Editor's Note: MSSU Women's Basketball now has it's very own YouTube Channel. Details coming VERY SOON!
Today's post is written by Associate Head Coach Ronda Hubbard:
During this first full week of conditioning our staff wanted to help our players take control of their lives. Sounds a little “much” for mostly 18-21 year olds, but I remember being 18 and having a coach “flip the light on” to my own potential. In the classroom, on the court, and as a person. The most important concept I ever gained at a young age was BELIEF, in myself. I found out right away that I really couldn’t believe in my teammates or the coaches if I didn’t FIRST believe in ME! The second most important thing I learned was to do everything with PASSION. If you watch our coaching staff….. we have a lot of PASSION. We are loud, animated, demanding, and we ask our players to resemble us. We have tried to establish this week that we must make HARD WORK our PASSION. Our team seemed to get it right away. While we only have three returners after graduating seven a year ago, there are many faces that are already stepping up to take on leadership roles.
Speaking of Leadership. We had our first one this week as well. The first two chapters of Talent is Never Enough. (hope you are following along with us!) The topics? BELIEF and PASSION. Seems that every successful person, book, team, or organization knows the importance of those two words. So, we have enforced this week that we, as a team, cannot live in a way that is inconsistent with our expectations of ourselves and our team. I think one of the “coolest” things to watch with our team this week, besides the natural improvement, was the identification of the two types of people in the world. ON the floor there are the people who “want to get things done” and then there are the people who “don’t want to make mistakes.” You can guess who looks silly in workouts. The ones tip toeing around trying to do everything just perfect! These players are moving at a snails pace! The others are flying around. It’s fun to watch. Learning to play at a faster pace is always a big challenge in the beginning.
OFF the floor, there are two types of people as well. As stated in Talent is Never Enough….there are the firelighters and firefighters. We are impressing upon our team that they need to be firelighters and stay away from firefighters. Their PASSION has to be protected. Firefighters run around putting out other people’s passion, their belief. They doubt. They resist change. Firelighters (which I am encouraged to tell you we have a lot of) ignite others. Our workouts have shown that we have a lot of people positively influencing each other. Even when Coach J is running the dog out of them!
Lastly, we are talking a lot about Responsibility and Accountability, especially as they apply to relationships. The major question I asked is “In a relationship, what is the percentage of shared responsibility in making the relationship work?” Now, remember, we are talking about teammate to teammate, student to teacher, player to coach, daughter to Mom/Dad…. And so on. The answers from our players are the typical. “50-50” or “51-49”. They express these answers with such confidence. I even had a player tell me “80-20” which is a good answer considering the Pareto Principle, but incorrect. The correct answer, as we explained to them, is “100-0” Only when you are willing to give 100 percent responsibility for making the relationship work, will it work. Otherwise, the relationship left to chance will always be vulnerable to disaster.
We believe that these concepts are true for every area of our lives and we are trying to instill these in our players. We are always 100 percent in control and have 100 percent responsibility for everything that has occurred in our lives as a result of our action or inactions. The Lions are learning to TAKE ACTION, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES, THEIR TEAMMATES, THEIR COACHES, and to do EVERYTHING with a great deal of PASSION!
Keep your eye on us and see if you don’t agree! :) Until next time……It's a GREAT day to be a LION!
Ronda Hubbard
Today's post is written by Associate Head Coach Ronda Hubbard:
During this first full week of conditioning our staff wanted to help our players take control of their lives. Sounds a little “much” for mostly 18-21 year olds, but I remember being 18 and having a coach “flip the light on” to my own potential. In the classroom, on the court, and as a person. The most important concept I ever gained at a young age was BELIEF, in myself. I found out right away that I really couldn’t believe in my teammates or the coaches if I didn’t FIRST believe in ME! The second most important thing I learned was to do everything with PASSION. If you watch our coaching staff….. we have a lot of PASSION. We are loud, animated, demanding, and we ask our players to resemble us. We have tried to establish this week that we must make HARD WORK our PASSION. Our team seemed to get it right away. While we only have three returners after graduating seven a year ago, there are many faces that are already stepping up to take on leadership roles.
Speaking of Leadership. We had our first one this week as well. The first two chapters of Talent is Never Enough. (hope you are following along with us!) The topics? BELIEF and PASSION. Seems that every successful person, book, team, or organization knows the importance of those two words. So, we have enforced this week that we, as a team, cannot live in a way that is inconsistent with our expectations of ourselves and our team. I think one of the “coolest” things to watch with our team this week, besides the natural improvement, was the identification of the two types of people in the world. ON the floor there are the people who “want to get things done” and then there are the people who “don’t want to make mistakes.” You can guess who looks silly in workouts. The ones tip toeing around trying to do everything just perfect! These players are moving at a snails pace! The others are flying around. It’s fun to watch. Learning to play at a faster pace is always a big challenge in the beginning.
OFF the floor, there are two types of people as well. As stated in Talent is Never Enough….there are the firelighters and firefighters. We are impressing upon our team that they need to be firelighters and stay away from firefighters. Their PASSION has to be protected. Firefighters run around putting out other people’s passion, their belief. They doubt. They resist change. Firelighters (which I am encouraged to tell you we have a lot of) ignite others. Our workouts have shown that we have a lot of people positively influencing each other. Even when Coach J is running the dog out of them!
Lastly, we are talking a lot about Responsibility and Accountability, especially as they apply to relationships. The major question I asked is “In a relationship, what is the percentage of shared responsibility in making the relationship work?” Now, remember, we are talking about teammate to teammate, student to teacher, player to coach, daughter to Mom/Dad…. And so on. The answers from our players are the typical. “50-50” or “51-49”. They express these answers with such confidence. I even had a player tell me “80-20” which is a good answer considering the Pareto Principle, but incorrect. The correct answer, as we explained to them, is “100-0” Only when you are willing to give 100 percent responsibility for making the relationship work, will it work. Otherwise, the relationship left to chance will always be vulnerable to disaster.
We believe that these concepts are true for every area of our lives and we are trying to instill these in our players. We are always 100 percent in control and have 100 percent responsibility for everything that has occurred in our lives as a result of our action or inactions. The Lions are learning to TAKE ACTION, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES, THEIR TEAMMATES, THEIR COACHES, and to do EVERYTHING with a great deal of PASSION!
Keep your eye on us and see if you don’t agree! :) Until next time……It's a GREAT day to be a LION!
Ronda Hubbard
Associate Head Coach
