So You Think You're a Gym Rat?

This article was written by Trevor Quinn who is an assistant men’s basketball coach at Jacksonville University (12-13). Trevor has been with the Dolphins for the last 5 years and some of his responsibilities include player skill development and scouting. He is a student of the game that has continued to grow as a coach over the years and has a bright future in college basketball.

So you Think you are a Gym Rat?

This term gym rat is circulating as descriptive verbiage for every young basketball player being recruited today. It may be a corny or ‘old school’ expression recently replaced by “grinding” but at one time it was the ultimate compliment. As college coaches, we recruit basketball players with basketball talent.

A player has to have talent first but a basketball player separates himself from the talent like he doesn’t have it at all. If we call a High School coach, AAU coach, local workout guy, or parent more times than not a potential recruit is referred to as a “gym rat.” It is an easy thing to say and of course the person has a vested interest in his/her pupil – but is the player really a gym rat?

To put it simply: the lights come on and there’s the rat…Lights go off, and there’s the rat. It is looking for whatever it can to eat or survive. The gym rat is hungry and no one is feeding it — more often than not it is trying to be exterminated. In the case of a gym rat, it is attempting to find any little piece of basketball knowledge or competitive advantage that can increase their survival rate.

These little guys are starving and they don’t need someone to set out some food for them. For instance, they don’t need a coach to get them a gym (Go find a game?), give them some drills (Figure it out?), or get the perfect equipment (just go hoop!). That’s what the best players do! They understand that action takes precedence over plan…While you’re waiting for the perfect setting to work on your game they are already out there doing what you’re planning to do!

The species of gym rat is on the brink of extermination these days no matter what reports we get to the contrary. A recruit may  have all the necessary responsibilities such as school, church, homework, the SAT anything even chores but guess what every 1st team all-NBA player probably encountered these same obligations while they were trying to make it. They most likely attacked them with the notion that these would be the building blocks to their future success.

These are not excuses, they are necessities. Then there are biggest hindrances to living your life as a gym rat.  These are the unnecessary evils attempting to exterminate the population. A gym rat can encounter people setting traps or constantly trying to feed them poison. Traps decimating the gym rat population can be anything from girls to twitter; they will keep you from where you need to be…IN THE GYM!!! It’s up to you if that’s what you want to be. My guess is if you have the respect of the local basketball community, I bet you, all that stuff will come along with it.

Poison can be anything that alters the mindset. It could be a simple as a peer telling you “you’re not any good you should quit.” That is poison to a budding gym rat but you don’t have to be duped into swallowing that. There’s a lot of other crap that can derail any athlete from striving for greatness. You can find stories for days about college/pro athletes who get caught up by the police doing something but I’ve never heard of any of them getting caught while in a gym.

In my coaching career I feel like I have been around just two guys who without a doubt during our time together could be considered gym rats. One was Al Thornton who at Florida State went from unheralded recruit (Ranked #217) to NBA lottery pick. This was my interaction with Al Thornton. I knew he was working out every day 10:00 AM but then some days Coach Hamilton may ask me to go find Al? He was typically at one of 3 places in the city of Tallahassee and sometimes all three in a day.

After he worked out, he would either go from playing pick up at FAMU, to playing pick up at TCC, or just going straight back to our basketball training center. This was a typical day for Al he would be in the gym for 8 hours a day trying to see what he could add/try to do in a game that day. He didn’t know anything else!!! All I know is that was normal for him and that is what helped him go from redshirt freshmen to 1st team All-ACC and a Lottery pick (Just look at the improvement of his season stats over 4 years).

The other was Ben Smith, a four-year starting Point Guard at Jacksonville University. Ben Was 5’10” – if that – and only had one Division I offer coming out of high school. He became a 1st team All-Atlantic Sun player for three straight seasons, won two conference titles, and his name is all over the school record book.

Every night usually around 10:00 PM he got shots up. After lifting weights, class, individuals, pick up and study hall he got shots up. I’m not talking about shoot then talk for 20 seconds…I’m saying this man GOT SHOTS UP! He shot 28% from the three point line his freshmen year. In his mind, he wouldn’t ever let that happen again so for the next 3 years he shot over 35%. One league opponent would make it easily apparent that their belief was he couldn’t go left.

So the following off-season his sole purpose in life was to become equally adept with both hands. He would go in the gym a lot of days and refuse to use his right hand (HE HAD PURPOSE). Ben just came back from averaging more than 25 ppg overseas and because of his dedication to his craft his name is mentioned next to Artis Gilmore, Dee Brown, Rex Morgan, and Otis Smith as one of the best players to play at Jacksonville University.

These gym rats are a rare and dying breed. The term is thrown around so loosely that it is losing its grit. If I call a player and he picks up on the first ring or tweets every hour on the hour he probably isn’t going to be in the gym the amount of hours necessary to make it to the next level (Varsity, college, Pro).  If enrolled in a weight training class…LIFT THE WEIGHT more times than you look in the mirror.

If you’re going to the gym then go with a purpose (To make _______ # of shots or work on ______). You know you may encounter a gym rat when your phone rings at 10:00 PM and a recruit says… “Coach sorry I missed your call. I went and lifted after school, then our high school team had workouts, and then we had AAU practice. I just finished my homework and went for a jog. I wanted to call you back before I ate dinner.”

If you’re returning a call at 10:00 PM because this is your first free moment then maybe a college coach, who really knows what it means, will be proud to justify anointing you as a Gym rat.

Contribute or Contaminate

Easy enough: you're either contributing or your contaminating the practice court. Great video.

Culture beats strategy...All day long!

How Do You Weigh Strategy, Execution, and Culture in an Organization's Success? -Article from Harvard Business School by Jim Heskett

Strategy, execution, and culture: Do we have our priorities right? 

"An outstanding strategy weakly executed will always be trumped by a weak strategy with outstanding execution.

What if you had a plan to be president of the USA? You could have a perfect plan. A brilliant one! One, that if put on practice, it would give you a 100% chance of being the next president of the USA.

There is a catch. It's extremely hard to accomplish and you can't do it alone. Actually, you need the best people available, you all have to be believe you can do it and above all, you have to learn how to work together.

Other than that, the plan is perfect.

It's all about people. It's all about making ideas become reality.

Reality is made of people, doing small things, every day. It's not about abstract ideas that in the realm of imagination look good.

Is strategy good? Of course it is. It gives us a goal, direction, things to care about, helps us to work together.

But it's not everything. And actually, it's not even a must.

You can win without a strategy. You could be lucky. You could have other people who care about you and help you in your objectives. Your competitors could make the wrong choices.

There are an infinitude of variables that just makes every good strategy a good guess.

Strategy gives you an edge, but it's nothing without people (culture).

Steve Jobs on time & dreams

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Here's to the crazy ones...

10 Secrets of Successful Leaders (Part 2/2)

Part 2/2

6. Create a 'team charter.'
Too many new teams race down the road before they even figure out who they are, where they’re going, and what will guide their journey, says Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One-Minute Manager (William Morrow & Co., 1982) and founder of The Ken Blanchard Cos., a workplace- and leadership-training firm. Just calling together a team and giving them a clear charge does not mean the team will succeed.
“It’s important to create a set of agreements that clearly states what the team is to accomplish, why it is important and how the team will work together to achieve the desired results,” says Blanchard, who is based in Escondido, Calif. “The charter provides a record of common agreements and can be modified as the business grows and the team’s needs change.”

7. Believe in your people.
Entrepreneurial leaders must help their people develop confidence, especially during tough times. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, "Leaders are dealers in hope." That confidence comes in part from believing in your team, says Maxwell, who is based in West Palm Beach, Fla. “I think of my people as 10s, I treat them like 10s, and as a result, they try to perform like 10s,” he says. “But believing in people alone isn't enough. You have to help them win.”

8. Dole out credit.
Mackay says a good salesperson knows what the sweetest sound in the world is: The sound of their name on someone else's lips. But too many entrepreneurs think it's either the crinkle of freshly minted currency, or the dull thud of a competitor's body hitting the pavement.
“Many entrepreneurs are too in love with their own ideas and don't know how to distribute credit,” Mackay says. “A good quarterback always gives props to his offensive line.”

9. Keep your team engaged.
Great leaders give their teams challenges and get them excited about them, says leadership expert Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1989). He pointed to the example of a small pizza shop in a moderate-sized town that was killing a big fast-food chain in sales. The big difference between the chain and the small pizza joint was the leader, he says.
Every week he gathered his teenage employees in a huddle and excitedly asked them: “What can we do this week that we’ve never done before?” The kids loved the challenge. They started texting all their friends whenever a pizza special was on. They took the credit-card machine to the curb so passing motorists could buy pizza right off the street. They loaded up a truck with hot pizzas and sold them at high-school games. The money poured in and the store owner never had problems with employee turnover, says Covey, who is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

10. Stay calm.
An entrepreneur has to backstop the team from overreacting to short-term situations, says Mackay, who is based in Minneapolis. This is particularly important now, when news of the sour economic environment is everywhere.
“The media has been hanging black crepe paper since 2008,” he says. “But look at all the phenomenal companies and brands that were born in downturns, names like iPod, GE and Federal Express.”

Positive Teaching Techniques That Inspire Improvement

Some snippets from an excellent article by Sheri Jeavons! 

If you’ve ever tried to coach someone to stop doing a particular behavior or to change a certain action, then you know how difficult it can be to break bad habits and alter their ways. Why is it often so hard to help people improve, even when you specifically point out what they’re doing wrong is hurting them? Because most (young) adult learners are self-critical, and they typically don’t learn by hearing negative feedback.  

 

In fact, the natural tendency for most people is to defend their existing behavior, no matter how disruptive or self-sabotaging it is.  If you really want to motivate someone to go to their own next level, then you have to do so in an authentic way, with positive, solutions-oriented language.  Here are some coaching techniques that inspire people to improve:

Coach the positive rather than critique the negative: In order to build your (team members) to the next level, you need to first identify what you want them to achieve. Once you have determined the positive behavior, you can then determine the skill sets that can build the team/person to the desired outcome.

For example, in a selling situation, most new salespeople will naturally want to tell all they know about their company. They talk about the company, about the product, and about all the reasons why someone should buy from them. In the midst of all their talking, they neglect to ask the prospect open-ended questions that prompt dialog and encourage the prospect to reveal wants and needs.

In order to get the salesperson to change his or her approach, a typical manager might say, “In that last call I noticed that you did most of the talking and then ran out of time to ask questions.  Do you really feel you know what the prospect needs?  Next time ask some questions before giving an explanation and see if you can get them talking.” This kind of feedback focuses on the negative first, which could result in the employee shutting down prior to hearing your suggestions. 

A better approach, and one that will motivate the salesperson to be more open to change, is to say, “For the next call, let’s talk about how we can facilitate more discussion with the client.” 

See the difference?  Instead of criticizing what you don’t like, you’re stating what you’re going to help the salesperson achieve. With the criticism gone, the salesperson is automatically more open to your suggestions. Some other lead-in statements you could use are:

• Let’s have you experiment with this process…
• Let’s talk about taking you to your own next level…
• Let’s discuss how we can engage the customer to create more conversation…

After the salesperson hears your willingness to build their skills, then you can give specific suggestions to help them facilitate discussion with the client. Keep it positive so they are motivated to listen to your advice.

Ask the other person what he or she needs to learn:  Asking people for their input regarding their own performance engages them about skill sets they want to fine tune and potentially learn.

After you ask someone what he or she would like to improve, have the person clarify in two or three statements some very specific things they would like to learn. This enables you to get agreement that change and improvement are necessary. Next, have the person prioritize what he or she feels the most pressing learning objective(s) should be. Lastly, give some coaching tips and learning ideas so the person feels they have some power in the learning process. Now you’re empowering the learner to have a say in their own change. 

What should you do if one of your teammates often gets defensive during meetings? Instead of saying, “That meeting didn’t go very well. You were a little defensive,” simply ask, “How do you think the meeting went?” Most people will know (and admit) that the meeting didn’t go well. Then immediately ask, “How would you have handled that meeting differently?” Listen to what the person says and coach to those points.

If the person doesn’t seem to say anything of value, then refer back to the first point and say, “For the next meeting, let’s talk about how you can take your skills to the next level. In particular, how you effectively facilitate a meeting.” 

 

Focus on the future: During your discussions with the person, always talk about “next time.” Never go back and recreate the bad situation. For example, with the person who becomes defensive during meetings, rather than point out when he or she became defensive, you could say, “Next time, when you find that you’re getting in a defensive conversation with someone, immediately put on your facilitation hat. At that moment, stop defending your position and start asking questions.”

Begin the coaching dialog directly after the behavior has occurred – within 24 hours – so the event is fresh in the person’s mind and he or she can grow from it. Never wait until a yearly performance evaluation to give someone feedback.  

 

By using these coaching techniques on a regular basis, you will motivate and inspire people to improve. By providing feedback with positive language, people will look forward to your coaching sessions. When that happens, you’ll have professionals eager to change and achieve to their own next level of performance.

A simple way to be an effective leader...

The bottom line is this: if you want to inspire someone to give you their best, you have to stop looking and acting like a theater critic and, instead, come across with empathy and appreciation. To do that, you first need the mindset that the discussion should be less about you and more about the other person… and then you need to practice (with good help) to make it happen.

-Michael Hume
http://wisdomalacarte.net/blog/inspirational-leadership-its-about-them-not-you/2011/05/

Inspirational Video

The power of sport!