Staying in the Go mode

Winning the championship will require your team to eliminate excuses.  There has to be some sort of a message that will convey that no excuses will be allowed on the team.  You first have to start with your team having to discuss and discover why they make excuses in the first place.  Sometimes it's because we are all a little afraid of going all in.  We will make an excuse just in case it doesn't work out.  Then we will be able to justify it.

Examples:

A few times I would have the floor intentionally left dirty to see the reaction of my players as they weren't as quick, fast, and to see what excuses would arise because of that.

Other times, I would leave certain lights in the gym off so that it was darker than usual.  All the while, I was asking our players, what are you going to do when we are on the road and these conditions exist?

I wanted to eliminate those excuses early and pose a variety of obstacles in their way.  Like intentionally having our basketballs either over inflated or under inflated so that the excuse of the ball could be overcome and we would adjust.  I believe in having these situations in your practice to help with the overall message, going forward, all in.

Playing Green, All In.

We as a staff always needed to show our team what it looks like for us to be in an all in situation.  I would look for pictures of us playing in tough situations, mainly of us going through tougher situations through my 12 week conditioning program.  I always wanted them to have a visual of what it looked like to be all in.  A variety of methods, like stop lights, with Red light, Yellow light and Green light was used to describe what it looked like to play in a Green light situation.  I even used a particular shooting drill to prove this point by calling it Green Light Shooting.  I wanted them to know that you had to be all in to get the goal, but once you did, then in the game you would have the
Green light to shoot.  Talk about a confidence booster!

Trust:

We all have situations where there are players who aren't on the same page.  How can you get them trust each other.  Over the years all coaches have used many methods to get this done, I have.  One that I have used that is dramatic but gets the point across I used with my HS team one year on a retreat I took them to in Palm Springs.  I paired up the players and had them swim one end of the pool to the other, arm in arm, using one snorkel, they had to stay underwater.  Very difficult indeed, one that required us as a staff to first show them that it could be done and how.  Once they saw that we as a coaching staff could do it, they were more inclined to believe and get it done as well.

Team Meals:

It's customary to have teams eat together but how can that be used to build trust?  Early in the  preseason we had our teams have their wrists tied together and eat.  This made them have to take turns helping each other eat.  They had to rely on each other.

Body Language:

I am a huge believer that how the players acted when they came out of the game would establish that culture that we were always talking about, pushing for one another.  But you have to pay attention to it.  There are more players on the bench than are playing in the game.  I wanted them to know on the bench that they were the energy of the team and to be supportive of those in the game.  Also, I paid close attention to the body language of anyone who got subbed out and how they came to the bench.  This provided us with excellent attention to what we were emphasizing since I taped it and reviewed it often with our players and coaches to make sure that we were all in.

Coach Saintignon
Orange County Magic Basketball, Inc.

Perspective

We should be able to talk candidly about our coaching perspective.  We all can agree that if we have a player who is driven, you must realize that you are in a position of power.  They will do anything you say.  They also will accept abuse in anyway that you deliver it because they desperately want the success.  

When you have those players that are extremely driven they are the ones that are most at risk, because they are the ones willing to do anything, sacrifice everything and do whatever is necessary and take whatever you dish out to them because you hold the key to what they are seeking! 

If you get players into survival mode as I stated earlier in another blog, then you will have them fighting like dogs.  That anger subdues choking, it subdues fear.  That chemistry of fear and anger can't live together.  Some coaches believe that if you make the player angry that they will then play better.  You can call them names, infuriate them and all the nerves go away, that's what the screamer coaches realize.  It's manipulation as opposed to allowing them to figure things out and how to control their own nerves.  

Is there a different way? 

Humans tend to perform much better when they are driven.  When they see the opportunity to do something extraordinary for a cause much bigger than themselves.  They respond in a special way when they realize all of their hard work and suffering isn't about them anyway.  

Great coaches know this power, the power of fighting for a loved one.  They do it for a cause that is more than their own validation, or their own self interest and thus more sustained results.  

Coach Wooden was very tough.  He was a taskmaster.  However, he always had his players best interest in mind.  It was never about him.  It was about the players and what he did with them, how he taught them, would affect them the rest of their lives.  

This is what he told me how he would determine what a success he had been later in life, 10 years from the time that they left his supervision. 

The real report card.  This is when the season is over.  As much as all of us want to be at the top and accepting the championship.  The real sense of satisfaction is going to come later.  Like at the reunion, the wedding of a player, etc.  This is where you know it was a truly meaningful experience, one that shaped their lives and that they are grateful for.  It's at this moment where you will not feel any better as a coach.  

Sometimes the job gets in the way however.  We just get into the mode of winning games.  We forget how to value moral character.  How can you prove you value character if you don't measure it and reward it everyday?  How could you implement into your practice today?  Start by recognizing that person that was most unselfish, encourages the most and reward that person.  That person doesn't have to run at the end of practice for example because this was measured, rewarded.  The players will see that this is a value to you and they will try their best to achieve it.  

During one Final Four that I attended, I heard a coach say to another, "You can tell what a coach values by what they are willing to lose for."  So true because we are always afraid of what can happen if we don't get the wins.  We are tested each day.  How much do I value winning and how much do I value developing people?  

This comes back to your perspective.  Are you playing for today?  Or are you playing for a perspective that is going to ultimately determine the success of those under your supervision as a person.  

Ask your players:  How can you tell if a coach values winning over developing people?  I am interested in learning what you discover?

Pursue your Passion! 

Coach John Saintignon

Orange County Magic Basketball

The power of your voice

This blog post is not going to sit well with some of you due to the mature and harsh language that will be used, so I urge you to use caution when looking at this.  However, there are coaches who have humiliated others, publicly and privately.

This intense pressure needs to be addressed and I am going to as my son asked me this weekend as we were watching ESPN and the interview with Jadlow and his new book and the issues with Bobby Knight.  My son asked me if I ever had a coach like that?  It forced me to dig deep into trying to help coaches understand what resides in their control.

You have to remember that as a coach at any level, you have extraordinary power in the lives of the athletes that you interact with, or as I like to say, those under your supervision.  Your position in their life, your presence; you hold their dreams in your hands.  You are the person who is going to help them fulfill what they believe to be their destiny.

If you believe in them, if you support them, if you reach deep inside of yourself and give them a sense of empowerment, they can and will do extraordinary things.  You will be an enormous force in their life.  However, with that same power, you can tear them apart just the same and in some cases they are never going to be the same.

Listen to the interview Todd Jadlow and Bobby Knight life out of control.

Bobby Knight Halftime Speech

There is also an extremely powerful movie that I have seen from time to time to remind me and others of what happens when you are out of control.  The movie Whiplash is intense and the scene that I am about to provide, has intense scenes, language, and should be viewed in light of what it brings to you, the emotions that are evoked.

Whiplash, intense scene.

Remember a couple of poignant facts that the coach is pushing them to be all that they can become.  And in the movie when he draws the line in the sand by saying this is what winners are and what losers loo like well that was for his own needs.  You see many coaches do this to feel that they are successful.  For their reputation.  It's wrong.  I speak about this all the time here in US and in other countries where it is looked upon that a coach who yells and screams must be a good coach.

Most coaches have no clue of the power they have in the lives of the people that they teach.

Remember that every word, behavior, tone you use goes not just to the one person that you are directing that to, it's to the entire team, whether they are being spoken to directly or not, including staff members who listen to it as well.

I agree with the premise that most coaches believe in pushing their athletes beyond their limits.  That process is difficult to say the least, but it doesn't have to get abusive.  Couldn't you challenge another way?  Couldn't you challenge your athletes without using fear?

One thing to keep in mind in the movie, the drummer is driven, even if the coach wasn't there.  But it was so extreme, he was driving himself crazy.

When you coach players that have this drive that is over the top because they want to be successful, the question you need to ask yourself is, is that drive from within because they are trying to be something?  Or is it to make themselves feel more important because there is something lacking inside of them?

Why do people endure the emotional abuse in order to get to the next level?

That answer that my son asked me, was yes, I did play for a coach like that, who challenged me, pushed, demonstrative.  But I took the time to know him, to learn that he had care for me, that he loved me, and that he accepted me for who I was.  This was demonstrated off the court by him taking the time to talk to me, put his arm around me, be there for my Dad's funeral as I was one year removed from his coaching me.  Thus I was able to understand that his ranting and raving on the sidelines was only pressure and that I was able to withstand that better knowing that I could be the one having the calming effect on him.

I would be the one to accept responsibility for the actions of our team.  This allowed me to help them simply play for each other on the court.  It allowed my coach the outlet for his frustration to me, as I was able to take it.  No one ever said it would be easy, but we all found a solution that worked for us all.

Pursue your Passion!
Coach John Saintignon

How to deal with expectations.

What do the best teams have?

First you have to help your players learn how to separate what they do from who they are.  They have this idea that if they perform well then they are loved and if they don't perform well, then they are unloved.

I was asked this question the other day, what are the best teams that I have been around and what are the characteristics of those teams?  They have Love, Care and Acceptance.

This takes you as the coach to show your vulnerability.  What do I mean by that?  How do we get our players to open up and talk and share their feelings with each other, to get to the truth?  Teams that have problems are going to have a lot of judgement going around.  I make it a point to learn the story of our players.  To try to know where they come from.  You will discover things you never knew, internal pain perhaps.  We ask our players as coaches in general to trust and invest in a team, but to many of them, this trust is the major issue.  They might not know how to become a good teammate, how to trust and open up.  I learned that I needed to have weekly meetings to help facilitate this. The most important thing I ever did was show them how vulnerable I was in the discussions as well.  I spoke about the challenges and things in my life that have held me back as well.

Having empathy is a huge component.  There are going to be many of your players who will be holding themselves to a high standard, being compared to others.  Empathy is huge, especially when your team begins to open up.  That love, care and acceptance will help those players feel accepted by their teammates even if they don't live up to the expectations others place on them.

There is going to be a daily battle with human nature.  You see human nature is being lazy, selfish and self centered.  That is the battle each day.  How do we fight that battle versus human nature.  You must lay out a plan that demonstrates to the players that human nature vs championship nature.  by that i mean playing Xbox v. studying for a test.  Eating fast food v. eating healthy.

Are you prepared to lose big and win big?  Sometimes as a coach you have this goal to maximize your teams ability.  So during a game you think all is going well, "we are OK, , don't change."  But you know that your team can be better if you just one player to do this or that, or if you can change something.  Then that thought enters your mind, "what if it doesn't work, are we going to take a step backwards?" Last night the Cubs manager, took that risk, it was hard to argue what he was doing with his pitchers, but he was believing that he had to leave it all on the line and stick to what he knew, by either losing big or winning big.  He had to take the risk to get his team there.  If you want to win at the highest level you have got to be prepared to make those decisions.  I believe that you have to be a risk taker to get your team to maximize it's fullest ability.

I am a huge believer in confronting the truth with my players.  Not in the scream, yell in your face type.  Mainly by addressing the elephant that is in the room.  Addressing it before it grows into something more.  For example, with my team this weekend in Phoenix at a showcase, I addressed their lack of effort in the first game, not whether the ball went into the basket, more to come on that later.  However, it was my way of adding to them that I valued the effort we would give more than the ball going through the basket, because I know this is what we can control.

All my teams, I provide immediate feedback from the goals that I have, wanting to know their player performance rating, to see how efficient they are during the course of the game, so that I can talk to them individually about it.  Example going to a stat line and seeing a player down and disappointed by going 2 for 11 from the field in 38 minutes played during a 40 minute game.  I would try to put this into perspective by asking questions," how many shots did you miss? " "How long does it take for you to shoot the ball?"  "How many seconds did you play?"  So taking the answers the player gave me, I try to put back to them in a way they can relate what is really at stake.  They missed 9 shots, taking 1 second to shoot, and that 9 seconds affects the rest of the 37 minutes, 51 seconds that they played?  This is truth I put in front of them.  They must understand that they will have the ball less than 5% of the time that they play in a game.  The game of basketball, 95% of the time is played without the ball in your hands.  Yet the newspaper will focus on who the leading scorer was, how many points, the 5%.

This weekend I asked one of our players who maybe played 25 minutes how long did he think he had the ball in his hands?  He responded 15 minutes.  I was loud by saying, no one has the ball for 15 minutes~!  All players get caught up in that 5%.  And that 5% takes them on emotional highs and lows based on whether the ball goes in the basket.  You see a player who makes a shot, will scream yes, but when they miss, you don't see that same reaction?

Making shots will come and go.  The things you actually have control over is the things you do, 95% of the time.  Focus on being great at that.  That is the purpose of me showing them how efficient they are during the game so that they realize that they can control the outcome of the game by focusing on things that are within their control.

I leave you with this final thought.  What's your legacy?  What do you become as a result of the chase?  When you are going through this chase, are you bitter, do you have resentment, frustration, are you not a good person?  You hear coaches say all the time, that they tunnel vision, that they are sacrificing their family for the team.

There are many things that get exposed as result of pressure.  I believe that through this chase you get a chance to become a better version of yourself.  It's a way of finding out about yourself.  I challenge coaches to answer what is their purpose in coaching?  It can't be about material things, or about winning, having money, or earning trophies, It has to be what do they do each day, the value that are they bringing each day.

So what is your calling?  What is your mission in coaching?  There is an enormous amount of freedom that comes with being who you want to be as a coach without worrying about the results.  We don't control the results.  We do have control over the process.  And we do control who we become as a result of the chase.  Our legacy won't be about how many championships we won or titles.  Our legacy is always going to be measured by how our players talk about us after we are gone.

When your players have their own children and their children ask them:  Who did you play for?  What was he like?  I watched recently on HBO a documentary about Dean Smith that illustrates this point.  Coach Dean Smith Legacy and I also read this morning about the legacy of Coach John Wooden:  Coach John Wooden Legacy.

When your former players talk about you, that's your legacy!

Pursue your Passion!
Coach John Saintignon
Orange County Magic Basketball

We all have fear and failure

You know that we all have fear and failure.  Sometimes we get fixated on just winning championships and while we are very proud of that, sometimes those wins are empty.  As I suggested in the earlier blog, what do we become as a result of the chase?  How did you get there?  How did you treat your players during that time?

Here's some of the best advise that I can share with you that was shared with me a long time ago.  Know that there is a 1/3 of the people that you meet that will be trying to drag/bring you down.  They will be trying to take the life out of you.  Selfish people, trying to only look out for themselves.
There is also the middle 1/3.  These are the ones who just go with the flow.  At the beginning of the season for example they are at the top 1/3.  When you are undefeated, when everyone is starting the game, going to be all league performer, they love the coach, the team, the school, the whole world!

But during the middle part of the season it isn't going so well.  That middle 1/3 now go to the bottom 1/3.  A person not starting anymore, goes to the bottom 1/3.  Your at the bottom of the conference race, they go to bottom 1/3.

Then you have the top 1/3.  These are the players that go out and give you all they have each day, they give you energy every day.

You must learn to build armor.  Protect yourself from the bottom 1/3, the people that talk negative, the school administration, maybe even your own team.  Don't bring that bottom 1/3 home with you.  Everything that you have done that day is going to be second guessed by the bottom 1/3 that day.

Key to remember to enjoy your coaching:
A.  Don't let the bottom 1/3 drain the life out of you.
B.  The middle 1/3 are interchangeable, they will go with the flow.
C.  The top 1/3 will always give you the energy on good and bad days.

Ask yourself who are you going to protect yourself from personally and professionally?
How are you going to do that?

Each of us have a strong voice and weak voice.  I was thankful that early in my life I was surrounded by people who taught me to believe in myself.  You have to master this ability to have a strong voice to stay at the top of any profession.  But each of us has a dark side that we have, that weak voice.  Things like I want to quit, I am horrible, I don't look good, we can't win, etc.

Ask yourself are you contributing to your players weak voice?
How can you help them build that strong voice?

So here is the trick, to know when this is happening to the player and give them a solution on the spot so that they can correct during each of their moments in their lives.  For example, I provide each of my players during a workout for example, when things are tough, I want them to ask themselves a better question.  I want them to listen to the weak voice, I don't want them to ask themselves bad questions, like why am I missing the shot?  Their weak mind will tell them dark things, like you are too slow, not quick enough, you don't want to be here, why are you here?  Instead, I want them to ask themselves a better question.  Such as, what can I do to make this basket?  Now their mind will listen to the strong voice, the one that is providing solution, it will come up with solutions, like shoot the ball higher, snap the wrist, quicker.

Our real goal is to provide our players with a belief in themselves.  We have to create conditions for them to do that.  We have to give them a blue print to follow.  We must convince them when they can't see yet.

I know each of us have done this in some form or fashion, you probably didn't realize it, but you were giving your players a blue print for how to handle things, like the creating of belief in the pressure moments:  Something like this has gone on in each of your locker rooms.

We have been here before.  This helps your players reflect on the past and to know what each of them do well.
You are here again.  Reminding them of their good , why they have earned the right to be proud of where they are at.
Now let's go out there and show them.  Let's have some fun.  Giving your players the right to belief, and know that everyone will celebrate on the other side of reaching this success.

I also spoke in one of the earlier blogs as well about failure and how much of a role I believe it played into each of my practices, learning from it daily.  We as coaches get comfortable talking about winning no problem, but we can't really talk about the failures with such ease.

I wanted to make sure that each day in practice there was a built in disadvantage in practice where we were going to have to focus on failure recovery.  We had to learn how to handle it, not only by being placed in difficult situations but to each other, by saying my bad, next play, and perhaps a fist pump to signify that we are moving on, teammates saying, we got you.

I used a 2 minute drill in practice where there was going to be a clear failure recovery system in place and the pace would just dictate day to day who was feeling better, who shot better, attrition was in place, you name it.  If you want more details just email me and I will send to you:  Coach Saintignon email

The last thing I want to leave you with is the notion of leaving a lasting legacy.  We all hear of this?  What is it?  You know that we each get a sentence out of our life that will be summed up by our players.  Think about someone who has died, and you walk up to them and ask them who was it, they will give you and entire life of that person who lived, summed up into one sentence.  Coach Bob, he was a great coach.  So you get the idea, we only get one sentence.

I have been on the journey.  You will be remembered by how you treat those players that were under your supervision.  How you think, act, speak, that is your pattern of behavior.  That becomes your character and thus your legacy.

What's your sentence going to be?

Coach Saintignon
OC Magic Basketball

Volunteering

I had the honor of being able to volunteer at my son's high school, Mater Dei High School to assist in a wonderful program that they offered which was called Senior Interviews.  It is a huge undertaking requiring parents to come and volunteer to sit and listen to a senior who is in professional dress and must come to the table to personally interview with you.

Each senior would have 6 minutes to answer questions, then move into the next 4 minutes to have dialogue, tell them how they did, or have the student ask questions.

These students came prepared, resumes to hand in, professional dress.  The firm handshake, the eye contact, the appearance all provided a great first impression.  I have always told our athletes that you only have 7 seconds to make a great first impression.

I wanted to not just ask questions of the students, I wanted them to share with me their story.  I wanted to convey to them that upon interviewing that when they left the interview that I wanted them to have felt that they at least were able to share their story and walk out of the interview satisfied with that.

Fantastic sharing of their stories came out, each of them had a Hero's Journey to share at some point during the interview.

Yesterday was my turn to be interviewed on the Fireside Chat with the special invitation of Bryce Brown who I had the honor and privilege of recruiting as a student athlete.  I have said as a coach, you never know what impact you have as a coach until 10 years later when you see those that were under your supervision and seeing what they are doing with their life.  Did they use basketball as a tool to get an education?  Are they using those skills now in their professional lives.  He most certainly is.

Listen in :  Fireside Chat with Coach John Saintignon

After this broadcast, I had to turn around and complete a full day of helping students, by being an Ambassador for the University of California at Santa Cruz at the Anaheim Convention Center.  It was a great time to this time answer questions from students, parents, event some administrators within the Anaheim School District about the University of California, admission requirements, what it is like to live on campus, how far away from Orange County, what is the most popular major, but the best question I received was this.  Will UCSC bring out my inner voice?  This was someone who wants to be able to share their story.

Take the time to reach out and volunteer, you will be amazed by what you gain by offering your time!

Pursue your Passion!

Coach John Saintignon
Orange County Magic Basketball

What do you want your child to get out of the sport?

We all want to have our son/daughter be the highest performing player.  But I want to ask you, what do you want them to get out of the sport?

What do you believe your role is as a parent to help them?

I wanted my sons to learn that there is adversity and to learn how to overcome.  Learning how to make adjustments along the way, find solutions.  But I wanted their character to be developed.  So I felt that the role I had to play was to reinforce that at home as well.

When I am watching or scouting a game, I watch the game within the game.  But most importantly, I watch what happens with the player, do they acknowledge others, are they happy to be playing, giving high fives, making eye contact with the coaches, the body language when they are taken out of the game and when they are being given instruction on the bench.

Ask yourself how much time are you talking to your child about being an athlete or being a better person?  Because when you address the person you are addressing the development of their character.  When you talk about them as an athlete, you are talking about their performance.

At our house, we keep it simple.  My parents, didn't care how many points I scored when I was playing, when I was at home, I was a son, a brother and I had responsibilities to keep up, regardless of how popular I was.  This provided me with a grounding, and a perspective that I pass along to my own sons.

I always pay attention to interaction, if they are acting too cool, or if they are enjoying being a kid and showing passion.  We try to remind them once in a while by placing notes in their lunches about how much we love them, how special they are, loving them as a person, not with what they do.  We also try to surround them with a close knit inner circle that cares about them as a person.  Their family, sensei's, teachers.  We also believe in having them talk to people, listen to people and to become problem solvers.

We want to raise our children with the understanding that we are here to serve, that we might perform fantastic in a play, in a competition, however, we are still just trying to become great young men and grounded and grateful for the opportunity.  I tell my players all the time to respect the game.  No player was born to play the game, they had to work at it, the minute they didn't treat the game or others with respect, the game spit them out.

Coach John Saintignon

Building people to win a championship

Winning Championships is going to take a dedication to building people along the way.

Start with a theme.  Do you have one?  I have used many:  One year I wanted us to be a unit, playing the same type of music, so I used one sound, one beat.  I went off of what an orchestra sounds like, so we kept trying to keep with that theme.  Another was coming to work every day.  So I had to figure out ways to get that done.

Punch in and punch out, time card, blue collar worker, hard hats, lunch pail, a stone cutter mentality.  You get the point.  This is what I talked about daily, but I also had to show our players the same.  I did this with companies as well, when I would walk in and show their employees how to get everyone to buy into what you are trying to establish.

I hear of every business, team, saying that we are building a culture?  We are changing the culture?  What does that mean?  How?  By making them work harder?  There has to be more to it?  For example we clocked in every day, even brought a hard hat to symbolize as well as having a rock at practice to show the process over and over again, to reinforce what the message was to be.  We even had our players clock in, with time cards, to let them know that we wanted no distractions upon entering the gym floor, prepare for what we were going to do for the day.

What's your theme for your team?

When I was recently in China speaking, I told the audience of coaches about the lunch pail and what it symbolized and why we chose to use it.  In the box, I know my own boys, like it when I write something in there from time to time or put a nice treat for them.  But I also know when you see the people with a lunch pail in their hand, they are going to work, blue collar, usually outside, tough conditions.

For my players, I would put things in their lunch pail to help them remember and feel good and reflect upon things that will help them during the season.  Like a bouncing rubber ball, to symbolize what I have been trying to promote to them all along, being resilient, having a next play mentality, bounce back!

We would as a staff, put in definitions so that our players would know what it meant, like Resilient:  Bounce back from Adversity, move to the next play.  And then images, of our own players if we had it, or others that we could find that would capture the moments.

You think you could use this with your team?  Your company and employees?

One of the best exercises that was ever given to me was by one of my college coaches during my senior season at UCSD.  I was struggling, trying to help others, to fit in, to not shoot too much, to get everyone else involved.  My coaching staff wanted me to shoot the ball more and score more points so that there would be a triple threat on the team and make us a difficult team to play against.  I was not sure how I was fitting in.  My coach told me to go back to my house during the break that was offered for 2 days and go back to the place where I fell in love with the game.  To remember the smell, the sights, the inner self talk, and it was just remarkable for me to do that.  It brought me a smile, it reminded me of why I loved the game, why I played it.  Needless to say, I returned for our December Tournament and was selected MVP of the tournament and helped our team to win the championship.

I tell my athletes and others when they struggling to put that in the lunch pail to remember what that is like, even though physically don't have to travel there, mentally can be done.

In closing, just ask your players/employees what they want to be remembered for?  Remember earlier I talked about in a previous post about the performance skills and moral skills that are necessary.  Have them decide which ones they would like to have, now you do the same.  What would you like to be remembered for as a coach?

See if you can begin at this moment before the season begins to write your own awards banquet speech using those character skills you chose.

Thank you all for the continued feedback.  Stay tuned more information coming by way of a video channel and podcasts, so much to look forward to!

Pursue your Passion.

Coach John Saintignon
Coach Saintignon
OC Magic Basketball Club
@stignon

Achievement, the truth.

Are you like the many who believe that reaching success brings you happiness?

All of us having something that is missing from our lives.  We think that if we achieve the hole will be filled up and we will feel better about ourselves.  We think people will look at us differently, or we are going to get to a level where we feel complete as a person.

But really what happens is the more success you have the more driven you become for the wrong reasons, you become unhappy.  Chasing the championship doesn't happen right away, so when you finally do win it all after taking years of work, you might reflect and think that you were looking at it the wrong way.

Achievement brought me for example, to think more about my purpose in life and what I was doing as a coach because once I began to win, it didn't fill the void of what I thought was going to come of it.  I thought I was going to feel differently.

You can get to a point of now what enters your mind.  You might think of a parade coming for you and really it's just back to getting ready for the next season all of a sudden.  You ask yourself, now what?

I read a book on University of North Carolina Soccer Coach, Anson Dorrance, who has won so many national titles, more than 20.  I read where after they win a title, a symbol that he gives his players, is a rose.  To symbolize that the feeling of winning the title won't last long.  Think back to your last achievement?  How long did that feeling last?

Sometimes you feel relief instead of joy.  I remember coaching under tremendous stress in the Middle East as I took a team that the ownership wanted me to get to the Playoffs, talk about pressure, I had just walked into this job.  I didn't have the luxury of training camp, of getting to know players, I was a replacement coach at the end of the year, fixing the problems left by the prior coach who was just fired and trying to get us into the playoffs.  I did succeed, but I remember the feeling of happiness for everyone around, but for me was relief.  I couldn't enjoy the feeling that I should have been experiencing until the end of the season upon reflection as to what was accomplished.

Sometimes we will tie happiness to our level of achievement.  Like getting caught up in winning instead of getting to know our players.  Like winning back to back titles.  I know that the way to really go about it, is to judge how you did by clearly knowing did you fulfill the potential of your team.  But we all know that's not what happens.

We get into comparing.  Like when you hear of announcers who say that this player just willed the ball into the basket, refused to lose, there are a number of these lines that all announcers use from time to time.  Sounds great, but as a coach and a player listening, you think to yourself, what sometimes I want to win? Sometimes don't?  I want to will the basket and refuse to lose as well.  That's the worst thing is to hear and start to get into comparisons.  You and your team have great drive and passion, but if you don't win the championship it's not a reflection of who you are as a person.

We can get focused on winning and not people.  Many times especially if you have been winning, the expectation will be for you to continue to win.  If you were number 1 you were supposed to win, if you don't win, you will be criticized for not winning.  The classic no win situation.  Focus on the development of your players and not on the winning.

You will enjoy the journey as you Pursue Your Passion!

Coach John Saintignon
Coach Saintignon
OC Magic
@stignon

What is the purpose of sport?

Give this one some thought?

What's your focus?  The higher the competition, the more moral ground you lose.  The pressure to win becomes greater and greater.  I know.  I have been a High School coach, then to NCAA Division 1 and then to Professional Head Coach in various countries.

If you want sports to build character, then you have to make it your priority in order for that to happen.  You are going to have to be different.

AD's say I don't care what your philosophy is, you better win, or your fired.  Just look at this past season with former coaches of the year award winners, fired.  It never used to happen in college athletics, but that is the case, just this week with a couple losses, LSU fired their head coach.  High School's are now doing this as well.

You have to reshape your focus so that you can stay with this teaching point of character development.

Character drives performance.

The better you are with your character the better you are going to perform because you understand what life is all about and you'll be able to understand failure better, because it comes for everyone.

So what if you were paid to build the character of your players, what would you do?  Things would change, because I hear coaches say that they are paid to win.  Look the other way when things go wrong, just deal with the task at hand which is win only.

Ask yourself this question.

Why did you get into coaching?

Was it to win titles, to win championships?

Many say that is the only reason, but I don't think so.  I believe you probably had a coach in your life at one point who made a difference in your life.  I know I did.  Coach Fimbres in Tucson, Arizona where I grew up, took an interest in me as a person and developed my character which then led to me becoming a better player because I was taught and developed about what things meant and to keep them in perspective.  In essence, to have priorities.

You held those coaches in such high regard because of the impact that they had on your life that you would love to leave a similar legacy to others.

This is why you were drawn into the profession.  To make a real difference in the lives of other people.

Many coaches along my journey have said which coach do you want to be?  What do you want written on your tombstone?  One that says how many wins you had?  Or the other than said the impact you left with those that you coached?

Which one would you choose?

Think about who are you becoming?  Are you putting the person first, athlete second.  The real story that is going to matter is what you become as a coach as a result of being under all that pressure.

Who have you become as a coach?

Who have you become as a result of the chase?

Are you more humble or a bigger ego?  More open or more defensive?  More stable or more fragile? Happier or less happy?

Who have your players become as a result of the chase in their experience with the sport?

Are they more respectful or less respectful?  More grateful or less grateful?  More confident or less confident?  More open or more defensive?

You have to make sure that your players experience great things along this chase.  That's what you are chasing first and foremost.  You make this the game.  This is how you hold yourself and your players accountable.  Wins and losses, come and go, who you become stays with you.

You need to know where are you going?  Why are you a coach?  That's your purpose?  But then you need to know, who are you becoming?  That's the real truth.

Help your players find their purpose, help them face the truth, help them do things that get them closer to seeing who they are now and who they want to become ultimately as a human being.

That's the role of you as the coach.

Coach John Saintignon
Twitter

What do people remember?

Let me tell you, many coaches just don't really pay attention to this side of the game.  But I want you to at least think of how these questions pertain to you and pertain to your athletes.

Ask yourself, do you feel like your identity is tied to your results?  Like if you play well, you feel good.
Do you see results out of your control?
Do you see how you are allowing something that is outside of your control to affect the way you feel about yourself as person?

Most of us will have answered this with a yes.  This is where we can begin.  On common ground to discover truly what people remember.

Ask yourself now who was the leading scorer in the NCAA 3 years ago?
What is the name of your favorite teacher?
Why did you pick that teacher?

You discovered like many of us, we don't know who the leading scorer was in our own sport!  That is a common answer.  But each of us can pick that special teacher.  Usually because the teacher got to know the student.  There are many responses that can be had, see if you think of any of these?  Supportive, got to know me, made learning fun, challenged me, helped me.  Sound familiar?

What was the purpose of those questions?  Who was the leading scorer, favorite teacher, how come you picked them?  It's a reminder.

What do people forget?
What do people remember?

1.  People forget stats.
2.  People remember who you were as a person.

How do you want to be remembered?

Value the person more than the player.  Our identity, if it's tied to you as a player then you will feel dejected if you miss the shot.  If the identity is in yourself as a person, then you will be able to show how to bounce back, how to use the adversity.  Totally different way of approaching and looking at it.

Focus on Character skills:  There are Performance skills and moral skills.  Pick a few.  Performance skills such as to name a few:  hardworking, resilient, competitive, positive, etc.  Moral skills such as:  unselfish, trustworthy, respectful, caring, etc.

Ask yourself can these skills be developed?

What about the performance skill you selected, if you developed it, would it make you a better player?
What about the moral skills you selected, if you developed those, would it make you a better teammate?
If you grow these skills it actually makes you a better player and teammate which will lead to better results.

Let's not forget that developing the character of our athletes is more important than the play they run, or the points they score.  If you focus in on the character development, you will get better results.  The players want the better results, what you as a coach have to develop is the Character Development to help them get there as well as the skill development.

Give this some serious thought.  What are your thoughts?

Coach John Saintignon
John Saintignon
Orange County Magic Basketball
Twitter
Facebook

A Hero's Journey

60-or-so years ago, a writer named Joseph Campbell traveled the globe researching the greatest "Heroes" in our history:  People like:

Moses

Buddha

St. Anthony

Prometheus

Osiris

People like that. Legends.

Mr. Campbell broke down the common paths that every single one of those Heroes followed on their way to legend-status.  And created what we now call "The Hero's Journey."

Here's the basic idea:  At some point in our lives, we are all "called” to do something.

It might be to travel.  It might be to write a book.  Or, it MIGHT be… Basketball.

Doesn't matter:

We are ALL hard-wired to feel this "call" deep down inside of us.   Something pulling us into action, pulling us to become who we are "meant to be."

We don't have a choice in this, either.

It's been programmed into us through decades of  rituals where:

• A young man is sent into the jungle for the first time - alone - to bring back food for his tribe, or die in the process.

• An apprentice travels far and wide to meet "the teacher", who then puts him through dozens of intense trials before he is finally allowed to learn his craft.  I can relate to this one with my Karate Sensei’s, :)

• A boy living under a set of stairs gets a letter from an owl summoning him to a world-famous school of witchcraft and wizardry where he continuously battles a series of dark and powerful forces, before finally defeating the un-nameable superpower who threatens to destroy the world if no one stops him. 

This "call to action" happens to everyone, whether we like it or not. 

Those who REFUSE the call never get to go through their own personal series of trials; Never conquer their own "Hero's Journey.” And are now stuck in purgatory for the rest of their lives:

Never quite becoming who they ARE, deep down.  Never quite realizing their dreams.  Never experiencing the life they could have lived.

Actually, here are Mr. Campbell’s exact words:

"Often in actual life, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests. Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative.  Walled in boredom, the subject becomes a victim.  His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration.”

- Joseph Campbell

The Hero with A Thousand Faces, 1949

Harsh - and wise - words.

And here's where you come in:

Someday, you're going to be "called" to do something.

I can't tell you what that thing is.  But if you're here, reading this right now, I'm guessing you've already had your first call and it won't be your last.

The future holds many, MANY more adventures.

And when those calls come, just remember:

The journey is NOT optional.

Not for a True Elite.

But your journey today:

Finding the best training and coaching available seeking out the best players to match up against.  Like this Saturday at J Serra High School at 10 a.m., where we have NBA players, college and high school players all playing on the court; on their quest to be the best.  Exposing yourself to high pressure game situations drilling yourself every single day, alone, in the gym never backing down from a single challenge along your path.  And, finally becoming the player (and PERSON) you're meant to be. 

Like I said:

If you're here, right now, reading this.  Your call to action has already come!

All you have to do now is take it.

We have a few of our players on that Hero's Journey right now, Gage, Luis, Ivan, Gianni, Ryan, Andre, Clarissa, Julia, Spider, Amazon.  

Coach John Saintignon

Coach John Saintignon

Twitter

Orange County Magic Basketball, Inc.

Pursue your Passion!

What players on a team think?

Yesterday, I had a great conversation with several of our coaches on Orange County Magic who are navigating their respective High school teams and their formation and organization challenges that are going to come up.  How many players to keep on a team?

Now each coach has their own perspectives on their formation of their teams and why they do what they do.  I personally didn't want to carry more than 12 players.  I wanted the team to have enough to count on each other, keep rooming lists even, and to make sure that I had the 12 that were committed to the team.  But there are some interesting ideas as it relates to this as I posed with my experience in High School and then going to the PAC-10 conference where I heard this term, minutes.

Before I go into that, I want to share with you what I shared with Coach Sean and Coach Ron.  Some questions that I asked them to ask of their players.  I did this when I was a high school coach and also with my individual meetings with players in the PAC 10 and my professional teams abroad to get my own perspective so that I could get to the heart of things as we entered into the season.

Teams are fragile.  If for example you carried 12 players as was usual with my team, here is what I discovered, see if this is true with your own experiences?

Players 9-12 want to play.  Players 6-8 want to start.  Players 4-5 want more shots.  Players 2-3 want to be the best player.  And the best player wants to play at the next level.  This was true of my high school teams, NCAA Division 1 and 2 and of course, even my professional teams abroad.

There is nothing wrong with this as you have been teaching your players all along to want more, to strive.  It becomes a problem when it outweighs the teams needs.  You know everyone needs to sacrifice for your team to be successful.  Your players need to see this and feel that they are part of the solution.

Here is how I got to the heart of the matter.  Try this.  Ask your players these questions and see what you discover.

1.  How many minutes will you average this year?
So of course, this varies if you are a high school coach because the maximum amount of minutes that you can hand out is 160 minutes (5 players x 32 minute game), if you are a college or overseas coach the maximum you can hand out is 200 minutes ( 5 players x 40 minute game).  Ask your players this question, how many minutes will you average this year and then add up all those minutes.  I usually discovered about 300 minutes was the norm.  OK,  that was impossible.

2.  Next question that I would ask.  Will you start?
In basketball you can only start 5 players, but the responses were usually around 9 players who believed they should or would start.  Again impossible.

3.  How many points are you going to average?
When I added this up, we were always going to be the highest scoring team in the country, :).  I tell you.  Usually added up to nearly 160 points per game.  Again not impossible, but you know.

What this proved to me and my coaching staff was that we needed to really address the players that sacrifices were going to have to be made by all, roles were going to have to be embraced and rewarded, recognized by the coaching staff.

This type of early discussion allowed everyone to feel that they had a role and an important part that was going to be rewarded and recognized.  These were daily efforts on our behalf to make sure we paid attention to all these little details in terms of player relations on and off the court to make sure we were centered and ready to drive toward our goals together as a team.

Before the other distractions come, you know outside expectations :)

Here is Coach Bill Parcells, I know it's a football hall of fame speech, but the message is clear about the locker room, the sacrifices that a team makes, why it is special and how winners and losers handle things.  Enjoy.

Bill Parcells What Makes a Team Great

Let me know your thoughts.  I love hearing from you.

Coach John Email

Pursue your Passion!

Coach John Saintignon
John Saintignon
Orange County Magic Basketball

There is always a solution

I begin this post with the notion that there is always a solution.  It is too easy for many to just say no.  Ideas get shot down by people who just don't want to think outside the box, so they say no.  But the true discovery comes when you are open to finding a solution, to be curious, to not settle, to find a way.  This weekend, I was at my son's Karate tournament and I am going to share a story about being resilient and helping others find a solution.

As tournaments go in the world of sports they are difficult to put on and conduct regardless of whatever sport it is.  Karate tournaments require a coach, require focus with all the distractions of music, performances, and generally people in the stands or walking around, excitement, cheering, you name it, it's all there.  These tournaments last the better part of the day so there has to be a preparation beyond the physical as there is a mental component attached as well.

Here is the story that I want to share with this weekend with my youngest son, Sebastian.  In this tournament my son was scheduled to compete in a kata and also sparring for his age group and black belt division.  No problem, there is a lot of competitors, there is musical form katas that are being performed, weapons, artistic, traditional, sparring, team, you name it.  There are also many rings in which to have these competitors perform, not to mention having to have usually 3 volunteer judges per ring.  Now there are also people that are on a microphone saying what ring for competitors to be at, each age division, each belt rank, there is also the music being played for those performing their routines with music, the people in the stands, cheering or watching, there are the other competitors so it can be easy to not hear all the time what is being said via loud speaker or via a judge who perhaps just saying something with his or her voice as to who should be at the next ring.  You get my point, there is a lot going on, many distractions.

Now at these events the members usually are represented by their coaches.  Which is a tremendous help as the role of a coach as I define it is to provide structure, guidance, encouragement but also to protect the athletes and be their voice especially in situations like this where there is a nervousness and anxiety with each and every athlete, regardless of the status of their belt.  In essence their leader.  This has always been the case with my son and his dojo.  However, not always the case in large tournaments like this can you pay attention to all the competitors as you are split between going to support one individual while maybe another is competing in another part of the arena.

Here is the teaching moment that presented itself to me this weekend with my son at this tournament and what I know we all want our children to be able to do.  My son was waiting 5 hours and had not been called up for one of his events, we sat near the ring where we thought that he would be performing along with entire team and never heard anything, so something must have gone wrong.  Did he miss the event and not hear it?  Did we all miss it and not hear it?  This is our responsibility, not anyone else. But here is the situation that is in front of us.  I am agitated that this has occurred as this is not the only time that this has happened at one of these tournaments, keep in mind that we have been doing these for years and this happens frequently to many competitors.  With so much going on, you can see how things like this can and do happen often.

I want my son to learn to be responsible and to discover for himself what happened. He is young, scared and not really sure what to do, but I want him to go and explore nonetheless.  I sent him to talk to someone at the desk, the announcer who can perhaps give him an answer.  Sebastian, tells him the situation and the response was that it was called, you missed it.

OK, I then tell him to go and find the Shihan that is in charge of the event, he goes to locate and doesn't find.  Next solution is to find his coach and have him go with you to discover what happened and again told that it was called and missed.

Now, I am deciding how can I provide a teaching moment for my son.  I take him with me, we both walk to the gentleman that was at the desk, I tell him that I wasn't looking for a refund, that I just wanted to find a solution and that one was to locate an empty ring, find 3 of the volunteers to sit there and judge the young man on his kata which is what he came to do.  No awarding of a trophy, none of that matters.  I just wanted to help find a solution other than leaving the site with a refund and a waste of time and a bad taste.  This was done.  My son was nervous as he could tell again that I was agitated but what I don't like are when adults are not always willing to find a solution.  It's too easy to just say no, there was no added time, pressure or responsibility that was to be put on any of the judges or the Shihan of the event as I did not want to get the refund as was suggested, all I wanted was to have Sebastian perform and get his opportunity to do that.

The teaching point that I wanted to impart was to show my son that there is always a solution, sometimes you have to help guide others by providing them with the option so that they can realize that it's not going to inflict any additional time, commitment, or pressure on them.  We then had to turn into a very diligent athlete, I had him ask question after question as to where is the next event that he is to perform, what ring is that going to be in,  to then go to the table, turn in his competitor card, and ask again and again is this where it is going to be at.  Now, how to provide the next teaching moment?

re·sil·ient

rəˈzilyənt/

adjective

1. (of a substance or object) able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed.

   synonyms:

   flexible, pliable, supple; More

   • (of a person or animal) able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.

   
   

The next event was sparring and Sebastian had to change his focus ASAP to able to get over what he just went through and stay in the moment, to recover quickly and bounce back.  This requires a bounce back mentality, next play, internal talking.  I wanted him to now focus on what was in front of him, big, quick, athletes who were taller.  A strategy that his coaches have provided him for years was now going to be needed to be heard.  He was going to have to rely on self talk to achieve the result of scoring points.  He did, he had a great event, finishing 2nd place in the sparring competition and left the building, satisfied that he was able to overcome and bounce back.  He was very pleased with his performance as was I.  

As a parent and as a coach that is what we are all looking for, teaching moments.  Pay attention to the teaching moments that present themselves and be prepared to teach on the spot so that your athlete can perform, feeling that encouragement, support, and guidance so that they can learn from you.  As a coach, as well as a parent, you are a role model.  We are here to help those who are under our supervision to help them perform and learn life lessons and to discover that there is always a solution.

Pursue your Passion! 

Coach John Saintignon

OC Magic

Coach John Saintignon