Bill Walsh was a football genius. He changed the game of pro football with his innovative, pass-heavy West Coast Offense while winning three Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s.
Walsh was also an avid student of the game of life. He was driven to find out what separated the most successful people from everyone else. In sports, in business, and in life, Walsh found a unique element shared by every great success story… [continue reading…]
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 coaches to find out what makes them tick. Davis points out that one of the things that makes Dabo Swinney so unique is the joyful attitude he brings to his work.
While many coaches are best-known for their stoic (sometimes curmudgeonly) demeanors, Swinney stands out with his overwhelmingly positive perspective… [continue reading…]
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… [continue reading…]
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 to show up at the gym each morning before dawn, regardless of how late they were up the night before.
However, scientists have discovered clear evidence that lack of sleep has a tremendously negative impact on one’s mental and physical health. And the sports world has taken notice.
Top coaches and athletes are realizing now that long hours of work at the expense of a full night’s sleep does much more harm than good. [continue reading…]
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 Glove winner as a player and the first person to guide his team to the playoffs in each of his first four seasons as an MLB manager, answers an important question: If everyone knows the formula for building a winning program, why doesn’t everyone follow it? [continue reading…]
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 usually a recipe for failure. “Winners don’t need to be recognized as brilliant,” Parcells said. “They strive to be dominant.”
Bill Parcells’ point was clear: mastering the fundamentals and keeping your strategy as simple as possible are two keys to success.
Because of this philosophy, some people assume that Parcells was a stubborn, rigid, my-way-or-the-highway type of coach who refused to be flexible. They think he was the type of egotistical coach who would never admit he was wrong or that someone else had a better idea than him.
However, such characterizations of one of the greatest coaches in the history of the NFL would be wrong. Very wrong.
Though Parcells built his teams on the core philosophy he believed in—and he demanded discipline in implementing that philosophy—he was more than willing to adapt his strategies to other people’s ideas when necessary… [continue reading…]
