RICHARD SHERMAN ON THE PROCESS ORIENTED MINDSET

I love the PlayersTribune.com!  It gives great insight directly from those involved -- the athletes.  They share so much in an open forum that can benefit your players as well.  We share many of them with our team.

One example is the most recent post by Richard Sherman, cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks titled, "On To The Next."  It's a concept that we constantly talk to our players about.  The best move on to the next quickly -- instantly in fact.  On to the next shot...the next possession...the next day...the next game.  Live in the present -- the past and future are irrelevant.  Be process oriented.

Of course it is much easier said than done -- even for veteran professionals.

Sherman opens the article with this:

Earl Thomas was sitting in front of his locker after the game, and I could tell he was frustrated. Then he stood up, put his backpack on, left the locker room and walked out to the parking lot. He didn’t really talk to anybody. He just got in his car and went home.

That was in Week 1.

After we won.

That’s one of the things that makes Earl great. Anybody who knows him knows that he holds himself to an incredibly high standard. That day, he felt he didn’t play up to that standard. We got a win, and that was great. But Earl understands — like everybody else in the locker room — that just because you win doesn’t mean you did everything perfectly.

And conversely, just because you lose doesn’t mean you did everything wrong.

That's process oriented thinking.  It's not the result that makes a difference in the evaluation of your level of execution.  This is the mindset of the best that allows them to grow and improve as opposed to becoming complacent.

As Sherman than points out, this is the outcome of that type of thinking:

That’s one of our many mottos: Control what you can control. That expression was why Earl came in the next morning — after walking out of the locker room on Sunday frustrated, without talking to anybody — and went on to have a great week of practice. Because he knows that come Monday morning, you can’t control what happened on Sunday, and every minute you spend living in the past and dwelling on it is a minute you won’t be spending looking ahead to the next week and the next opponent. And that’s an easy way to lose back-to-back games.

Sherman goes on to talk about the culture of the Seahawks that allows them to hold themselves accountable in part due to the philosophy of Coach Pete Carroll:

Our coaches are probably tougher on us after a win. Coach Carroll always tells us that he wants us to be ourselves, because that’s why he brought us here. Because we’re competitors. We’re the kind of players — and the kind of people — he wants on his team.

Part of being a competitor is being self-motivated. We don’t need a coach to get on our ass after a loss. I’ll get on myself about it, and so will each guy in our locker room. Like I’ve said before, we have a crazy team with some chaotic dudes — a bunch of alphas. Take Earl, for example. He’ll do everything he can to get better, even after a win, because that’s how Earl is. That’s what makes him great. He’s never satisfied, even when he plays well.

The result is a process-oriented mindset displayed in this great quote by Sherman:

"Was I angry that we lost? Of course. Winning never gets old and losing always sucks. But you have to treat those two impostors just the same."

HOW A PLAYER CREATES THEIR IDENTITY

We posted this in our blog for players HoopBoost, but I wanted to share it on our coaching blog as well. It comes from "Coaching The Mental Game" by H. A. Dorfman which is among my top 10 books for coaches wanting to learn and master their craft:

"The measure of a man's real character is what

he would do if he knew he would never be found out."

-Thomas McCauley

What I say it, "You identify yourself by what you do when no one is watching.  The supervised athlete may be the hardest worker, the most selfless and responsible competitor.  But how he practices when no one sees him, how he interacts with teammates when the coach is not within listening distance -- that's when he defines himself.

Theodore Roosevelt extended the definition to self-awareness and independent self-evaluation, saying, "I don't care very much about what I think of what I do.  That is character!"

DO YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR SUMMER WORKOUTS? HOW ABOUT PRACTICES?

One of our discussion points with our team this past week is their ability to maximize their workouts.  Not just the individual workouts with the coaching staff but those workouts on their own -- unsupervised.  We have stressed the concepts of "deliberate" and "intentional."  Don't just roll to the gym and jack up some shots -- have a plan before you leave your apartment...a goal to accomplish during your time on the court.

I read somewhere this past week that Kobe Bryant would go to the gym and work on the same shot or same move for one complete hour...deliberate...intentional...that's how you grow towards mastery of your skills.

Whether its a summer workout or even practices during the season -- how much better would a player be if they mentally and physically prepared for a practice. If they made sure they had the proper rest.  If they were following the correct diet.  If they got there early and actually took time to map out some objectives for the workout.  And if you could get a majority of your players dedicated to pre-practice preparation, you'd be well on your way.

There's an old Adidas video with Bob Knight where he talks about preparation -- and he's referring to practice preparation.  He speaks about when the ball is tossed up, everyone wants to win.  But the successful players are those that want to win "the day before, and two days before and three days before, because the will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win."

Most players however think preparation is solely directed towards readying for your next opponent.  But tremendous improvement can come about by being deliberate and intentional in your summer workouts and preparing for practices during the season.

As Jay Bilas wrote in his book "Toughness" --

"If I could go back and be a player again, one area in which I would strive to be better would be my daily preparation.  I would take more time to mentally prepare myself for practice.  It would have made me a better player if I had consistently taken the extra time to mentally prepare myself and focus on what I expected to get out of that day's practice, and to mentally preapre myself to truly compete that day from the first drill to the last."

Deliberate.

Intentional.