Dabo Swinney took over as head football coach at Clemson halfway through the 2008 season. In the nine-and-a-half seasons since, Swinney has led the Tigers to 101 wins, seven-straight (and counting) 10-win seasons, four ACC championships, and one National Championship. In an outstanding new book by Seth Davis, the author interviews several of America’s top [...]
Darrin Donnelly
It’s important that you set aside time to regularly visualize your biggest dreams coming to fruition. When Lou Holtz was coaching at Notre Dame in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he saw the awesome power of visualization first-hand… On the Friday nights before a game, I would have my players attend a relaxation period. [...]
Top coaches and athletes looking for a competitive edge are now tapping into an unexpected power source. They’re tapping into the power of sleep. Yes, sleep! It was once a badge of honor for coaches to burn the midnight oil and catch only a few hours of sleep at the office or for certain athletes [...]
Success leaves clues and we all know that certain values like grit, optimism, discipline, and selflessness serve as the foundation for all winning programs. We know that history’s greatest coaches—from John Wooden to Dean Smith to Tom Osborne to Nick Saban—all preached the importance of teamwork and trusting “the process.” Mike Matheny, a four-time Gold [...]
In last week’s column, I wrote about Bill Parcells and his advice that “newer isn’t always better.” He warned against the tendency to constantly chase after whatever is new and trendy. Parcells also pointed out that ego can sometimes drive one’s (unnecessary) desire to change. Changing things up simply to make yourself look smarter is [...]
Bill Parcells is one of the most successful coaches in the history of pro football. The Hall-of-Famer led the New York Giants to two Super Bowl championships before engineering quick turnarounds with the Patriots, the Jets, and the Cowboys. To this day, Parcells is the only coach in NFL history to take four different teams [...]
