Do results define us or process? Coach Auriemma's MasterClass lesson eight (How to Get Maximum Effort) informs his vision.
But we're not him. What tips are available? No comprehensive list exists.
1. Set the bar high. Every year can't be rebuilding. "We're young, not a lot of experience and we'll take our lumps." Or do we say, "we're young, enthusiastic, and we'll bring the fight to the floor every day." Same team, different message.
2. "Always do your best." Our best won't always get championship results but leaves no regrets. Don Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements is Tom Brady's favorite book.
3. Give honest feedback about effort. We don't have the resources to have heart rate monitoring to measure work. But we have our eyes. If players want more, they must give more, do more, sacrifice more.
4. Ask "what's your why?" You're here to reach a standard of excellence or you're not. "Champions behave like champions before they’re champions." —BILL WALSH
5. Model excellence. Players see everything. What's our commitment to planning and preparation? If we don't give our best, why should they? Auriemma says it's tempting not to engage fully, "my door is open, they can find me." That doesn't work.
6. "How you play reflects how you live your life." After a lackluster effort by a former group, the head coach asked me to say a few words. The girls had been pushed around and didn't respond, showing no fight. Six months later a player told me that message really got to her.
7. Be relentless. A top prospect gave the most consistent effort in practice or games that I've ever seen for a young player. She earned All-Scholastic efforts as a freshman this season putting up big performances (20/14/5 blocks). In Relentless, Tim S. Grover wrote, "Being relentless means demanding more of yourself than anyone else could ever demand of you, knowing that every time you stop, you can still do more. You must do more."
8. Build winning habits. In The Vision of a Champion, Anson Dorrance describes Mia Hamm, working out alone in a park, "The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when nobody else is watching.”
