Are You Thankful?

Thanksgiving. The time for predictable posts on “being thankful.” Being thankful is more than using your words to express the feeling. We can say “thank you” and how we are “blessed to see another day,” but if our actions are not aligned with our words, we are not truly expression gratitude.

In life, we are given many opportunities. They range from new careers, the birth of children, free public education, and even more. The greatest of them all is the opportunity to have breath and life.

Being thankful requires active participation and full application in the opportunities we receive.

Here are some things you can begin doing to show your gratitude for your opportunities.

Develop relationships

When you engage with the people you meet in your opportunities, you become more invested in making the most out of them.

Improve at your weaknesses

Improvement spurs gratitude. When you see personal improvement in any task, you automatically become more thankful for that opportunity.

Show respect to all others involved

There is no greater sign of gratitude than respect. Show respect to the people you work with, the environment you work in, and for the work you do.

And last but not least...

Grind. Repeat.

Obviously.

Reflect on the situations that you find yourself dragging through. How can you apply these tips to be more thankful for those opportunities?

Tryouts, Part 3 of 3: What to Do If You Get Cut

Every year, young athletes get excited for tryouts. And every year, plenty of kids get cut. As a coach, it is emotionally one of the hardest things to do. As a player, there are things you can do to stand out to better your chances of making a team. This will be a 3-part series about tryouts: Week 1: Common Assumptions Regarding Tryouts Week 2:How to Stand Out During Tryouts: What Coaches Look For Week 3: What to Do If You Get Cut

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Getting cut can be one of the worst feelings that athlete’s will experience. The feeling of rejection and not being accepted after putting in weeks of time and effort preparing can be crushing emotionally. However, you can’t let getting cut ruin your love for basketball (or whatever sport you play). And if you are an underclassman, you can’t let it stop you from continuing to work on your skills and athleticism.

Here are 4 things you can begin doing right now to help you make the team next year.

1. Become the team manager

Usually, most people have too much pride to help out at practices without receiving a jersey. However, becoming a manager for the team allows you to be a part of the program. By being at practice everyday and involved in game day preparation, you will be able to observe and learn what the coach values. Also, you can pick on up the teams plays, schemes, and defensive principles.

2. Join a city league

Finding a good league to play in is important. Having officials and a score clock is something that you can not get in pick-up games (which are also important to play in). While it is not as organized as school ball, finding the right city league can provide you with good competition and the opportunity to play competitively.

3. Develop your strength and athleticism

Most players, when they are in-season, end up losing strength because they neglect to strength train properly. This is a good opportunity to make some gains since you have more time and energy to focus on becoming stronger, faster, and more athletic overall.

4. Improve your skills

You have over 3 months to become a dependable ball handler and a knock-down shooter. When open gyms begin at your school in the spring, there is no excuse for you not to be a much improved player. There is no time to waste. And there is no reason you can’t train. Can’t afford a trainer? Get on YouTube and search up drills. No access to a gym? Find a park. Don’t have a ball? Collect cans for a week and go buy something round that can bounce.

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Remember, your coach didn’t cut you because he hates you. As much as you don’t want to admit it, you are currently not good enough to play. If you love the game, you won’t quit. You will take the necessary steps to improve. You will be ready for spring open gyms, and prove yourself when summer league starts.

Tryouts, Part 2 of 3: What Can You Do to Make the Team?

Every year, young athletes get excited for tryouts. And every year, plenty of kids get cut. As a coach, it is emotionally one of the hardest things to do. As a player, there are things you can do to stand out to better your chances of making a team. This will be a 3-part series about tryouts: Week 1: Common Assumptions Regarding Tryouts Week 2: How to Stand Out During Tryouts: What Coaches Look For Week 3: What to Do If You Get Cut

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All coaches have different preferences when it comes to evaluating players. However, here are 4 general things that every coach would see as valuable (in no order).

1. Be a good teammate

Not too many things are more cancerous to a team than bad teammates. Work together with the other players during drills. Encourage your teammates rather than boss them around or criticize them for making mistakes. Fit in to your role on the team; don’t try and do things on the court that you are not capable of doing.

2. Be coachable

This does not mean you need to be the labeled as the coaches pet. Being coachable means following directions, taking corrections and applying them in drills/scrimmages, and putting the coaches vision of the team into practice on the floor. Do not try and show the coach how great you are at basketball by taking matters into your own hands. It will most likely not work out for you.

3. Make shots

Obviously, right? Notice it did not say “take shots.” Anybody can jack up fadeaways and reverse lay-ins. Can you consistently knock down an open jumper? Having the ability to shoot the ball consistently in a game situation will make you real hard to cut from the team, even if you are slow and can’t dribble. Let’s face it, most high school varsity teams have no more than two kids who are consistent in making open jumpers.

4. Understand the game (have a “feel” for the game)

This ties closely with being coachable, but sometimes the most coachable players still have no understanding or feel for the game. Do you know how to reverse the ball? Do you know the difference between a bad shot and a good shot? What is the first thing you do when you catch the ball, dribble or square up? If you have too many negative habits that demonstrate a poor feel for the game, you will definitely stand out, and not in a good way.

Tryouts, Part 1 of 3: Looking at Common Assumptions

Every year, young athletes get excited for tryouts. And every year, plenty of kids get cut. As a coach, it is emotionally one of the hardest things to do. As a player, there are things you can do to stand out to better your chances of making a team. This will be a 3-part series about tryouts: Week 1: Common Assumptions Regarding Tryouts Week 2: How to Stand Out During Tryouts: What Coaches Look For Week 3: What to Do If You Get Cut

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Let’s uncover some assumptions about tryouts.

1. It doesn’t matter what I do, the coaches already have the teams selected.

In all honesty, the higher level you get, the least amount of spots are up for grabs. At the varsity level, coaches usually have up to 8 players that they have tabbed into the varsity team. That doesn’t mean those players are automatically varsity players. I have seen plenty of cases where a player who is thought of as a varsity player gets outplayed during tryouts and drops to a JV player. At the JV level, there can be a certain number of players that are being looked at as borderline players that have a chance to make the team. There may be 15 players who played on the Freshman team a year ago and another 6 who played JV. Now you have 21 players battling for 12-15 spots. At the Freshman level, there are usually no pre-determined players.

The teams are not pre-selected, but some players are already considered to make a team within the program given their track record.

2. If I have never played in the program, I don’t have a chance to make it.

Not entirely true. The older you get, the more it hurts your chances. But there are things you can do to immerse yourself in the program ahead of time, such as attending pre season workouts/open gyms. If you are good enough to make the team, you will. Most kids who do not have a history in the program are usually behind on how to play the game the right way more than they are on shooting/dribbling ability. In the next part of the series, I will go into the importance of this.

3. All that matters is what I do on the court.

Not entirely. Yes, you have to have the ability to play basketball. But coaches (in good programs) want quality citizens and students to be part of their team. Unfortunately (in most cases), the more talented you are, the more room for being an idiot (for lack of a better word) you have. If a player is constantly late or skipping classes, failing multiple classes, and receiving negative reports from teachers, he is not helping his cause to make the team. A player like that needs to be extremely talented just to have a chance to make it. Basically...

Big idiot + No talent = Automatic cut. Stay away from my program. Big idiot + average talent = Work on the off-court issues, try again during summer league. Big idiot + Very talented = Let’s see what we can do to help him.

On the other hand, if you are the opposite of that player (good grades/citizenship, positive reports from teachers), you help your chances even more than an idiot hurts his chances.

Standout student/citizen + no talent = Keep coming in the off season, try again next year. Standout student/citizen + average talent = On the team, we will try to find ways for you to succeed. Standout student/citizen + Very talented = Team captain.

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Not all coaches have the same standards or methods when it comes to tryouts. This is the general consensus from the coaches I know. The bottom line is that in order to be successful during tryouts, you will need to have done some things ahead of time that put you in a position to be successful.

VIDEO: Pre-season Training With Silverton HS Girl's Basketball

For 6 weeks, I had the opportunity to travel out to Silverton High School to help the girl's basketball players prepare for the season. It is truly refreshing to work with young athletes who are willing to put in the work to improve. In our 2-hour sessions, we rarely shot the ball and we never scrimmaged. We put in time to improve ball handling and ball control. It was great watching the girls grow confidence and ability in their dribbling ability. Check out clips from their final workout.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUYBfLRgzmM

Does Your Obsession to Succeed Negatively Impact You?

We go to extreme lengths to achieve our goals. Pre-cook and organize our food for the week. Wake up at 4:30 AM (right?). Pass up wedding cake at our best friends’ wedding. Even avoid the Thanksgiving feast because the potatoes and corn have too much starch and the turkey was farmed and not wild. But where do cross the line from being dedicated and focused on achieving our goals to become obsessed at an unhealthy level, where our lives become consumed by nutrition and training. In reality, even though physical health is highly important in our lives, emotional health damage can be just as poisonous towards our overall health and our chance to succeed in our goals.

I’ve really been thinking a lot about what I am doing to myself. I feel that the obsession of achieving optimal health has taken over my life. It has limited my enjoyment of certain activities and caused me to judge people for what they do and what their opinions might be. I have had a personal revelation that when an obsession takes over our lives, we lose sight of understanding that whatever we are obsessing over is just a small area in our life.

It is important to know what you can handle, individually. Some people thrive in discipline and find pleasure in doing things that are difficult. Others feel restricted or deprived when they try to achieve something.

The Restricted Life Epidemic

Those who see a disciplined life as a restricted life have negative thoughts with the changes they will need to make in order to achieve what they want. The thought of waking up to workout before they get to the office immediately causes them to realize they won’t be able to sleep as much. Even if they plan on working out after work, they feel deprived of their down time. When they are told to avoid processed foods, they quickly think about how hard it will be to cook/prepare real food.

The best way to solve this epidemic is to change your mindset. However, a mindset shift is an even longer process than a lifestyle change (although you could say they go hand in hand). If you are feeling restricted of things you enjoy while obsessing over the cans and can’ts of eating, it can cause emotional or mental stress.

You have to put your emotional stress into consideration. If you are someone who feels like life is ending because you can not munch on Doritos, that omission in your diet can hurt you mentally as much as it hurts you physically.

Then it gets tricky.

Think about what your goal is. Will one handful of Doritos cause detrimental damage to your process? And will one handful cause you to eat the whole bag? One handful, probably not a huge setback. A whole bag, major setback. You have to understand your personal boundaries. Are you more likely to succeed on keeping your sanity by having a small amount of your favorite processed snack, or will that lead to a breakdown?

This is not limited to food. How you use your time can be just as important towards achieving your goal. Watching 3 hours of TV every night is probably not the best choice of leisure activities is you have a fitness or athletic goal. Some people feel restricted and deprived if they can not watch TV from the time they get home until the time they go to bed.

You are not me, and I am not you.

We are each unique. Some of us can live day-to-day with the understanding that how we spend our time determines our identity and what we choose to eat either becomes fuel or poison. Others proclaim that they have freedom and do not see a purpose in restricting themselves of their favorite activities or foods, although they may be destructive towards physical health. Understand what type of person you are, and then find your balance by determining the importance of you goal in comparison with the importance of your feeling of freedom.

Working Out vs Training...What's the Difference?

I hear people talk about working out and training like they are the same thing. Lately, I have been thinking about the difference. These are my thoughts in comparing the two... If you go to the gym to workout, your goals are most likely to burn some calories or get your heart rate up. A wide variety of activities could fit this mold. There is little thought into what you will do at the gym. People who like to keep exercise fun often stick to working out as opposed to training. The problem with working out is that once you finish your workout, you have achieved your goal. There is little thought about what you do once you leave the gym. Basically, working out doesn’t take much thought or preparation.

If you train, however, you have specific goals that you want to accomplish, usually in a specific time period. Training involves thought and preparation, which is why most people who are serious about achieving a goal hire a trainer. Training involves working out - - workouts that are planned in phases with progressions. When you go to the gym, you know what the workout is that day, and you know what future workouts will be as well. Training also involves thought and preparation outside of the gym. Recovery and nutrition are huge (and often underlooked) factors in training. Those who train understand that the benefits of working out are limited when recovery and nutrition are not handled correctly.

Most people think that athletes are the only people who train. However, anyone with a fitness or health goal should be training instead of just going to the gym with a the goal of doing a workout. If your goal is to lose fat, you need to know the path to get there. Going to the gym and looking for a different machine to stay on at a comfortable pace for 30 minutes is probably not your best bet. If you are serious about a goal you want to achieve, take time to plan your path to success (or hire a professional to plan it for you).

Here are some tips to plan out your training:

What is my goal? - - You need to know what you are trying to achieve before you can start planning what you need to do to accomplish is. Is it fat loss? Is it to improve your vertical jump? Different goals will require different paths.

How long do I have to get there? - - This is also a question to determine how realistic your goals are. If you want to lose 45 pounds, that’s great. Trying to do it for a wedding coming up in 2 weeks is probably not realistic. Make sure you allow enough time for yourself to be successful. If you are an athlete, you have to know when your season starts. Starting 2 weeks before your season will not allow for significant performance gains. Plan ahead!

What do I need to do at the gym? - - What will your workouts look like? This is where a professional really comes in handy. You can definitely research the web or read books to get some decent programs, but having a trainer perform a Functional Movement Screen to assess your movement patterns can help you workouts not only be effective, but also improve your long-term health.

What will I need to change about my lifestyle? - - Again, specific factors are related to your goal. However, just about every goal you can think of will require optimal recovery, nutrition, and possibly supplementation. Having a BioSignature modulation is a great start towards your goal. The BioSignature can provide a hormonal profile and a body composition analysis. No matter your goal, it is important to get adequate sleep and sufficient protein intake.

The Athlete's Mindset: A Predictor of Success

“The way you view your own intel­li­gence largely deter­mines how it will develop.” - Carol Dweck I recently enrolled in “Drive-Time-U.” This comes from Darren Hardy. My driving time has turned into learning time. I have traded music for audio books and presentations. A friend of mine recently let me borrow "Mindset" by Carol Dweck. It took me about one weekend of driving to finish it.

Dweck talks about the two types of mindsets that people have: the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. In the fixed mindset, our ability or talent is what it is. No matter what we do, we are given ability and must do what we can with it. People with a growth mindset have a belief that they abilities can be developed through passion, education, and feedback.

Developing a growth mindset is crucial to your success as an athlete. You must understand that it is possible to develop new skills and increase your athletic capacity. It doesn’t matter if you’re the most talented in your school or if you’re on the verge of getting cut. A growth mindset is the only mindset that will allow you to maximize your potential. It is important to understand that you are not as good as you will one day be by putting time into development and seeking feedback from mentors that can help you learn.

Too often, we label young athletes as naturals or prodigies. We assume that are good because they were born that way. This feeds those young athletes the recipe for a fixed mindset, which will cause the athlete to peak. They will never reach their full potential.

And for those who are struggling to make a team, a fixed mindset can be equally dangerous. Early in my high school days, I assumed there was nothing I could do to get playing time. The starters were selected, and I was not fast enough or good enough to be on their level. It wasn’t until the middle of my Junior year that I understood hard work and accepting coaching/feedback was the pathway to become a more skilled basketball player. After my Junior year, I started realizing that I could develop speed, strength, and jumping ability. My transformation from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset is what sparked my improvement as an athlete.

To this day, no matter what it is I am doing, I am content knowing that I am the best I have ever been, but the worst I will ever be.

In His Words: Jordan Carter on Off-season Training (Video)

http://youtu.be/ia4b_o6AsNE With high school basketball season approaching quickly, players should already be preparing for the first day of practice. Take a look as Jordan Carter (Corban University, Jr.) begins his on-court preparation. Also, he shares his thoughts on what young players should do in the off-season to improve their game. Corban begins practice this week. Good luck on a successful season, Jordan!

View Video on YouTube Site

In His Words: John Olinger - Creating Your Own Luck

I am honored to have John Olinger provide this weeks content. I have always looked up to John, both as a person and a basketball player. When I was in high school, watching him during his senior year motivated me not to give up; that the possibility of succeeding at basketball despite a lack of early success. Most importantly, his words are great lessons to everyone. You can check out more of John's writing at his blog, Like Me, Only Different. Thanks, John! +++

If you looked at my life now - the things I’ve gotten to experience with and because of basketball – you would assume I was always one of the best players on each team I played on growing up. You would assume the results are natural from being one of the best. You would assume it’s always been as easy as it looks in retrospect. And your assumptions would be wrong.

It’s been said nothing worthwhile comes easy, which is true of my journey. The things I’ve experienced with and because of basketball are worthwhile but they weren’t easy. And I don’t want you to think that I’m so great – I just tried to make the most of every opportunity, and some things worked out. I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my journey in basketball, and life.

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In elementary school I liked basketball, but I spent much more of my time as a long distance runner. The combination of being a runner with my genes, led to me being a pretty scrawny kid. My mom had been deeply involved during my time running, but when she passed away after a bout with breast cancer, I turned my attention away from running and onto basketball. And though my attention turned, my body did not. I was still a scrawny kid as I started to play more and more basketball in middle school. I made the “A” teams in both my seventh and eighth grade years, but was the one of the last guys off the bench. I kept working on my game throughout the summers and off-seasons – knowing I had a lot to improve upon.

Lesson 1: Nothing substitutes for hard work and dedication

When it came time to try out for the freshman team at my high school, I was the last guy to make the team. At the end of my high school career, my coach said the only reason he kept me as a freshman was because I was a nice kid and I worked hard. Yet, my game was improving – I remember one of my freshman teammates remarking that my ball handling had really improved, and he wanted to know how. It was one portion of the previous summer’s workouts – twenty minutes of ball-handling drills every day. When our freshman season ended I continued to work hard on my ball-handling and other parts of my game, hoping to be a bigger contributor on the junior varsity (JV) team.

As JV tryouts ended my sophomore year I was no longer the last guy kept. A few guys from our team the previous year didn’t play which helped, but also my game had improved. I turned into the sixth-man on our team, being a regular contributor off the bench. Throughout the year I continued to work on my game and I thought it looked bright for me to join the varsity team the next year. As the school year ended we had a head coaching change on the varsity team, meaning it was a fresh start for everybody. I played well in the summer league games in front of the new coach, so it seemed to me that I must have impressed him and set myself up well for the upcoming season.

Lesson 2: There is only one outcome when you quit

Yet, as tryouts started during my junior year, the new coach asked me to spend most of my time playing JV. He said I could swing (meaning playing for the JV team and the varsity team), but that pretty much meant I wouldn’t play much varsity as a junior. It felt like a slap in the face. I had worked so hard, and frankly, I thought I was good enough to contribute. And if I wasn’t going to get to play as a junior, then I probably wouldn’t get to play as a senior. It seemed that basketball wasn’t going to work out for me, so I heavily considered quitting.

I can’t remember the exact reason I didn’t quit – maybe it was because I loved basketball, or I really hoped I would get my chance – it doesn’t matter the reason, all I know is that I kept working hard and did whatever I could to prove my level of play. In the end, I didn’t get much of a chance on the varsity team, only playing in one game that really mattered during my junior year. But if I would have quit, what happened next would have never been possible. If I had quit there was only one outcome – I would have no longer been a basketball player at my high school.

In the summer after my junior year, two guards from our program transferred schools. And this meant our coach had no set options at point guard.

Lesson 3: Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity

If a guy says he wants to be a great basketball player but doesn’t actually prepare to be a great player, it is almost 100% certain he won’t be ready to be a great player when the opportunity comes. You don’t just wake up one day and become a great player – who you are as a player (and a person) is born over a series of moments leading up to an opportunity, not on a single occasion. The reality is that you can prepare for something your whole life, and the opportunity you are expecting may never come. (I do believe God uses all our experiences to prepare us for things, even when we don’t get to do what we want or think we are preparing for – but that is a longer discussion for another day.)

While preparation does not guarantee opportunity, what if your opportunity does come? That’s my story as the two other point guards on our roster transferred before my senior season. The coach threw me the keys to the team, and it turned into a magical year for me. Our team won the Valley League with me as the starting point guard. The season was capped with my selections to the Valley League 1 st- Team, as well as the 1st Team All-State Tournament. I ended up leading the State Tournament in scoring – even tallying more points than guys who went on to play short stints in the NBA.

Some people would say I was lucky. Others would say you make your own luck. Isn’t that life though? Sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time, and other times you aren’t. But when you are in the right place at the right time, your preparation is what will determine what happens. I didn’t magically become a better basketball player my senior year of high school – I had been preparing for several years for that opportunity. If I had quit there would have been no opportunity. And if I hadn’t worked hard, there would have been no luck.

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After high school I went on to play a year at a Division 1 school (Portland State University), before a year at a JUCO and three years at a Division 3 school (Willamette University). I was selected All-Conference two times and had a fabulous time as a collegiate player. If my basketball journey ended there I would have been happy.

I also started my MBA while I was still playing for Willamette. When I finished my MBA I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to continue my time as a player. I was able to go to Israel with Athletes in Action (AIA) – traveling the country by day, and playing games at night. That led me to play on a traveling tour in the US with AIA, which ultimately opened the door for me to spend two seasons playing in England.

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My time as a player has officially come to an end, but I’ve been really blessed to land a job where I still get to work around basketball. This job is a culmination of what has happened over a series of years in my life – combining my playing and life experiences, with my education. And frankly, it is all tied together with basketball playing a central role in what I’ve done, and will continue to do.

The rest of my life and basketball journey has been largely shaped by what happened as a senior in high school. My senior year in high school was shaped by the years of hard work prior to it. I didn’t know that when I started – I just knew I loved basketball and wanted to work hard at it. My encouragement to you is to find what you love and work at it. You may not get the opportunity out of it you want, but if you quit there’s only one outcome. Your hard work is preparation for something – and in the end, you won’t be sorry for giving it all you have. That’s where luck is made.

Looking at where I’m at now makes it seem like it must have been easy, as if it just happened for me. It doesn’t just happen – things ultimately happen because of preparation. God often opens doors when we least expect it, and the person who is ready for that opportunity is the one who has prepared.