Journaling--The Way to Self-Awareness

Each week we spend a few minutes on a self-awareness question with the intent of helping our players know more about who they are. We believe you cannot change who you are if you are not first aware of your characteristics. Last week we asked them a three part series of questions.
1. Define mental toughness.
2. List the three players who you believe possess the best mental toughness on the team.
3. Rate your mental toughness on a scale from 1-5 with 1 being the lowest and five being the
highest and then explain why you gave yourself that ranking.

The definitions were right on target:
"Accepting Criticism and learning from it."
"Limiting negative reactions and thinking in a positive way."
"The ability to keep working hard even when things are not going your way."
"Digging deeper when you think you can't push any more."
"Staying strong in the mind no matter what obstacles you face."

Even though I loved their definitions and found them for the most part to be right on target, what I loved even more was their honesty in their self-ratings. We went around the room with each player explaining her rating. In settings like this, some players would be intimidated, not wanting to share their high rankings for fear of being considered conceited or on the opposite end of the spectrum, sharing a low ranking which might show incompetence.

These players, however, spoke without fear of judgment which proved to the coaching staff two important points--the team has already evolved to the place of unconditional acceptance and our players are willing to be vulnerable in front of one another. Many great things can be accomplished with a group of people who can accept each other for who they are but at the same time be willing to push each other to expand to a different level.

This is a team with a high level of mental toughness. It is evident in their timed sprints, when I am demanding they run faster, and instead of faltering, of feeling they cannot possibly do what I demand, they encourage one each other to get it done.

One of the best moments on the court came last week when we were running 1-80-1's which are a series of sprints building up to eight and going back down. This was after our 15 minutes of defensive slides. I was at the point where I was ready to provide them with an incentive for meeting the times when I offered to reduce the sprints sets if everybody made it. When a couple of people failed, I heard a player yell, "You have to keep running hard even if we didn't make it. It is not about the sprint sets; it is about getting better. Keep running hard."

Because she yelled that, I offered another incentive. This time they all made it.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

The Eagles at Work Giving Back

I like the idea of community service, of giving back to people, of the gift of assisting others, and of the knowledge goodness exists in the world when you take a moment to look. We ask our players every year to donate some of their time to those around them. It is also keeping with the mission of the University of Charleston which is to prepare each student for a life time of productive work, enlightened living and community service.

The past weekend our players split up into two groups to assist with the American Heart Walk and the Capitol City Challenge. At the heart walk, Chrissy, Tianni, Lauren, LeAnne, Nichole, and Frenchy performed two ball dribbling and passing drills up on stage as entertainment and as part of the official warm-up. At the end of their exhibition, they walked around and gave their basketballs to some of the children in the audience. They also tried their skills at Zumba with Chrissy showing off her extraordinary dance steps.

By the way, if you wish to catch more of the Eagles dancing Zumba, you can catch it on the University of Charleston women's basketball facebook page.

The other group of players assisted with the Capitol City Challenge pulling kayaks out of the Kanawha River and loading them onto trucks. Apparently this group of players met some Golden Eagle fans who told them and I quote, "Your coach is really intense." Quite frankly, the freshmen have no idea what intense means yet.

This is only part of the good we hope to give back to the Charleston community this year. It is my wish that our players learn to give as part of the cycle of life, because I believe good comes to those who give goodness out.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

Rebuilding or Moving Forward?

There are going to be many conference coaches and fans who will think this is a rebuilding year. After all, we graduated six seniors who together in their career totaled 4,891 points, 2,544 rebounds, 1,318 assists, 238 blocks and 591 steals. Last year they represented 77% of the points scored, 60% of the rebounds grabbed and 64% of the passes which resulted in baskets. On paper it appears to be a daunting task to fill their shoes.

But paper does not have passion, heart nor hustle. It is a flimsy piece of dissected wood, unfeeling, an inanimate object which statisticians make important. I'm looking at a group of people who are flesh and blood, who in my earliest impressions make me thrilled I am their coach.

What is it that thrills me? Walking into an individual practice and seeing players already on the floor working on their ball handling, not waiting for us to enter, just getting it done on their own. Seeing players on the court as I walk up the stairs to my office working on changing their footwork for shooting. Witnessing incredible improvement from one practice to the next. Hearing Frenchy apologize to the team for not running hard enough in the sprints when last season she would have thrown me the evil eye and an attitude. Watching as Chrissy steps up in a leadership role, becoming louder and more importantly showing some emotion.

The freshmen are young. It is true. There is no way to take their inexperience out of them but with this group, I really don't think it matters. I am certain they will make up for their lack of experience with passion. When we are coaching, they hang onto every word as if the word itself will make them better. They listen and then they apply what we tell them. It is a wonderful process to observe.

Sometimes with a group of people you can simply feel their power. Their energy transcends the building and grows into a feeling so amazing it pours out of them and through the gym doors. I'm not certain where the year will take us and what our record will look like at the end, but I do know this--it is going to be a very special year.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

What A Year Can Do

I am always amazed at the growth of a player in a single year. I am reminded of this as we bring in ten, yes count them all, ten freshmen. When the rookies arrive, their faces are so pure, the innocence of living under their parents' protection still keeping their eyes and chins soft. They come with a lack of awareness and understanding of what it takes to be a Golden Eagle, thinking they had trained hard in high school and believing they know all about the sport of basketball.

In a few short weeks, they will change. Their bodies will begin to harden, the cut in their biceps and triceps will sharpen, their calves will form a split in the back of their legs, and their abs will crack and carve into the much desired washboard look.

Their minds will change as we teach them the Golden Eagle way. When they grab their shorts to bend over catching their breaths, they will be taught we never bend over here--we never show weakness. When they are running timed sprints and they fall over, fatigue, the air in their lungs depleted, they might initially think we are cruel as we tell to get up and run again. When they quit because they got away with it in high school, and now when they quit, they discover the team runs for their lack of desire. When they hang their heads over a missed shot or a mistake and suddenly find their coaches more angry at the reaction than the mistake. These are the things that start changing their faces.

I can see the growth in our sophomores after only a year and in our juniors after two years. They exude confidence and assurance, an awareness they have survived "boot camp" before and know they can survive it again.

Chrissy is confident, talking louder, leading, secure in her knowledge. The other lone junior, Tianni is communicating well with the coaches, leading by example and showing improvement in her offensive skills. Tiffany came back in incredible cardiovascular shape and believes she can run forever. Erika trimmed down, gained muscle and is more at ease with her relationships with teammates. Lauren has learned tolerance and patience, curbing her honesty to include compassion. Marilene has learned to allow her true inner self to shine more, and LeAnne gained 24 pounds of muscle, two tons of confidence and calmer footwork.

I see the potential in all of them even when they fail, even when they make a mistake and we must discipline, even when they believe they can't. I see them for who they can be--who they really are if they just reach deep enough. This is our job--to make them reach deeply.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

First Lessons

And so it begins again. The 6:00 a.m. practices. The P90x Plus weight training. The suicides. The defensive slides. The Yoga. The Challenges. The individual practices. The teaching. The lessons.

At 6:00 this morning as the mist was settling in the valley hovering over the track, we had our first lesson on discipline. A player made a mistake over the weekend, breaking our rule which states honor yourself, your team and UC. In her desire to have fun, to enjoy Saturday night, to laugh, to let her hair down, she made a poor judgment and so the team got the opportunity to learn from her error.

We spent an extra 20 minutes running sprints, bear crawling, hopping, sprinting, skipping, plank running and just overall having a grand time. When their tongues were hanging out, the sweat was dripping off their brows and their legs were quivering with fatigue, when I was just about to let them start our 12 minute challenge run, a player threw out the "F" bomb. Bummer. So I tacked on a few more sprints.

When we had completed the fun portion of the workout, I was certain none of the players would make our 12 minute run which would mean they would have to run it again on Wednesday morning. Another bummer. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised when three freshmen despite their fatigue and inexperience found the mental toughness to kick butt and make their times. After a morning of disappointment, this put a smile on my face.

Afterwards we headed to the fitness center to do walkouts which are push-ups combined with walking the hands out from the feet, going to a plank position, executing 11 push-ups and then walking the hands back to the feet. The goal is to complete in descending order 71 push-ups beginning with 11 and going down to one with an additional set of five. This must be done on my command with their chests touching or closely touching a tennis ball placed beneath them. Much to my joy, most of the players completed this test.

Our final challenge was front core abs for 2 minutes and 15 seconds, something which is not too difficult if you haven't been running and doing push-ups for the past hour. What I loved was the determination to make the time--the yelling and encouragement of teammates, the total body shake of a player who refused to go down, and the atmosphere of desire to achieve.

I was amazed at the sophomores who were stronger, who had packed on muscle, who just a year ago couldn't keep their butts from rising up in the air or their trunks from bending to the mat during any plank position. They had worked hard and had muscles to prove it. I was also surprised by the strength and passion of our incoming class.

This could be a fun season if they learn their lessons quickly.

PLAY HARD. PLAY TOGETHER.

Fact or Fiction

It is amazing how a few months can fly by in what seems like minutes and then a few weeks can last forever. Since the beginning of preseason, time has been elusive floating by us like dead wood in a flooded river. It has been so hard to grasp or hold. Recently, though, after we've suffered a couple of injuries, time has slowed down and it feels as if time is now an enemy rather than a friend. We need time to stop, to slow down, to let us recover and catch our breaths.

In the game against Seton Hill, time seemed to stop when one of our starters suffered an injury early in the game. When she went out, our timing got disrupted. We felt off kilter, a little bit rough as balls were passed to the wrong team, lay-ups were missed, and plays were forgotten.

This is our second major injury in the past two weeks which is why we could believe we need more time--time to heal, time to get other players ready, but time is not going to stop. We have to keep going. We have to find answers and we have to continue believing we can still have our dreams.

As a team, we could call it quits. We could convince ourselves we now have a solid reason for losses. We could tell the story we lost to Seton Hill, because a starter was out of the game. However, the coaching staff doesn't believe in telling this story. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game. We made a three pointer to go ahead and all we needed was a stop. When we failed to get the stop, we had a chance to score to tie it up and we didn't make it. We lost the game because we failed to execute, not because a starter was on the bench.

The difficulty now is to make certain our players can distinguish between fact and fiction. We can still tell the story we want. We can still create the outcomes we want. We don't have to buy into a pity party. Self-pity is always an enemy and never a friend.

In order to get the point across, we played a game called fact or fiction. Each player was given a card which had printed on one side the word "Fact" and on the other side the word "Fiction". We came up with 41 statements which the players had to decide were fact or fiction.

Some of the statements were meant to be funny:
Coach Winn's eyes increase in size by three inches when she is mad.
(FACT)
Coach Testa dresses fly for the games. (FACT)

Others were meant to make teammates think.
Lauren is too slow to get on the ball stops. (FICTION)
Tianni's biggest opponent is her own mind. (FACT)
Tianni cannot overcome her self-imposed limitations. (FICTION)
Frenchy isn't competitive enough to become a great basketball player. (FICTION)
Mo is a big defensive stopper. (FACT)
Mo is limited to being only a defensive player. (FICTION)
Encouraging each other and sticking together is overrated. (FICTION)
We are not a comeback team. (FICTION)
When we lose, we never learn from the experience. (FICTION)

We wanted them to realize we get to tell our story and whatever story we tell is the one we create. If we want to chose to believe we can no longer win with injuries, it will become our story. If, however, we are strong enough to tell a different story like winning with the challenges we face, then we will make that story come true.

I have faith in our story-telling abilities.

ONE HEART. ONE DREAM.

Imagine me taking a sandwich size baggie into the locker room and telling the players this was what we were going to use to pack for our upcoming three day trip. They laughed, of course, but waited to see if I was joking. After all I had made them take a single carry-on bag on our trip to Hawaii. For those of you who don't know me, I am a minimalist.

I can pack for a month in a single bag and am happy if I don't have to make clothing choices. It is one of the perks of being a coach. I can wear the same colors day after day after day and nobody questions my attire. It eliminates so much hassle when I can open a drawer not having to think if it matches.

I was joking though about packing their essentials in a baggie. Well, actually the essential part wasn't a lie. We were going to take the most essential thing we would need in a small plastic bag.
We were going to take our strengths along with us. On this trip I couldn't risk leaving any of them at home.

We had every player write something she wanted each teammate to take with her. It was supposed to entail something not so obvious or maybe a little more detailed than a simple line about whether she was a good shooter or a great rebounder. We wanted 18 different notes. This was done on small slips of paper which were then deposited in a player's "luggage bag." Each player received 14 notes from teammates plus four notes from the coaching staff. We sealed the bags and I took them with me for safe keeping.

When we got to our destination, we sat down in the locker room and gave out the bags. Each player was allowed to blindly grab five of her notes to share with her teammates. We went around the room sharing the funny, heartfelt, compassionate, positive and loving notes. As players read the notes, high fives and smiles were given to the players who had sent the essential messages.

This exercise defines this team--devoted to one another, full of loving kindness and a willingness to share joy, pain, laughter, wins and losses. This is not just team chemistry; it is a group of players who truly admire one another. It is deeper than the simple act of working together. It is bond which will not stop when the games do.

I love this team because they exhibit such love for one another. This is why they survive tough games and why they find a way to win when the odds are against them.

I am proud to be associated with them and am basking in every second I get to share with them.


ONE HEART. ONE DREAM.