Sports Leadership

Leadership Is A Habit That Requires Practice

• 9/13/2018

It is probably fair to say that the argument over whether leaders are born or made has been settled. The fortune spent every year by organizations of all sorts and sizes on executive development is evidence enough for the idea that, while certain attributes of leadership may be genetic, much of what it takes to be a leader can be learned. However, that begs another question. How?

One Sport Athletes

• 1/20/2015

In my time as a multi-sport coach and AD at various sized schools, I’ve often heard kids who are dropping one sport in order to “focus” on another. My response to all of those kids is simple. When college coaches speak to high school coaches, one of the first questions often asked is, “What other sports does he/she play?” I can remember college football coaches coming to high school basketball games to see our kids play, and there are often college coaches at high school track meets watching kids compete.

UConn Sees Lone Loss as Turning Point in a Championship Season

• 4/9/2015

Had the Connecticut women’s basketball team initially listened to Coach Geno Auriemma when practices began in October, the Huskies may have very well ended this season on an 84-game winning streak dating to 2013. Instead, they took the hard road and finished with only 37 straight victories.

Your Drills Should Be Uglier

• 2/24/2015

When Trevor Ragan, motor learning advocate and founder of Championship Basketball School, talks to coaches or athletes about how they train and about how they learn, he often starts with a story about two tigers. One tiger is a zoo tiger. This tiger grew up in an enclosure, fenced off from the outside world. Every day, his food is brought to him. If it rains, he can walk into the warmth of a pre-built shelter. If it’s hot, he can bathe in the meticulously cared for pool. Life is easy because he is taken care of. The other tiger is a jungle tiger. This tiger grew up in the wilderness, hunting and tracking for each meal, walking long distances to find food and shelter. Each day brings something new and he must always be on guard lest he fall into a trap or become the prey of a hunter himself.

What Drives Winning

• 12/1/2016

Watch a series of videos from the Winning 2016 Conference featuring speakers, Becky Burleigh, Jack Clark, Serri Coale, Manny Diaz, Anson Dorrance, Sue Enquist, PJ Fleck, Ron Glass, Mike Gundy, Mike "Mouse" Holloway, Brandie Jay, Brett Ledbetter, Dr. Jim Loehr, John Smith, and TimWalton.

High performance program works to develop leaders

• 7/9/2014

Leadership was a problem at times for the 2013 UK football team, but an innovative part of the high performance program aims to make sure that problem is fixed moving forward

What Makes FC Barcelona Such a Successful Business

• 6/16/2015

“Blue and claret blowing in the wind. One valiant cry. We’ve got a name that everyone knows: Barça, Barça, Baaarça!” So runs the battle hymn ofFC Barcelona(aka Barça), the Catalan soccer club that won the UEFA Champions League — the world’s most prestigious inter-club soccer championship — earlier this month, defeating Italy’s Juventus 3-1. With 23 Spanish League championships, 27 Copa Del Rey titles, and, after this last victory, as many as five Champions League trophies under its belt, Barca has earned a unique place in the annals of soccer. It’s also a successful business: the team’s net worth, according toForbes, was $3.16 billion, making it the world’s second most valuable sports team, while its revenues touched $657 million, the fourth highest among soccer clubs (after Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Bayern Munich) in 2014.

The Seven Leadership Secrets of Great Team Captains

• 4/12/2017

The leaders of history’s most dominant sports teams took risks, engaged in dissent, embraced grunt work and hated giving speeches. An excerpt from ‘The Captain Class’

How crazy are youth sports these days? Ask college athletes

• 1/15/2016

A major survey of NCAA student athletes released this week revealswhat critics of youth sports have been saying for years: The system is reallywhacked.

Organizational design: The rise of teams

• 2/29/2016

Hierarchical organizational models aren’t just being turned upside down—they’re being deconstructed from the inside out. Businesses are reinventing themselves to operate as networks of teams to keep pace with the challenges of a fluid, unpredictable world.

Success is in the Preperation – Brad Stevens

• 4/16/2018

The coach reaches into his suit pocket for the neatly folded paper, opens it, scans it, before folding it up and returning it to its place. He repeats this process every few minutes, every game, until eventually the freshly printed sheet looks like something forgotten at the bottom of a suitcase. Crib sheets are not uncommon among NBA coaches, though few consult them as often as Celtics coach Brad Stevens. Defensive keys, offensive keys, 10-15 plays written, Stevens says, “in my own jargon,” meticulous preparation boiled down to one page.

The Tactical/Technical Connection

• 10/1/2009

You may not have noticed, but technique is the favorite topic of most people involved in tennis. Players talk about it (just listen to any post match conversation), coaches talk about it, parents, TV commentators, the list goes on. The majority of lessons people take emphasize technique. Just look at tennis videos, magazines and websites, and see what’s talked about most. Technique seems to be the big fixation.