COACH MEYERISMS

I am, like many coaches, a huge Don Meyer fan. The first time I heard Coach Meyer speak was at the Louisiana High School Coaches Association summer clinic in July of 2008. I instantly fell in love with him! He mentioned at the clinic that if anyone would type up the notes from his talk and send htem to him he would send you a Northern State basketball tshirt. You better believe that as soon as we walked out of that clinic I started typing, and 12 pages later I emailed them to him. He emailed me right back and asked for my shirt size and sure enough about a week later I received my shirt (which I still wear all the time!) About 3 months later Coach Meyers life would change drastically when he got into an accident on his way to a team retreat. He would eventually have to have his leg amputated and he returned to the sideline last season in a wheelchair. Some of you may have seen him on the ESPY awards receieving the Arthur Ashe courage award. If you have not ever read anything he has written or heard him speak you can visit his website at http://www.coachmeyer.com/ and get a little taste of everything he is about. Anyway, I will probably be posting a lot of Don Meyer things on my blog so I hope you enjoy!

Here are a few of my favorite Coach Meyerisms as his players call them:

“The best way to improve your team is to improve the individual.”

“It all starts with a stop.”

“Prepare, practice, and play like you just lost your last game.”

“A quiet team is a scared team.”

“We don’t talk our game, we yell our game.”

“You have not taught if they have not learned.”

“Keep asking the same questions.” –Wooden

“How can I help our team improve.”

“I kept negative thoughts out, but I also kept positive thoughts—such as winning a championship—at bay.”

“Don’t throw the ball just because he’s open.”

“A good player knows where he is, a great player knows where everybody is, a superior player knows where everybody is and what they’re going to do.”

“Don’t think about winning, think about ways to win.”

“Process over product.”

“Cause over self”- The idea of TEAM

“Peace is not the absence of trial, turmoil, or , it’s the calm in the middle of it.”

“Dance in the rain.” “Enjoy the turmoil.”

“What does this team/program need this week?”

“See the need, feed the need.”

“Have a meeting, without having a meeting.”
EX: See a player before practice, ask him is he likes his dogs. He says yes, and you say well if you don’t start blocking out I’m going to hurt the dogs.

“Make each day your masterpiece.”- John Wooden

“See the picture, sell the picture, everybody paints the picture.”- Dick Bennett

“Here’s the things that I think you guys are doing well, but here are the things that I think we can do better.”
One Minute Assessments

“Pass on Target, On Time.” T-iming A-ccuracy Q-uickness

“Less is more.”

“Pain of discipline vs. pain of regret.”

“If people knew how hard I worked they wouldn’t think what I did was so easy.”- Tiger Woods

“Make the big time where you are.”

“Life is a TEAM sport.”

“Teamwork is the least used resource in the world.”

“When you hire- hire for work ethic, intelligence, and character- but without the last one it will kill you.”
– Warren Buffett

“Character is the only thing that matters.”

“Knowledge is knowing what to say, wisdom is knowing when not to say it.”

“If you rely on your strength, it becomes your weakness.”

“To win championships you have to be obsessed with the fundamentals.”- Joe Gibbs

“It’s not what you teach, it’s what you emphasize.”

“Your character or lack of character determines if you are a good coach.”

“Only thing that can keep you safe is humility.”

“Measure a person by how they respond to a challenge.”

“All great empires are broken from within.”

“Better to have 1 drill 15 times, than to have 15 drills 1 time.”

“It’s a coach’s job to replicate game situations in practice.”

“Must practice the game in which the manner it is played.”

“Make practices like games and games like practices.”

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

“Don’t shoot fast, get ready to shoot fast.”

“Feet ahead of hands to be a scorer.”

“Good teams get their offense going by doing something good on offense, but great teams get their offense going by doing something good on defense.”

“See it, feel it, do it till you puke.”

“Any shot is better than no shot.”