MM#71--Coach K's 'next play'

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 Mojo minute. Last week we chatted with the great basketball coaches, misters. Coaches, Chef ski and Coach Wooden and their approaches, and pursuing excellence on and off the court, most especially on trying to help educate their players on how to approach life and make every day a masterpiece day. So I was kind of fired up after that chat, and I wanted to share another gem of wisdom from Coach Kay, especially. And it's on this concept of the psychology of excellence. 

So let me briefly back up and set the stage for this great nugget of wisdom. Way back in the day, I was once a high school basketball player. Now I don't need any emails. heckling me, because I know they will come? No, no, no, I was not there when they literally woven the basket into the side of the wall and you shot the ball into a stuck basket, and then you'd have to retrieve it after every shot with a ladder. I am not that old folks. So let's get back on track here. Now as a high school basketball player, one of the hardest things I found and I think for any player that young of age, an athlete for that matter is to overcome a recent mistake while playing and to move on to focus on the next play. 

Now coaches and teammates will often encourage you, they'll tell you get it next time, forget about that last play or that recent mistake. But we all know it's extremely difficult if you are a player or an athlete in that situation, especially when you're that young, you don't have the maturity to know that it's not the end of the world. But there's a lot of perfectionism when you're that young. So how about for you whether you're an athlete or not think about the last time in the heat of battle you made a critical mistake or a stupid error. And for an example, let's let's get back to sports. Here the basketball player throws a bad pass to the opposite team. The football quarterback throws an interception because the receiver ran the wrong route. Or the goalkeeper in soccer froze and let in a very cheap goal. In all those situations, most likely you will have felt the rush of emotions, perhaps anger, frustration, embarrassment, most especially flooding your brain and your body. And now the natural instinct is to react to these emotions. Simultaneously, while your teammates and even your coaches are encouraging you to forget about that mistake. In fact, the human mind is just wired to ruminate on mistakes, to run it over and over in your mind, in fact to dwell on those mistakes. 

So how do we break out of that wiring? So we do not dwell on that mistake? And that's a great question. It's a great question sports psychology. Did you know that it is in fact a skill that if practiced enough, you can and will get good enough at moving on from the mistake. And we know this because our great basketball coach again. Coach Mike chef ski of the Duke Blue Devils can help us with this skill and he helps us players every year. And let's go to the book. Chef ski says to waste time lamenting a mistake or celebrating success is is distracting and can leave you and your team unprepared for what you are about to face. It robs you of the ability to do your best at that moment and to give your full concentration. 

Now, correction This isn't from the book. This is actually from an interview that I'm going to post in the show notes. But Coach K teaches this concept he called halls, quote The next play, unquote philosophy.

And his former Duke basketball players light up. When asked and talking about this next play philosophy, they light up as if it's a great secret, and a philosophy on life that Coach K was able to give to them. Like I said, I'll put a link in the show notes. We especially have a one of his former players now a coach talking about this very concept. Coach K expounds, on this philosophy by saying, quote, it's more like a West Point thing, Coach K head, went to West Point and graduated the military. Rats. I'm having a brain fart. The military base, the military academy, sorry, I couldn't think of the word Academy even though it's my business. It's more like a West Point thing. Like, what's your next mission says Coach K. So whenever you get knocked down, or back individually, or even collectively as a team, they teach you at West Point. Okay. Next play, what are you going to do next? It's always in the front of the mind, unquote. So this process of the mental chatter telling yourself, okay, I just made a mistake. But right now, dwelling on that past mistake is, in fact, and can be a another mistake, if I don't correct this thinking. That's an important important concept. And one, it's very tough for young people to adopt. Coach K helps his, his young freshmen adopt that. Especially the rest of the team, you know, year after year when they're in practice in games with Coach. 

And this prompts us to focus back on the here and now in the present moment. If you can habitually and consistently ask yourself how to focus on the present moment, to ensure you're giving this moment the very best of you. For example, let's say you had an argument with your wife, and your child wants help with homework or to throw the football? Are you going to allow that frustration with the argument to spill over into another mistake of dismissing your child who just wants the attention and the love? That's a common common thing. 

And I've I've been attending a men's group Catholic men's group for the last 6-7 years, it constantly comes up how to be better, better fathers. And one of the common common mistakes is those types of mistakes just spilling over. 

So in today's Mojo minute, let us ask ourself those questions. Do I ruminate on my past mistakes, that I miss the present life going around me? Or can I begin to adopt Coach K's next play attitude and begin to train my mind to refocus after a mistake. And to give myself am I present moment, the very best of me, my best foot forward my best thinking self, my best spiritual self, my best loving self. And here's to being your teammate, and coach in the game of life. And when you fall and commit a great air, I will be calling you from the sidelines saying hey, stay positive, and focus on the next part.


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