Sports for the Soul

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…]

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 to the playoffs.

Parcells always adapted to his personnel and his opponents, but he also believed that mastering the fundamentals and keeping his strategy as simple as possible was much more important than constantly chasing whatever was new and trendy in the game of football… [continue reading…]

If you want to change your life, you must first change the way you think.

As so many of the world’s top coaches and achievers have taught, your attitude towards life—what you think of yourself and the world around you—will eventually create the conditions you experience. And the attitude you choose to adopt is completely up to you.

One of the most effective ways to change your attitude is to make promises to yourself. A promise to yourself should be viewed as an ironclad contract that you MUST follow through on.

The promises you make to yourself will take goal-setting and self-talk to a whole new level.

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden recommended the following nine promises that should be made by anyone seeking happiness and success… [continue reading…]