Always Being Prepared

The following comes from a small piece on ESPN.com about the Greatest Coaches in NFL History. This caught my attention, not only because I am an avid Giants fan, but because I have tremendous respect for Coach Coughlin and his coaching philosophy. Eli Manning talks about his Coach and what he has learned from him. The full article can be found here.

After the second Super Bowl, Coach Coughlin and I had kind of a unique moment. I hadn’t seen him right after the game with the hoopla and then doing interviews. So now I’m dressed and I’ve done all my interviews, and I’m leaving the locker room and realize I haven’t talked to Coach Coughlin. So I knock on his door and go into the his office, and right away we both start analyzing what we should’ve done in that last minute [against New England].

So after the game, Coach Coughlin and I started analyzing it. We knew they were going to let us score. Do you take a knee? Do you kick a field goal? Do you try to score? We start dissecting that, thinking into it. I threw in my theory. He gave me his theory. What’s the best possible way? It was a unique situation. You’ve got to score. You don’t want to settle for a field goal in that situation. How do you possible handle that situation if it ever happens again? We do situations on Saturdays. That would be a good situation to think about and go over. It was second down, and they’d just taken a timeout. We were thinking they have one timeout left, we’ll run it again, let the clock run all the way down, then kick a field goal to take the lead. But on second down they let us score, saved a timeout and got the ball back with 50 seconds rather than getting it with 15. Of course, they needed a touchdown now to win the game instead of a field goal.

And I think he’s ingrained that in me, to always be planning, always be thinking, and to be prepared for every situation. You watch things happen, whether it happens to you or another team, and you learn from it and you can be prepared for it. He wanted to talk about what happened at the end of the game, but I did, too.

Last Game - Next Game Theory

The following comes from Bob Knight's "The Power Of Negative Thinking". 

"In basketball, If I thought we had an insurmountable lead toward the end of a game where we had beaten pretty good team, I’d pull our five starters and – while that game was still being played out and those starters were on the bench – I’d be talking to those five about the next game: getting them thinking about who they were going to guard, about what we were going to be facing, getting them over this game. I didn’t want them gloating about how well we played in a game that was almost over. That was not to deny them the satisfaction they deserved after a job well done. A coach should never forget to compliment his players on a well-played victory, but shouldn’t hesitate to tell them when they’ve played poorly – in a loss or a win." 

Curtis Strange on Discipline and Preparation

“If you prepare properly, you love the stage. The more I prepared behind the scenes, the more I wanted the pressure. I trained myself to want the pressure, and my preparation and routine helped my confidence. My routine started at home, with how I prepared for a tournament. It started long before I ever arrived at the tournament site. That takes discipline and preparation."



From Toughness by Jay Bilas 

Jay Bilas on Preparation

Chapter 2 of Jay Bilas' Toughness is all about preparation. The book I'm currently reading The Power of Negative Thinking by Bob Knight also talks a lot about the importance of preparation. Not everything in the chapter is about preparation. Throughout the book and in each chapter, Jay Bilas always adds his thoughts on different topics. 

Here are some of my favorite thoughts and quotes from the chapter:

"Instead of "getting through” a workout, players to need “get from” a workout – to get the most from it and the most from themselves."

"If my preparation is up to a standard of excellence, I am more likely to reach my highest level of execution. How can I possibly expect to be excellent if my preparation is not up to the level of excellence?"

"I suppose preparation can be seen as an obligation, but I don’t view it that way – at least not anymore. I want to prepare , and I have come to really enjoy the preparation and enjoy the process."

"Nothing is different in my preparation and execution when the stakes are bigger to outsiders. No rung on that ladder is more or less important than any other."

"Preparation is multifaceted. It is about hard work, but it also about concentration, in planning and execution, and it is about how you frame things in your mind. The toughest people stay in the present and concentrate fully on what is in front of them."