MM#109--March Madness SPECIAL--Duke Toughness

Welcome to the theory to action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately, and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another special Mojo Minute. A March Madness final for addition. And wow, what a great NCAA Tournament. There has been so far. We've had intriguing storylines and wonderful Cinderella teams, most especially with St. Peter's making a deep run into the Elite Eight. But here we are at the Final Four in New Orleans. And in looking at the four teams, I have to say the most compelling storyline is the one we have talked about before. And that is Coach K's swan song with the Duke Blue Devils. Coach K's last trip to the NCAA tournament. And his young team are really has showed some incredible resilience and toughness. Especially since they had a horrible defeat against tonight's opponent, the North Carolina Tar Heels on senior night and Coach K's last home Duke game. Now this Duke team, they've shown incredible resiliency over the last four games. 

In fact, some even incredible toughness. And these young kids have regrouped. So much so that as I began to read about them, I was just impressed with the the word that kept coming to my mind was toughness, resiliency and toughness. And the more I read about both games, especially this Duke game, I was reminded of the former Duke PLAYER JAY Bilous, who is now the ESPN basketball analyst who wrote a an article for ESPN, titled toughness was written back in 2009. And it eventually would turn into a pretty good book in 2013. It was about basketball and life, but the original article was produced with 31 Basketball Mark Max isms. Max ism is a quick notable or noteworthy nugget of wisdom. And I just love those types of formats. So I was very intrigued. And having played basketball myself at the high school level, I certainly wanted to check it out. Now I'll post a copy of the the article in the show notes. 

Now all these nuggets of wisdom, were really basketball 100 level teachings. Such as here's an example talk on defense. The toughest players talk on defense and communicate with their teammates. It's all it's almost impossible to talk on defense and not be in a defensive stance down and ready with a vision of man and ball. And if you talk you let your teammates know you're there and make them and yourself better defenders. It also lets your opponent know that you are fully engaged. And another bat basketball gym. From the J villas toughness article is play the ball see your man. Now you will hear coaches bark this out across basketball courts. Since time immemorial, play the ball see your man. And here's the teaching most defenders see the ball and hug their man because they're afraid to get beat. A tough to plan a tough, a tough defender plays the ball and sees his man. There is a difference. And yes, there is a difference. Having made that mistake so many times. And having gotten yelled at by many coaches so many times that Yes. Once you understand the concept and you actually execute the tactic very well. You understand the difference. It is subtle, but it certainly is a difference and it does make for better defensive makes you a better defender. And that's the point that Jay Willis is making. It makes you tougher by making you a better defender. And finally, I'm just picking some of these at random from this article. Oh, this one's a big one for Coach K body language. 

Here As the teaching show strength in your body language, tough players project confidence and security with their body language, they do not hang their heads do not react negatively to a mistake of a teammate, and do not whine and complain to officials. Tough players project strength and do not cause their teammates to worry about them. Tough players do their job. And their body language communicates that to their teammates and to their opponents, unquote. Now I will post a video in the show notes about how fired up Coach K gets on body language.

And let me just say the video it's for adult ears only. I believe it's JJ Reddick. I'll have to find the video but I'm almost certain it's JJ Reddick, a former player who has a popular podcast now, he shares a story about coming back to Duke to watch a game and he's sitting behind the Duke bench with his kids. And Coach K calls a timeout and is pretty fired up about body language. And I'll just leave it there. So be sure to check out that video in the show notes. But back to this article written by Jay Billis, the former Duke player and he played under Coach K in the in the mid 1980s. So this ESPN article was turned into a book with the same name toughness. And Coach Kay wrote in the foreword of the book. This quote, Toughness is a rare commodity commodity, and as Jay argues, can be a learned skill. I've had great fortune in my life of seeing true toughness, and some amazing people and I have learned from each of them. I've seen it in guards forwards and centers. I've seen it in doctors, soldiers, and CEOs. I see it in Jay and the rest of the Duke basketball class of 1986. 

And now having read Jays book, I see it even more clearly. Mike chef ski so that's a great endorsement of Jay Bilas his book toughness. And let's continue on with Jay riding here, quote. Still, I wasn't born with any real toughness. I don't believe any person is born tough. And Duke basketball coach Mike chef ski agrees. Coach K is the winningest coach in college basketball history, with five NCAA championships and a now 13 final four tournaments under his belt. I corrected that. It said four NCAA championships and 11. At the time of that right at the time of the writing in 2013. That was correct. But I I just corrected that five NCAA championships. And now 13 Final Four tournament appearances. Back to the book. Chef ski says we're not born tough. We may be born into a great family situation, or a difficult family situation that forces or conditions you to be tough, but we're not born that way. Toughness comes from how you handle your experiences, what you learn from them, and how you're guided through them by others in your life. Unquote. 

And this is Bill is writing more about this, this notion of toughness in his history at Duke. Quote, Toughness is something I had to learn the hard way. Although I had the foundation of tough toughness laid by my parents. I had not put it all together or fully grasped its definition or practical applications until I played for Coach K. When I played for coach, all that I had learned from my mom and dad became clear. Early in my college career, I thought toughness was about being physical, based upon how much physical punishment I could dish out and how much physical punishment I could take. Up to that point, I thought I was pretty tough. I quickly found out that I wasn't as tough as I thought I was. And I wasn't nearly as tough as I needed to be. Toughness isn't physical. It has nothing to do with size, physical strength, or athleticism. It's an intangible, an attitude of philosophy. Some people may be born with the aptitude to be tougher than others. But I believe that true toughness is a skill that can be developed and improved in everyone. So there is a great nugget of wisdom.

And let me just Repeat the most important part of that. Toughness isn't physical. It has nothing to do besides physical strength or athleticism. It's an intangible, an attitude, and a philosophy. So in today's Mojo minute, how can this teaching on toughness carry over into our day to day lives? Well, I think there are some aspects that we can carry over. And one of them is to be a professional, bring energy, hard work, and a sense of professionalism to your work every day, to bring it every day is a sign of toughness. Another point, don't be offended at every slight remark. Too many people these days get offended at anything. To not get offended at every slight remark is a sure sign of toughness. And other point, don't be a victim, be a hero. We actually have more coming on this point. We got a mojo minute in the hopper. So I won't steal its thunder. But I love this notion of being a hero, not a victim. That's being mentally tough. And that's giving a great example. We need more heroes and less victims in this world. So tonight, enjoy the Final Four games. Let's see who let's look to see which team is tougher. Let's see if the Duke Blue Devils are mentally tougher than the North Carolina Tar Heels. It's going to be a great game. And the Kansas Villanova early game is certainly going to be a good game as well. And in terms of creating and leading a flourishing life, which we always try to tackle here on the theory to action podcast. Let's take Coach K's advice and gain more toughness in our lives. And thank you J villas for wedding writing a wonderful, wonderful book that I'm sure we'll come back to often for more nuggets of wisdom and joy, the final for folks. And let's go Mojo.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at T Mojo academy.com where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on