Competitive Fight - The Heart Of Walter Payton

“The first time I saw him—I didn’t know who he was—I saw him make this one run. He fought for every inch. He must’ve twisted and knocked 3 or 4 guys over. Spun around.  Accelerated.  And I said, ‘Oh my goodness! What kind of animal is this?’ All those moves. The strength, the tenacity. Give me the heart of Walter Payton. There’s never been a greater heart.”
Jim Brown

Preparation - A Competitive Advantage

"Preparation is a competitive advantage, not a drudgery.  Knowledge gained off the floor is quickness on the floor."
Kevin Eastman, Boston Celtics

Discipline - Champion

"CHAMPION is another word for individuals willing to do difficult and uncomfortable things on a daily basis that no one else is willing to do."
Anson Dorrance
UNC Soccer

Discipline - An Uncomfortable State

"Discipline is an extraordinarily unncomfortable state...it is not easy for ordinary people.  Most of us are rather ordinary  so most of us will not really attain their potential.  It is just too hard to invest in being the best.  Most of us would rather be comfortable.  But please understand being ordinary is not an indictment it is a choice."
Anson Dorrance
UNC Soccer

Commitment - The Sacrifice of Time

"Any great accomplishment involves the willingness to invest more time into a task than you might really want to give.  And in order to deposit your time into that account, it'll need to be withdrawn from somewhere else.  Twenty-four hours a day is a zero-sum game.  You can't take more.  You can only move it from one place to another."
Tommy Bowden, Winning Character

Character - What We Do In The Dark

"What we do in the dark will come to light."
Herman Edwards

Character - John Wooden

"What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player."
John Wooden
 

Competitive Fight - Best Teams Don't Play

"The real outstanding teams I've had, they don't play basketball.  They compete and they fight."

Mike Krzyzewski

W.I.N. Today - The Word Tomorrow

"The poor, the unsuccessful, the unhappy, the unhealthy are the ones who use the word tomorrow the most."

    Robert Kiyosaki

Character - Football Platform

“Football provides me a platform to be an example to people.”
 Manti Te’o

“People are going to have more tackles than me, more interceptions than me, but I want my teammates to remember how I made them feel.”
Manti Te’o

Persistence - We Don't Lose

"We don't lose, we WIN or we LEARN."
Sharman White

Discipline - Manti Te'o

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
DRECEMBER 7, 2012

It’s been a long, prosperous week for Notre Dame senior linebacker Manti Te’o.

He was in Charlotte on Monday to collect the Nagurski Award; in New York on Tuesday night where he was honored as a Scholar Athlete at the National Football Foundation’s Hall of Fame gala; in Houston Wednesday to pick up the Lombardi Trophy; and in Orlando Thursday where he received the Bednarik Award, the Maxwell Trophy and the Walter Camp National Player of the Year awards before flying back here for Saturday night’s Heisman Trophy award presentation...

 Te’o, wearing his blue Notre Dame sweat suit, looked fatigued as he found his way through the maze of TV cameras and a mass of reporters at the pre-Heisman gathering on Friday.

“I’m really tired,” Te’o said. “I’d just like to go to sleep. But I’ve got to get a workout in. My personal goal is to win the national championship...

“The hardest parts of these trips is to make sure you stay disciplined."

Persistence - Life Is A Storm

Quote on Manti Teo's Twitter profile page:
"Life is a storm.  You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next.  What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes." Count of Monte Cristo

Competitive Fight - Always Competing

"The day you wake up and you don't think you are competing against somebody, you are dead wrong."  David Shaw - Stanford Football

Competitive Fight - Time to Feast

"You know how in the classroom there's always the alphabet?  The A has an apple.  The B has a ball.  I always looked at the L because of my name, and it had a lion.  That's why I love lions.  The look they're talking about is the look lions get when they're seeking prey and it's time to feast."
Lebron James
Sports Illustrated, December 10, 2012

Attitude - Body Language

"Your body language always displays your attitude."  Rick Majerus

W.I.N. Today - Don't Think About Winning

"Of course I still got nervous during the Olympics, but each day I just visualized the perfect routine, had little conversations with myself: Okay, watch the corners, keep your feet together.  I didn't think about winning.  I thought about how great I could be that particualr day."
Gymnastics Gold Medalist
Gabby Douglas

Toughness - Andrew Luck

Sports Illustrated December 3, 2012

"But he's a great forgetter," says Christensen (Clyde - Colts QB Coach).  "He won't be cocky the day after he played a great game, like against Miami, and he won't be down after a game like New England.
Speaking about Colts QB Andrew Luck

W.I.N. Today - Win This Practice!

Sports Illustrated December 3, 2012:
...No one batted an eye when, in his first minicamp following the draft, Luck snapped, "Get your asses going!  We gotta win this practice."
 

Teamwork - I'd Rather Hold A Crystal Ball

You touched on legacy, and your name right now is being thrown around in the Heisman consideration. Does that cross your mind at this point?

Manti Te'o: “No. I think when my name is being tossed around as a national champion, that's what I'm looking for. You ask any Heisman winner that wasn't a national champion what they would rather be, and I think they would rather be the latter, a national champion. So that's what I want. I’d rather be holding a crystal ball than a bronze statue. That's just me.”

Toughness - Worst Four Letter Word

Phil Beckner - Weber State Basketball
"Worst four letter word someone can call you in the english language...SOFT!"

Excellence - Live A Champions life

"Live an average life and average you shall be.  Live a champion's life and a champion you shall be."
Manti Te'o

Toughness - Every Single Day

"Toughness isn't a costume that you wear one day and then lose the next.  Tough guys are tough every single day, regardless of circumstance."  Scott Cross

W.I.N. Today - You Win Championships Today

Mike D'Antoni - Los Angeles Lakers: "You don't win a championship in June.  You win it today."

Attitude - Effect On Others

"When you come out on the field, I want to see your positive energy that's affecting somebody else to do better." 
Nick Saban

Excellence - It's About Performance

From the book, The Miracle of St. Anthony
  Bob Hurley: "It's never about winning here.  It's about performance.  It is not acceptable to just win a high school basketball game any old way."

Commitment - The Four Time Zones

The Four Time Zones

a. Spare Time: I’ll get there on my spare time.
b. Part Time: I’m gonna do it some.
c. Full Time:  I will give you everything during practice.
d. All The Time: Every fiber of my body.
Kevin Eastman – Boston Celtics Assistant

Discipline - What Manti Te'o Wanted In New Coach

 

The Full Manti, Sports Illustrated, Pete Thamel

...Through all the firings and controversies, Notre Dame became less of a program.  A place known for its tradition of excellence kept calling further into mediocrity.  After the dismissal of coach Charlie Weis at the end of the 2009 season, Swarbrick took a group of football players to dinner to discuss the attributes they wanted in a new coach.  Swarbrick will never forget what Te'o said:  "I want someone who demands more out of us."

Toughness - Geno Auriemma

"Most important thing for players to work on in practice...shooting?  ball-handling?  defense?  Pointless without MENTAL TOUGHNESS."  Geno Auriemma

Toughness - How LONG You Can Play HARD

"It's not how HARD you can play...It's how LONG can you play HARD."
Sharman White @coachswhite

Preparation - Pep Talk Won't Help

"The best pep talk from a coach won't help the player who has cheated his preparation." 
Sharman White @coachswhite

Pay The Price - Squeeze Every Ounce Of Juice

“I’ve always been comfortable as a kid growing up to think that when my career is over, I want them to think of me as an overachiever despite the talent that I have,” Bryant once told Yahoo! Sports' Marc Spears. “To think of me as a person that’s overachieved, that would mean a lot to me. That means I put a lot of work in and squeezed every ounce of juice out of this orange that I could."

 

Toughness - You Have To Feel Some Pain

Kobe Bryant: "Whatever your program is, the key is to push yourself to a level where you're hurting. You can't gain conditioning without going through it. You're going to have to feel some pain, you're going to have to feel like your lungs are burning, and you know, you want to spit up blood, that sort of thing."

Commitment - No Vacation

 

Young Money Magazine: Did you have to sacrifice your personal life in order to become a business success?

Mark Cuban: Sure, ask about five of my former girlfriends that question… I went seven years without a vacation. (from the time I got fired from a job, and started MicroSolutions) I didn’t even read a fiction book in that time. I was pretty focused.
 

Toughness - Right Pinkie

Study the parts. His right pinkie, for example. He dislocated it during the 2007-08 season, trying to intercept a pass. Another avulsion fracture, this one also shredded a radial collateral ligament. Most players would have opted for surgery. Bryant played on. He not only appeared in all eighty-two regular-season games; he was named league MVP, the first time he ever won that honor. He also led the Lakers to the 2008 Finals, where they ran into a hungrier, more complete Boston team. "A buzz saw," Bryant says. The Lakers lost in six.

Immediately after the Finals, fans assumed Bryant would schedule the long- delayed finger surgery. Again, no. He wanted to be ready for the Beijing Olympics, a lifelong dream. For once he'd be surrounded by the world's best athletes.

Isn't he among the world's best athletes every night?

"This was different," he says. "These are the best of the best."

After helping the United States win gold, Bryant postponed surgery a third time. He didn't want to miss training camp. As the 2008-09 season got under way, the point was moot, the pinkie mended. Then, swiping at a ball in possession of LeBron James, Bryant dislocated yet another finger-his right ring finger this time. The pain was blinding, like nothing he'd ever experienced.

Over the following weeks, before each game, Vitti would stabilize Bryant's ring finger by bracing it to one of its neighbors. His hand reduced to a talon, Bryant was forced to develop a new shooting technique. He'd done this before, several times, including 1999, when he broke the fourth metacarpal. (He learned to shoot with a protective glove.) Now he did it again, only better, leading the Lakers back to the Finals. This time they won, besting Orlando in five.

Excerpt from GQ.com
By J.R. Moehringer
March 2010

Pay The Price - Kobe Bryant

Jay Triano, the Raptors assistant coach who spent time on the U.S. coaching staff, had the pleasure of witnessing Bryant's individual workouts.

The scene was a quiet high school gym.  The team's daily practice was long done.  Most of the rest of the multi-millionaires were long gone.  Triano called it "incredible."

"He's not just going through the motions when he's shooting jump shots.  They're game shots, at game speed," Triano said.  "And the repetitions...over and over and over.  Like, three-point shots.  There are a lot of NBA guys, you'll watch them make 25 from each spot.  He's like, 100, 200 from the corner every night.  And you'd think he'd be done and he's going on to the next spot.  And he goes back and he shoots fadeaways and he shoots 'em off the bounce.  I was just like, 'Holy smoke.'  You get tired throwing the ball back, let alone shooting it." 

Pay The Price - Pay Up Front

"You have to pay the price for success up front.  Everybody wants to do it. Not everybody is willing to do what they have to do to do it."
Nick Saban

W.I.N Today - Working Against Ourselves

“We're not working to be better than other teams,” says Alabama center Barrett Jones. “We’re working against ourselves.”

“Our goal, as players, is to do our job—and do it the best we can,” said Tide safety Robert Lester. “Then do it better than the last time.”

Excellence - The Best Will

Kevin Eastman -Boston Celtics Assistant


I’ve been very fortunate in my career to work with, talk to, and help improve some of the best players in the game. As I look at our 2012 Olympic team, I remember working with Kevin Durant when he was a sophomore in high school; with Lebron James as he was entering the draft after his senior year in high school; and with Kevin Love, Chris Paul and Andre Iguodala as well. Then there are those not on the 2012 team, including Derrick Rose, Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

More than what I may have taught them, I think about what they have taught me while I had the opportunity to be around them and observe them in action.

From my observations, this much I know — “The Best” will:
-Outwork others
-Be more disciplined than others
-Have greater drive than others
-Be much more competitive than others
-Do things that others think aren’t important
-Do the unrequired extra work
-Always want to know what they can do to get better
-Want to be coached, want to be driven, and want to learn more

Teamwork - Old Ball Player

"The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey. The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back."
- Steve Garvey (Former MLB first baseman, Business Leader)

Excellence - Demanded

"You're not allowed to be average in anything you do - we demand excellence."  Jeff Capel

Toughness - Gets You Through The Year

Phil Beckner - Weber State Basketball:  "Toughness is one of the most underrated characteristics of good teams.  You need speed, talent, athleticism, and skill but toughness gets you through the year."

Competitive Fight - More Than Playing Hard

"Overheard a bunch of coaches talking about 'how hard this or that kid PLAYS.' I think most every kid PLAYS hard. We want kids that PRACTICE hard. We want kids that CONDITION hard. We want kids who work at being COACHABLE hard… PLAYING the game hard gives no indication of that to me. Games are fun and most everyone is willing to PLAY hard."

Mike Neighbors - University of Washington Women's Basketball

Commitment - 365 Days A Year

“Eli’s just so, so, reliable.  Totally reliable.  Trustworthy.  Smart.  Tremendously hard working.  Consistent as the day is long.  What I love about him is, I know what he’s doing 365 days a year.  He’s doing something that will help us win football games.”  Tom Coughlin on Eli Manning

W.I.N. Today - Don't Worry About The Scoreboard

“What I’m going to talk to the guys about is the product is the Super Bowl, the product is winning the Lombardi.  But you have to go through the process, and the process is day-to-day.  The process on game day is 60 minutes, one play at a time, all you got.  Never too high, never too low.  There’s going to be ebbs and flows.  There’s 55-60 plays a game where you’re just swinging back and forth.  Then there’s going to be five or six critical plays that are going to determine the outcome of that game.  So you can’t pick and choose, ‘I might relax or take a play off here or there.’  No.  The process, work the process.  Don’t worry about the scoreboard.  Let’s play hard for 60 minutes.  Let’s play with passion.  Let’s play with energy.  Let’s run, let’s hit, let’s block, and let’s tackle, let’s get off blocks, fundamental football, situational football.”  Chuck Pagano, Indianapolis Colts

Excellence - Saban's Definition of Success

“Having success in a football program can have two effects. You can demand more success or you can get a little complacent and be relaxed about what you have accomplished, really think more about what you did rather than what you’re going to do. It’s human nature to relax…  I think success should be defined: consistency in performance.”  Nick Saban

Commitment - What This Means To Us

"Some of these young quarterbacks have asked me, they've said, 'You and Marvin (Harrison) are lucky to have that timing,' ... It ain't lucky. I was teasing someone from the Colts, 'If you want to sell some season tickets, put a hidden camera out here showing me, Marvin and the ball boy out here throwing. Just to let people know what this means to us.' It was April. It wasn't mandatory. There weren't any coaches around. We were going full speed. That's what it takes."
Peyton Manning

Pay The Price - Kevin Durrant's Mindset

"He works like he has no talent.  He works hard every day like he wants to make the team.  That’s his mindset.”  Scott Brooks on Kevin Durrant

W.I.N. Today - Continuous Improvement

“Everyday we are on a relentless pursuit of continuous improvement.”  Derek Dooley - University of Tennessee Football

Excellence - Different Results

"We are going to require you to do things that other teams may not be required to do, because we expect our results to be different from theirs.”  Mike Leach

 

Commitment - No Compromise

It's hard to imagine any high school sports team going 12 seasons without a defeat, let alone doing it in football.

That was the record-breaking accomplishment of Concord De La Salle and Coach Bob Ladouceur from 1992 through 2003, resulting in a 151-game winning streak.


"I've talked to many kids who played there," Loyola Coach Jeff Kearin said. "I've asked them, 'What's the mystique?' They just say it's all about no compromise in anything they do from December to December in terms of how they train and their expectations."

Competitive Fight - Lasting Impression

“You can’t just beat a team. You have to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see you again.”
Mia Hamm

Teamwork - It's Not About You

"Football is a team game. Its not about you. Its not about me. Its about us." 

John Gruden

“Every player must first place the team ahead of personal glory.  The man who plays must make personal sacrifices – victory means team glory for everyone – personal glory means little if a team loses.” 

Vince Lombardi

“Remember always, it’s not about you.”  

Geno Auriemma

“You gotta discipline your ego.  It’s about the team.”

Mike McCarthy

"A lot of times in our world it’s all about me, me, me. In a team mentality, it’s never about you. It’s about what you can do for the whole.” 

Kevin Mawae

“The difference between champions and near champions is the ability to play for something outside of self.”  Bob Zuppke

Excellence - The Standard

“It’s about doing it in a way that it can’t be done any better.  That is the goal every day.”  Geno Auriemma

W.I.N. Today - The Most Important Day Of Your LIfe

“I always say to my guys, ‘The most important day of your life is today.' This very moment is the most important minute of your life. You must win this minute. You must win this day. And tomorrow will take care of itself.”  John Chaney

Toughness - What Can You Do After Your Exhausted?

Taken this morning from Coach Starkey's blog (www.hoopthoughts.blogspot.com)...

"I’m going to share a little secret with you. Running has always been a source of my stamina. Early in my career I learned to run until I was tired, then run even more after that. But all the running I did before the fatigue and pain was just the introduction to my workout. The real conditioning began when the pain set in. That was when if was time to start pushing. That was when I would count every mile as extra strength and stamina.

What counts in the ring is what you can do after you’re exhausted. The same is true of life.

Outrun the people who quit when they feel discomfort, outrun the people who stop because of despair, outrun the people who are delayed because of prejudice, outrun the people who surrender to failure, and outrun the opponent who loses sight of the goal. Because if you want to win, the will can never retire, the race can never stop, and faith can never weaken.

My heart told me one thing and my mind told me another. And when I had to decide between them, I chose to follow my heart."

From "The Soul of a Butterfly"
by Muhammad Ali with Hana Yasmeen Ali

Discipline - Steve Young's Definition

"I define discipline as doing something when there's zero motivation."  Steve Young

Attitude - Bart Starr

"If there was just one word I could use to describe a successful person, that one word would be attitude."  Bart Starr