Timing is Everything

So we finally made all the selections on the players who would be joining the Wolfpack family last night.  How fitting that these quotes would show up on my Twitter feed -

"In reality the opponent is always us - that's who we're proving ourselves to every time we step on the field."-Art Briles (Baylor Head Football Coach)

"I want him playing fearless, walking on the edge, erring on the side of making a mistake." - Art Briles

 As I get ready to start up with the new 13U team for what should be an action-packed season, these quotes couldn't have popped up before me at a better time.  Coach Briles is all for getting his players to just play loose and at "full speed+" which is what inspired those quotes.  To get the most out of my team, I am looking to do the same.  We can't play tense, we can't play overly cautious.    We have to trust in one another - each player, each coach - to do their part and should we mess up along the way have the faith that we can recover. 

I once had an instructor tell me something similar - "If you're going to do it wrong, then do it all wrong."  Being in the position that I'm in now, that makes a lot more sense.  Some of the greatest discoveries were mistakes.  Take Columbus and the West Indies - he just knew he was headed in the right direction and had found a new route to India but he wasn't even halfway close. At the end of the day you are going to be scolded for a mistake whether its a small one or a big one and you might as well earn the scolding!   Do we want reckless decisions, no.  Do we want self-imposed limiters because you are afraid of making a mistake, absolutely not! 

With my roster, I see the potential to open up and be a bit more aggressive which only makes it more important that we go full speed from start to finish and be all kinds of fearless.  It all starts tomorrow.  And that's just the beginning.  When we get back together on Thursday, we have to look to be better than we were Tuesday.  Every time we take the floor we have to be making strong steps forward, looking at our past body of work to compare against.  Yeah, we may win a few games, but content teams are dead teams.  To prevent that I'm going to constantly drive my players to push harder, run faster, jump higher, and think smarter than they did the time before. 

I'm excited to get underway with this first week of practice, and I'm looking forward to the challenge of competing in a bold tournament in week 1.  It's time to go to work...  #dowork!!