Completely off the topic of injury prevention, strength training, or athletic development that this website has been dedicated to sharing with any reader who has come across this blog (by the way, thank you!).
I have had previous posts about motivation or inspiration that I like but for Friday (today) I thought I’d share some movie speeches that I have found remarkably insightful, motivational, and make me amped up to the point of willing to wrestle a gorilla. Everyone needs motivation to accomplish tasks so why not start with these sport specific speeches (mostly).
Rudy
Friday Night Lights
Braveheart (after 6 minutes)
Any Given Sunday
Scent of a Woman
Remember the Titans
Miracle
Rocky (there has to be 10 scenes from Rocky to choose from)
Yesterday and today I have been reading William Warren’s Coaching and Motivation: A Practical Guide to Maximum Athletic Performance from 1984! It amazes me how some books will never go out of date. The book outlines various guidelines for coaching, motivation, discipline, rewards, & tough situations that may arise when coaching athletes. Here are 22 guidelines that are described that hit home with me and can help understand various situations, even the ones that may be frustrating.
Guidelines for the Coach
1. Be motivated yourself: you have no more right to expect much from your athletes to be self motivated without the example of coach’s motivation and hard work. Coach George Allen stated how he has never known a coaching situation in which the assistant coaches outworked the head coach.
2. Think positively: If you already have a thriving program you have every reason in the world to think positively. If not, our thoughts & actions must be guided by a dream of what we hope to accomplish, a belief in the ability to build. Every coach (for a sport in this case) should have to go through a losing season because it can serve valuable purposes such as pointing out your weaknesses and will test your commitment. If you intend to stay in coaching, you can’t give up.
3. Be flexible. Don’t be afraid to use new or different approaches to motivation: Use whatever technique will reach your players. Techniques for success: if it works use it.
4. Control yourself: if you expect controlled performances from your players, you must retain enough self-control in pressure situations to deal with problems rationally. If you feel compelled to use profanity – use it for its shock value not as a way of life.
*Coach Brian Kelly screamed at his players multiple times during that game. He has since apologized and his players have responded by dominating Michigan State yesterday. Let’s make it clear that I will never speak of Notre Dame on this blog again. Go Blue!
5. Don’t cheat or look for shortcuts to success in your coaching: If this is the example you set, expect your players to do the same. The level of performance is set by the coach. Do not expect players to be as motivated as a coach is.
6. Be organized: organization in itself is a form of motivation. Young athletes especially need guidance, leadership, and professionalism that is evidenced in the coach’s efforts to be organized.
7. Talk to swimming and track coaches about motivation: I never heard of this one before but he states that anyone who can motivate youngsters to get up at 5a.m. every morning to swim 5-7 miles must know something about motivation.
8. Be consistent in your relations with your players: Does not mean to treat all players alike but that all athletes have the right to fair treatment for whatever situation. Be up front, open, and honest with all your athletes and do not show favoritism which will breakdown the atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. Abraham Lincoln’s advice: “If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their confidence and esteem. It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”
10. Don’t treat all athletes alike. Find out who you can push and who requires some pulling: Personalities and their motivations vary widely. Some thrive on praise while a compliment to another signals that it is alright to stop hustling. Some need sharp criticism while others may collapse to criticism.
11. Never be too busy to listen to your athletes. Communication is two-way street: if you expect 100 percent from athletes in the weightroom, court, or field then they deserve the same commitment from the coach. Talk it out.
12. Always be on the lookout for team leaders: Especially with the off-ice training we have at Pennsauken, the team leaders are the ones that will eventually lead the warm-ups, hopefully gauge team mood, or let the coach know of problems. Good leaders can simplify the coaches tasks. Everyone benefits.
13. Regardless of how hard you drive your players, treat them with dignity and respect. Don’t rob them of their pride.
14. Appeal to players’ pride: Pride grows out of a sense of accomplishment. If athletes take pride in their performance the coach can motivate them more toward achieving that optimal performance
15. The best motivator is love: Not that kind of love you sicko! But seriously this time, young athletes need guidance and a sense of belonging that grows from a coach’s personal and professional behavior. Do not treat athletes like merchandise or a means to an end. We owe our athletes to be there for them.
16. Never offer athletes money, gifts, or material incentive for performances: It is one thing to take an athlete or group of athletes out to food after a long off-season of training hard. However, in the college setting this is obviously illegal and may come off as a bribe to work hard.
17. Start your motivational program early: you cannot just turn on your motivation when you want to. Be consistent from the start
18. Build your program around players you can motivate–that is, around players who are loyal to their teammates, program, and coach: This applies to our in-season off-ice training. You want athletes who are going to contribute to the team’s success whether by their skills or their positive attitudes. It is all about their attitude.
19. Stress total effort and striving for excellence in everything you do. Motivate on a short-term basis for physical effort and mental concentration.
20. Set high, but realistic, expectations for yourself and your athletes: Every athlete should be exposed to the thought of “you can do more than you think you can.” I can’t and I’ll try are comments that make a world of difference.
21. Outline goals clearly: If your goals are unclear, the athletes will not know what they are being motivated to do. Set expectations.
22. Don’t take all of the fun our of playing the game or training: Fun is a sense of enjoyment and personal satisfaction derived from improving skills, indulging in competitive drills, and accomplishing team goals. Fun is not necessarily messing around without rules or unstructured training sessions/practices.
Life is not perfect, we all know this. I recently came across an article titled “The Simple Brilliance of Bo Schembechler.“ Bo Schembechler, for those who do not know the history of college football, was the winningest Michigan football coach and one of the most well-respected coaches in all of college football along with Bear Bryant, Knute Rockne, Joe Paterno, Woody Hayes, and Bobby Bowden. Why I wanted to share this article was not necessarily because it was of Michigan but because of the good lesson it teaches. In the upcoming future I hope to read Bo’s Lasting Lessons, a book about leadership.
Here was the article written by Bob Marshall…
“Some years ago I heard an audiotape by Bo Schembechler on Leadership. The story he told concerned the 1980 University of Michigan football team, Bo Schembechler (the coach), and Andy Cannavino (the co-captain/inside linebacker). This is what I remember of that message:
In 1980 the Michigan Wolverines football season started in tough fashion. After 3 games their record was one win and two losses. Not a good opening for one of the strongest football programs in the United States.
One day, one of the assistant coaches came in to Bo Schembechler’s office and mentioned that there was some complaining on the team. It was being said that Michigan practiced too long and hit too hard during those practices. The players also said that that was why the season was starting so poorly. Bo asked the Assistant who was making those comments. The Assistant said that many players were guilty, but that it was also coming from the team captain. Bo said, “Get him in here.”
Bo was not one to wait when problems occurred. Now the Captain, Andy Cannavino, was a big strong kid. He came into the office and Bo recounted what the Assistant had said. Andy admitted that he had indeed said those things.
At that point Bo said, “The University of Michigan has had a long and illustrious history. Since I have been here we have always had tough practices because football is a tough game. I would like you to tell the Captains of teams gone by that you think our practices are too long and that we hit too hard. I would like you to complain to them. Do you know what they would say to you?
They would tell you that you are a bad team captain, Andy Cannavino, and they would be right. On the field, you represent me. You are the coach on the field and you are letting me, your teammates and the whole program down.” At that point, with a tear flowing down his cheek, Andy Cannavino said, “I understand, Coach. There won’t be any more problems.”
And there weren’t. The team straightened themselves up. There was no more grumbling or complaining. The team finished the season by winning all of the rest of their games and playing, and winning, in the Rose Bowl – not something that the University of Michigan did all of the time. Andy Cannavino was acknowledged as the greatest team captain in Michigan’s history.
All of us can find reasons to complain. Life is not perfect.”
We all have times that we may feel lazy, tired, and unenthused, (more often than we’d like) but those are the times that can truly test your character. Yup, I feel like I have these feelings happen more often than I’d like but I haven been slowly trying to make positive changes. No excuses. Nate Green, author of the free e-book The Hero Handbook (about how to pretty much be the man) is one that everyone should start reading (short/easy read), has one section on excuses and how to be heroes..
Where Are All The Heroes?
“It’s like most of us are in a state developmental limbo between school and supposed responsibility. (If you aren’t careful this “limbo” can go on until you die.) We’ve never taken the time to define what our values are, and all the old credibility indicators — graduating college, settling into a career, getting married, raising a family — have disappeared. What’s left is a gap most of us fill with apathy, bad booze, boredom, and shitty jobs. Consider this:
College is leaving us tens of thousands of in debt and won’t guarantee a job.
Since 1970, the number of young adults moving back home has increased 50 percent. Nearly one in five twenty-somethings move back in with their parents at some point.
We don’t know what we’re working for. We don’t know what to expect. We don’t know what our lives should be like. So we blame the economy, our parents, our shitty luck, or other people. We should blame ourselves. Don’t have the body you want? Your fault. Working a job you don’t like? Your fault. Shitty grades in school? Your fault. Up to your eyeballs in debt? Your fault. It’s all your fault. But this is actually great news. Because it’s your fault, you can take responsibility for it. And if you take responsibility for it, you can change it. Even if we have other parts of our lives figured out, most of us are likely neglecting other vital areas. Have a great body? How’s your financial situation? Making a ton of money? How are your relationships with your friends? Life of the party? Are you truly happy or are you just putting off the “real world”? The goal, mind you, isn’t to become complete. That’s impossible. The goal is to seek experience, fulfilment, and fun. The goal is to feel good about ourselves and the lives we lead. So let’s start there. It’s time to take control of your life and do what you want to do. It’s time to make your own luck. It’s time to become your own hero.”
Here is a great motivational video clip on about success by Will Smith
