“How you did it, and who you did it with will matter much more than what you did” -TJ Rosene I have a business coach who likes to say ‘who you become along the way is much more important than what you achieve’. Later, in that same episode, TJ says, “Who is in your corner, and what are they made of?” I have been blessed with an absolutely incredible assistant coach. She is honest, straightforward, focused, and invested in our program. This woman coached freshmen cheerleading for 7 years waiting f...
Aug 19, 2022•4 min
I want to have my players be able to run practice without me. I want my captains to be able to run the show in such a way that I don’t need to be there. I want to teach my kids the strategy behind our game and the rationale behind my decisions, so that if I were to disappear, or my voice goes out, or suddenly I can’t SEE what’s going on, they would be completely fine without me. I want to treat them in sjuch a way that they WANT me at practice. They WANT my input . They WANT my advice, not becau...
Aug 18, 2022•3 min
A giant ship's engine broke down and no one could repair it, so they took it to a Mechanical Engineer with over 40 years of experience. He inspected the engine very carefully, from top to bottom. After seeing everything, the engineer unloaded the bag and pulled out a small hammer. He knocked something gently. Soon, the engine came to life again. The engine has been fixed! 7 days later the engineer mentioned that the total cost of repairing the giant ship was $ 10,000 to the ship owner "What ?!" ...
Aug 16, 2022•3 min
My first year coaching freshman basketball, I ran into a situation that I haven't run into since. One of my players was taking terrible shots. I'm talking first pass in, highly guarded, out of her range shots. I finally asked her what was up. And she said that her dad would give her a dollar for every point she scored in a game. Relating to what we talked about yesterday, that was a recipe for disaster. I had to have a talk with the girl, and let her know that's not T-ball, that she was in fact ...
Aug 15, 2022•3 min
This farmer, who could understand what the animals said to each other, did linger in the farm yard each evening just to listen to their words. One evening he did hear the ox bemoaning to the ass the hardness of his lot: 'I do labor pulling the plow from morning until night. No matter how hot the day, or how tired my legs, or how the bow doth chafe my neck, still must I work. But you are a creature of leisure. You are trapped with a colorful blanket and do nothing more than carry our master about...
Aug 14, 2022•4 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cROmfTGXEyM Mike Tyson was on the goal cast podcast, and tells a story of meeting Frank Sinatra in the early 90s, why Tyson was in his prime. Sinatra slyly walked by him as he was leaving the event and he said “listen kid, it’s not how good you’re doing , it’s about how long you’re doing good.” Any one of us could have a winning season or a fluke game, but consistent ”doing good”, the John Wooden kind, comes from principles, discipline, and culture that makes us ,...
Aug 13, 2022•2 min
Adam Bradley is the founder of Lead Em Up, which is a curriculum for developing leaders through team sports. I recently joined the lead em up community, and will certainly keep you all posted on how i like it and how it’s working with our team. They hosted a webinar yesterday about the art of building connected teams. Stay with me on this, it’s a good lesson. Adam uses an exercise called ‘going for gold’ to help players connect with one another. He says often players will hesitate to call a team...
Aug 10, 2022•4 min
Doug Lemov , in his book ‘The Coaches guide to teaching’, he talks a LOT about feedback and on page 139 he says- praise the good when they’ve done it , that way there is no doubt that they CAN do it, they already have ! Now “do it again” rather than, “Do it this way” When we offer feedback, we tend to overanalyze and over explain, and over talk. Our kids lose focus (look at their eyes next time you’re offering feedback…you’ll know when to stop when you see them get droopy or distracted) If we ca...
Aug 09, 2022•2 min
I once was upset at the effort of a few players on the 8th grade travel softball team I was coaching. So, I yelled. I like to think I encouraged loudly, but I yelled. I was just at the start of opening my PT clinic, and felt like if they were going to lolly-gag, why on earth would I waste my time with them at practice? Then I found out that one of their mom's had passed away from cancer the year before. And I felt like a jerk. I didn't know what that kid was going through as a 13 year old girl w...
Aug 08, 2022•3 min
We were on vacation last week, and our dog had an upset stomach one night because he stole a piece of coffee cake off the countertop. We were sharing the house with my brother, and I didn’t want to wake anyone, so I tried to wash my hands in our bathroom, but my husband had locked the door while he was in the shower. I was tired, grumpy, and when I tried to open that door and it was locked, I was really angry with my husband. He was in the shower, so he couldn’t hear me knocking to get in (I cou...
Aug 07, 2022•3 min
In my PT clinic, I better have a good reason for asking a patient to do an exercise, or get up and down off the ground, or walk every day, or check their blood pressure, or let me stretch them out into sometimes painful ranges of motion. There better be a why, and usually, it better be a good one. This idea of ‘reasons’ was drilled into me when I was a student and out on my clinical rotations. Every time I’d come up with a plan for a patient, each of my Clinical instructors, whether they were in...
Aug 06, 2022•4 min
We went to see Billy Joel at MSG a few weeks ago. He was incredible. I told a patient about it, and how the first half of the show was for real billy joel fans (I hardly knew any of the songs), and the second half was all his hits (a giant singalong with 20,000 people). She brought up a good point, in taht he must get kind of bored singing the same songs and playing them performance after performance. Now he’s a professional, and you can tell that he loves performing (he’s 73 with plenty of mone...
Aug 05, 2022•4 min
I walk my dog a few times a day, and last week was on vacation. He loves to swim (He’s a chocolate lab), and when we’re down the shore, I usually am more lenient on the rules with walking (as there are not as many cars or other dogs/dangers), so I walk him on a very long, 30’ leash. He can roam around, smell, explore a neighbor’s tree or steps, and usually comes back to me. If he sees a person or another dog or animal, he get excited and wants to pull to go greet them (he loves everything and ev...
Aug 04, 2022•4 min
There was a big storm one day and thousands of starfish washed up on shore. A beach walker was there early in the morning and saw the results of the storm. He knew starfish can’t survive long without water, so he started picking them up one by one and hurling them back into the ocean. There were thousands upon thousands of them, and it took him a few seconds to rescue each one. A bystander watched him for several minutes, confused at how this man possibly thought he was going to save all of thes...
Aug 03, 2022•3 min
226 Episodes in, and do you know how easy it is for me to tell anyone i appreciate them? I say it to the mailman, my patients, my players, my AD, my husband and family, my vet, the people who pump my gas, our principle and maintenance staff. Literally everyone. I have to credit Coach Lenny Krebs for that phrase. He signs his e mails with it and a few years ago when we met , he sent me something and it made me feel so valued. So I stole it from him and now that’s how I sign off e mails, my podcas...
Aug 02, 2022•3 min
A couple of my kids are struggling with their college essay prompt. My understanding is that they have a lot of freedom to express who they are in those 600 words. They asked me what they should write it on, and I suggested something a little bit morbid. I suggested that they write their own obituary or eulogy. That does two things, number one gives them the opportunity to say Coach Kelley passed away at the ripe age of 104 surrounded by her family and friends. She was a graduate of Catholic Uni...
Aug 01, 2022•4 min
I am bad at surprises and lying. I enjoy being pleasantly surprised, but I startle and scare easily. I tell my kids what our fitness tests are going to be, and try to give them a timeline of when they will be tested on them. The point of the fitness tests is not to see how fast they are. The point of the fitness test is to get them to prepare to take the fitness test. That preparation puts the miles on their legs and the stress on their body that allows them to make it through tryouts and 2.5 mo...
Jul 31, 2022•4 min
We all know the players who are coachable. They look us in the eye, they give us 100% without us asking for it all the time. They hold their teammates accountable, they are the first to practice in the last to leave. They are eager for extra reps and feedback, and criticism. They know that we love them, and the advice we give country a place of love, and not from personally attacking their character. To me, those are coachable players. If I had a team full of those, we would be unstoppable becau...
Jul 30, 2022•3 min
I have a patient who I tell about our leader ship council, and he gave me what he meant as a compliment, when he told me well, you are a natural leader. I asked him why he thought that, and he said because I'm very positive and encouraging. And I appreciate his telling me that. It's nice to hear. It made me think of a story that Dr. Gilbert tells when he asks his classes at the beginning of the semester that he will give out an automatic a to any student who can find him a particular obituary. T...
Jul 29, 2022•3 min
D Rose spoke to the kids, and I was fortunate enough to listen in. He said that there are over a million 11 year olds playing basketball in America today. 4,000 will play in college somewhere. Of those 4000, 35 make it to the NBA, and of those 35, 5 earn starting spots, and 7 get appreciable playing time, for 4 years or so. Then they’re done. He pointed to the basketball, and said, ‘Basketball is not who you are. You are all unique people, and basketball doesn’t define you as a person. Your work...
Jul 28, 2022•2 min
In a strange and exciting turn of events last night, I met Derrick Rose and Ms. Lauryn Hill. Her son was having a basketball themed birthday party at a local gym here, and they rented the facility thinking that officials came with it. One of my former soccer players works the desk at that gym, and had to break the news to her that there were no refs for their court. In desperation to find one, she texted our bball coach, who texted me, and I happened to be available. I said yes, and in about 15 ...
Jul 27, 2022•4 min
Myron Golden is a motivation speaker and business coach. I went to a conference where he spoke, and he introduced this concept of ‘cheaple people’ and ‘preple people’. We all know the cheapo people. They're the people who drive an extra five minutes to save two or three cents a gallon on gas. They're the people who complain that their taxes are too high, they're the people who shop around for seven or eight electricians to do one job to make sure they get the best price. They look for commoditie...
Jul 26, 2022•5 min
Have you ever gone to another country where the native language is not your own? Maybe you took italian in high school , and on your trip to italy, you ask the waiter or waitress in italian ‘where’s the restroom’, what do they do?! They smile this huge smile, and show you right away where it is. They compliment your italian (Even if it stinks!) and they appreciate that you attempted to speak to them in their native tongue. I can dabble in conversational spanish..and I speak it when I can. Our la...
Jul 25, 2022•4 min
Gary Chapman is a marriage counselor who wrote the book the 5 love languages. He boils successful marriages down the couple’s ability to recobnisez and then speak in the other person’s love language. The 5 love languages are 1 - words of affirmation 2 - quality time 3- receiving gifts 4- acts of service 5 - physical touch And if you’re my husband or brother-in-law, the 6th love language is ‘Food’. Chapman discusses how each of us have a primary way we feel most loved. Your love language may be p...
Jul 24, 2022•5 min
John Gordon’s book The No Complaining Rule is an anecdote of a woman at a company whose employees are unhappy, she has a potential cancer diagnosis, and her husband recently left her and her 2 teenage kids. In Chapter 6, she says to her daughter ‘dont be such a complainer…you sound like the people i work with.” “complainer! Complainer! Youre calling me a complainer? Countered her strong willed 17 year old daughter. Thats all you do is complain. You walk in the door and complain about yoru job. Y...
Jul 23, 2022•4 min
In his Book Legacy, James Kerr studies the All Blacks, the most successful professoinal sports team of our times. They have a victory rate of 86%. It’s a great book on culture and successful team building. He devotes an entire chapter to language. He introduces that in 1999, the team and it’s results were slipping, so the managers wrote a book that was ‘a system of meanings that everyone understood, a language and vocabulary and set of beliefs that bound the group together” Mottos and mantras ca...
Jul 22, 2022•3 min
Defined as a system of communication used by a particular country or community. A SYSTEM. Where you work , there’s a language. In the profession of physical therapy, only other physical therapists know what a goniometer is. ROM is short for range of motion. T tests and Tinetti’s have special meaning to us, and they’re gibberish to other professions. Yours is taht way too, I promise you that you use words every day that ONLY your profession appreciates. Our teams are the same way. My kids know wh...
Jul 21, 2022•4 min
I went to officials Camp again earlier this week, and Cass Beverly was one of the clinicians there. He is right now in the NBA G league, and will likely make it all the way to the NBA as an official. He said something that stood out to me. He said good officials get themselves out of situations that great officials would never have gotten into in the first place. I asked him to tell me more about that and he noted a game that he did five years ago at the division one or two level, it was a three...
Jul 21, 2022•4 min
Have you guys seen the pictures from the James Webb telescope? These are the clearest, most beautiful , accurate photos we have of the galaxy. These coming out reminded me of a conversation I had last month with my soccer seniors. We We're talking about Captains, I have 10 capable seniors who have played soccer together just about their whole lives. One of them mentioned that she wants it to feel like all of them are leading the team, no matter who gets named as a captain. It made me think of an...
Jul 20, 2022•2 min
There is no WINNING at a concert. The pure JOY is in the thing itself. The pure joy is in the music itself. Even if you go see an artist you love, to hear the 1 song you LOVE, when that song comes on, you don’t ever want it to end, and when it does, you don’t ask to hear it again. You appreciate it while it’s happening. Our games are like songs in a concert. We are lucky that we get a whole setlist that is a season. Each game has it’s own story, ebbs and flows, and crescendos. Try to treat your ...
Jul 19, 2022•2 min
