but really they’ve given up. They’ve just chosen a way out that’s not apparent to the naked eye. They are more concerned with public opinion than the end result.” Parcells didn’t see the Hart-Antuofermo fight in person but was told about it, years ago, by a friend and boxing trainer, Teddy Atlas. It stuck in his mind and now strikes him as relevant. Seated, at first, he begins to read aloud from the pages: how in this fight 29 years ago Hart was a well-known big puncher heavily favored against the unknown Vito Antuofermo, how Hart knocked Antuofermo all over the ring, how Antuofermo had no apparent physical gifts except “he bled well.” “But,” Parcells reads, “he had other attributes you couldn’t see.” Antuofermo absorbed the punishment dealt out by his natural superior, and he did it so well that Hart became discouraged. In the fifth round, Hart began to tire, not physically but mentally. Seizing on the moment, Antuofermo attacked and delivered a series of quick blows that knocked Hart down, ending the fight. -- The Redskins video is still frozen on the screen behind Parcells. He is no longer sitting but is now on his feet. “This is the interesting part,” he says, then reads: “When the fighters went back to their makeshift locker rooms, only a thin curtain was between them. Hart’s room was quiet, but on the other side he could hear Antuofermo’s corner men talking about who would take the fighter to the hospital. Finally he heard Antuofermo say, ‘Every time he hit me with that left hook to the body, I was sure I was going to quit. After the second round, I thought if he hit me there again, I’d quit. I thought the same thing after the fourth round. Then he didn’t hit me no more.’ “At that moment, Hart began to weep. It was really soft at first. Then harder. He was crying because for the first time he understood that Antuofermo had felt the same way he had and worse. The only thing that separated the guy talking from the guy crying was what they had done. The coward and the hero feel the same emotions. They’re both human.” Hart took the one step sideways. Antuofermo did not. -- Shared by Dr. Rob Gilbert ______________________________________________________________________________ DON’T MAJOR IN MINOR THINGS The great tragedy of the world today is that we give first-class loyalty to second-class causes, and these second-class causes betray us. Lynn Harold Hough (1912-1986) Methodist minister _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Do You Practice Setting Your Limits? "If you don't stretch your limits, you set your limits." Setting your limits: Do you always do what is comfortable and don't get out of your comfort zone? If you are afraid of what will happen, then nothing will ever happen. Anything worth while is outside your comfort zone. Stretching your limits is going beyond what is expected. What other people think and say about you doesn't matter. You are making the difference you wish to see. "Temporary Inconvenience= Permanent Improvement" ~Point Guard College -- Shared by Darren Ventre ______________________________________________________________________________ Walk-Through, Dummy Drills, and Timing Routes... With NFL training camps opening this week, I was thinking about how football coaches run "dummy" offenses, working on the motion, mechanics, and careful timing of each play. If you've not played football or watched a practice before, teams run their skeleton offenses again and again and again. Having spent time visiting and observing coaches like Jon Gruden, Norv Turner, and Jeff Tedford, I can tell you it's something they spend a lot of their practice time on. Of course, basketball teams walk through their plays. Depending on the team's make-up and their offensive system, some coaches spend more time on it than others. When he was with the T-wolves, my father would, from time to time, dry-run the entire playbook (75-100 plays). Often, when there was a missed shot out of a particular set, he'd run it 5-6 times until the same player made the basket repeatedly. I've read where the legendary Vince Lombardi would pay such close attention to detail that he'd run the same plays over hundreds of times so that his Packer players could run the plays automatically. I love watching receivers and QBs connect on timing routes -- pass patterns when the QB releases the ball before his receiver has made his break. What if passers in basketball focused on delivering the ball to a shooter off a screen the same way a QB does with his receivers? What if it's something a point guard practiced "timing routes" with his team's primary shooters/scorers the way a QB and receiver practice their timing? How much better would a shooter be if the ball was delivered at just the right moment? Is it worth an extra 2-3 points a game? Insignificant? Maybe. But over the course of a long season, focusing on details like this could be the difference in a few games. In the words of Bear Bryant: "The little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things." -- Share by Eric Musselman _____________________________________________________________________________________ I have been watching the NBA and collecting pearls of basketball wisdom from announcer Hubie Brown. Below are a few of his principles. You must dunk with two hands You try to tell guys, will you please wait 'til the screener is set? You cannot feed a guy in the post from above the free throw line When you're defending the postman, never turn your back when someone's cutting You try to tell guys, you never dribble just once You must remember, young players, who are you fouling? You cannot allow a big man to take the ball uncontested from half court. You must cut him off at the circle. Your man leaves you, you cut to the front of the rim You must pound the boards, force the ball up, and the fatigue factor will free up easy threes You always give it to the guy who's cutting and has the high percentage shot You must take advantage of turnovers and second shots When running the UCLA offense, you must jam the passer Any time the ball goes to the wing and a back screen is set by the center or forward or the point guard, someone must help him out -- or else jam the passer If you front the low post or gamble for a steal, it's a layup Any time you get in that area [the lane], you try to make a bounce pass You're either going to trap or you're going to force the dribbler high -- but you cannot allow him to turn the corner If you're going to force him, force him baseline -- do not allow him to get into the lane Post-up guys, will you please catch the ball with both hands, then get good position, then turn to the basket You always want to create angles when you start the fast break If you're going to front and you catch a lob you cannot send up anything soft On dribble penetration you can let your man go baseline, but if they go to the lane instead... Come on! Where's the help? You cannot send all 3 guys to the basket because the post up man will have no one to pass to Whenever the defensive team fronts the low post, you must clear out the opposite side low box defender You try to tell guys, when you're playing against good half court defense not to pass the ball off the dribble because you cannot take it back if the defense reacts You cannot front a great post-up player unless you also jam the passer In the transition offense you cannot post a man that close to the basket You cannot leave your feet unless you are shooting the ball You always tell defenders, make the ball change direction More Hubie When Hubie Says 'bang' "When a pivot man is fronted, throw the lob pass to the nearest low corner of the backboard and let him go get the ball.