When you cleanse yourself of a big victory, you may open yourself up to the opportunity for an even bigger victory.
When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.
As teachers and coaches, we must remember that when mere winning is our only goal, we are doomed to disappointment and failure. But when our goal is to try to win, when our focus is on preparation and sacrifice and effort instead of on numbers on a scoreboard then we will never lose.
The team that trusts-their leader and each other-is more likely to be successful.
There are five fundamental qualities that make every team great: communication, trust, collective responsibility, caring and pride. I like to think of each as a separate finger on the fist. Any one individually is important. But all of them together are unbeatable.
When a leader takes responsibility for his own actions and mistakes, he not only sets a good example, he shows a healthy respect for people on his team.
If a team cannot perform with excellence at a moment’s notice, they probably will fail in the long run.
When you first assemble a group, it’s not a team right off the bat. It’s only a collection of individuals.
In developing teams, I don’t believe in rules. I believe in standards. Rules don’t promote teamwork, standards do.
Defense is one man guarding the ball and four others helping him.
I’m still not a great reader, but my wife is and my daughters are, and I envy them. I think I got into a bad habit of trying to do something all the time, instead of trying to sit down and take my time a little bit.
Therefore, as a player, as a coach, even though we might have lost in a season or not won a championship, it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy that I’m going to win some time. I’ve never felt myself a loser.
If you win a National Championship, or you win two, people think you have not only seen the Holy Grail, but you’ve embraced it. Basically, I do what a lot of people do, but I’ve been able to win.
My parents didn’t really understand too much about sport. At that time, we were in a Polish community in the inner city of Chicago, and I was the youngest of a bunch of cousins. Polish families are real big, with cousins and aunts and uncles.
That’s another thing, we made up games. We didn’t have equipment. When it snowed, we would play slow motion tackle football. We would play hockey, but we wouldn’t skate. We just made things up. I loved doing that.
Why do you play a game? I play a game to see how good we can be.
I have a plan of action, but the game is a game of adjustments.
Good sound habits are more important than rules – use concepts.
The best teams are team in any sport that lose themselves in the team. The individuals lose their identity. And their identities come about as a result of being in the team first.
Playing sport was somewhat frivolous, but I liked it. I rebelled a little bit, and wouldn’t go to music lessons and things like that, but I would go and play ball. My parents learned to love it because they saw how much I got out of it.