Mental Toughness....Again

I have written about mental toughness a few times, if you ask me I will tell you, mental toughness is everything!  But a few things have happened recently that have exposed it to me even more so. To me, mental toughness is worrying less or not at all about things you cannot control.

I am watching a high school baseball game today on Memorial day and I heard two players complaining about how hot it is.  It is very warm...96 degrees, but you cannot control the weather, but you can control how you react to it.  Complaining about something you can't control gets your mental focus off what needs to be done, play baseball.  I have coached baseball for 20 years and you can always see mental toughness in a few instances.  When it rains, some teams/players cannot handle the conditions, those that can are usually the successful ones.  In a low scoring game, if one team finally scores a few runs, you will see few teams go 3 up, 3 down in the next half when they are on defense.  Watch a guy throwing a no-hitter deep into a game and then when the no-hitter is broken up, he sometimes needs to come out of the game or at least also  loses the shutout.

Mall Parking Lot Mentality

I went to the dentist yesterday and we spoke about how busy they were that day, but it was a good thing that someone didn't show up...to ease the work load.  Someone or two had gone on vacation this week and everyone was doing more work.  But a patient had "no called/ no showed" meaning that they didn't take the time to call and say they couldn't be there.  Now you can imagine how frustrating that is, but I am sure we have all done it and I am sure that most places of employment and business are used to it. 

My comment about this was "I bet the same person would also be the person who is mad because you guys were taking too long in here and wasting their time".  The dental assistant laughed because that is usually how it works.  Which allowed me to talk for 5 minutes about the Mall Parking Lot Mentality.

Our Rules on Motion Offense

Offensively, our beliefs are that the best offensive players should get the most shots, and we will try to put them in positions to use their skills.  That is, more often than not, by running a quick hitter set that allows for our top 1-3 offensive players to get a good to great shot.  When that set falls apart or is unsuccessful, we fall back into our 3 out, 2 in motion.  I think it is pretty much just playing basketball using your basketball IQ to score.  This offense allows for all 5 guys to feel a part of the offense.  It allows for all 5 players to possibly touch the basketball in making passes, shooting, or offensive rebounding.

We have many drills that we work on to incorporate the offense starting with 1 on 1 drills and building to 2 on 2, then 3 on 3, 4 on 4, and then ultimately 5 on 5.  Here are 9 rules that we believe are important in running our "motion" offense.

Soul Surfer: The True Story of Pro Surfer Bethany Hamilton

I went to watch this movie, Soul Surfer, the other night http://youtu.be/MWeOjBCi3c4 and it was an inspirational story.  It was not exactly my first choice when we went, but it ended up being a great movie. 

Bethany Hamilton is a pro surfer and while in the water one day, a shark attack left her with one fewer arms than the rest of us.  Her composure and strength and her belief in God that Jesus Christ helped her through this ordeal was moving.  I am a perspective guy and it helped put into perspective my "problems", and in the movie something she did (going to Thailand after the tsunami) put her problems into perspective.

Here is her website: http://bethanyhamilton.com/ 

I highly recommend the movie!

Execute Perfectly or Fewest Mistakes Wins

There are two ways of thinking when it comes to coaching and how you get your team to play when it comes to mistakes or lack of mistakes.  I think, however, that they are the one and the same.  I guess it depends on how you see the cup, half empty or half full.  Or maybe it is experience and reality that has guided me into my thinking.  Or is it because I realize it isn't what I say, but what they hear that matters.

When I was younger, I preached execution, execution, execution.  I wanted perfection.  To me, and I still believe this to some extent, that you want to pursue perfection.  Because by persuing perfection (which is unattainable) you will get closer to as good as you can possibly be than if you just accept mediocrity.  But what kind of pressure does that put on the average person or kid?  Do they sometimes let one mistake become a second, then a third, then a fourth and then they are finished?

For the past few years, I have stopped saying that as often.  It is something that I will still say because I think it is a valiant endeavor.  But I have pushed more and more that we make the fewest mistakes possible.  It is trying to accomplish the exact same thing, but it concedes that mistakes will be made.  By bringing the two ideas together, pursue perfection and making the fewest mistakes possible, you can reach different types of personalities that are on your team.

Let's be honest, the team who plays the closest to perfection is making the fewest mistakes.  And the team which makes the fewest mistakes usually does win. 

Perfection is unattainable, the fewest mistakes possible is perfectly attainable.

Stress, Anxiety and a Half Day Off Work

Most people are under stress and anxiety every single day of their lives.  Something is affecting them.  It can be work, it can be your children, your relationships, your friends, hard to work with administrators...anything.

I am a Type A personality.  I am my mother's son.  The only way I can explain it is that there seems to be something inside of me SCREAMING ALL THE TIME!!!!  I have a real problem in dealing with situations or people that aren't the way I think they should be or act the way I think they should act.  I have come very far in my 41 years.  I have learned to let go of much and I have learned to keep things in proper perspective, in fact, many people think I am pretty easy going...most of the time.  But I often wonder if all the stress and anxiety I am under, even though I don't show it outwardly all the time, that it isn't going to show up in some way.

I had something that scared me pretty good today happen.  My heart has had some palpitations, but nothing I haven't felt before and nothing I hadn't told my doctor about which he brushed off as natural.  This morning, my blood pressure was high, from what I was told later, too high.  I had it taken three separate times in spaced intervals and it hadn't gone down.  So with the palpitations and the high blood pressure, I called my doctor and wanted to get checked out.

As I was talking to a friend of mine in the hallway prior to one of our classes, I started to feel funny.  I went into my classroom and sat down, and at that moment, I thought I was going to pass out.  I got up, told the students to call the office, I was on my way and that I might pass out.  As I got to the hallway, I was fine, but about halfway to the office, I started to feel that I might go down again.  So now I am scared at what is going on and confused...am I having a heart attack?

I went to the elementary nurse, and my wife came and took me to the emergency room where I was checked out rather thoroughly and sent home wearing a heart monitor.  So what happened?  To be quite honest, I think I have arythmia or high blood pressure, they are both genetic as are panic attacks.  In my self diagnosis I think I had a panic attack in my room and the hallway.  I am not sure, and I am not ashamed if it is because many people suffer from it. 

I am pretty mentally tough and to suffer something like I did today and to think it might be psychological is somewhat troubling to me.  What does it mean?  Why did it happen?  Is my thinking and blogging about it making it worse?  Who knows?  And I am not trying to worry about it.  My only concern is that my children are taken care of and happy, I have a wonderful, loving wife and many good friends.  Yes, there are going to be some things that drive me up a wall, but I need to let it go even more, I guess.

Thanks to everyone who was concerned, but I am all right.  I plan on being around for a long time, but I can't guarantee it will happen.  I will TRY to let more go, and TRY to enjoy the moment more, and TRY not to be frustrated at things I can't control.