We were on vacation last week. We didn’t find out until we arrived that we had neither phone service nor internet! Our 10 year old granddaughter called it “living in the old timey days!!!” Sooooooo… no post last week! But, I’m back!
I had a conversation with a coach yesterday who was talking about the motivation/interest level of his various players. They are installing the Delaware Wing T so I have been a “Consultant” for him. He commented that “this is an offense for the underdog and overachievers. My more talented players get bored easily and lose focus.” That statement caused me to pause… and think! What do we do with those players on our team who are obviously gifted? How do we motivate them to continue to improve?
Then, I saw in the paper (yep! old school! I still read the printed local newspaper every morning!!!) that Notre Dame dismissed a former “5 star athlete” from their team. The article commented about how the player had never shown much of the “greatness” that he’d shown in high school while playing at ND. What happened? Why didn’t this player continue to shine like he had in high school? I think it has to do with how we motivate these “more talented” players on our team.
There are 3 statements which I have always “preached” to my players which relate to this situation of challenging the reallllllly good ones (and everyone else!) to continue to work hard, improve and dominate. They are:
1- from Tim Duncan, “Good. Better. Best… You can never rest! Until your good becomes better and your better becomes best!”
2- from Kevin Durant, “Hard work beats “talent” when “talent” doesn’t work hard!”
and 3- from the Bible, “To whom much is given, much is expected.”
The stars need to be challenged to work to improve their skills, their attitude, and their leadership abilities just as much as that big ole offensive tackle who’s trying as hard as he can! These guys, the gifted ones, can’t be allowed to just get by on their athletic ability alone. They may dominate in high school but… if they get the opportunity to play at the next level (when EVERYONE is just as good or better than them!), they will have needed their high school coach to have “pushed” him to be even better than he already is!
