THE WARRIOR WAY

 Here is #5 of the new normal. 

5. COMPASSIONATE WARRIORS: Here is the fifth element of the new normal. As you get more familiar with the win the day cultural tenets, and the undergirding philosophy and foundation of my WAY OF CHAMPIONS brand, I can tell you that they have their roots in the ancient Tibet legendary kingdom of Shambhala, located high in the Himalayas. It was a culture of enlightened warriors, valiant fighters of indomitable spirit. They were considered fearless, tenacious athletes of iron will. They were armed with weapons of the heart such as courage, integrity and fortitude. (If not already, this will begin to sound familiar as you read on.) They perceived loss, obstacles and failure as opportunities to learn, grow and become more aware. These warriors sacrificed for others, worked hard when no one was looking, remained accountable and did not need to win to be successful. Opponents were partners. You became comfortable with being uncomfortable. You enjoyed the journey, willing to suffer, sacrifice and even fail if that’s what it would take.

So, as you might imagine, Warriorship is a rigorous spiritual training that awakens all who take the journey to higher levels of personal performance. It relies on this ancient tradition while providing a valuable modern application of such training for athletics, fitness, and present-day life. In the words of the Chinese sage Lao Tzu, “Keep the ancient, flow with the present.” You need to know this: the Warrior Way is a never-ending journey; mastering it simply means staying on track. My book WIN THE DAY is meant to help you to do just that, to keep you on this path, to continually win the day.

THREE ESSENTIAL TALENTS OF ALL CHAMPIONS

 

Here is the Fourth new normal concept from my book WIN THE DAY.

4) THREE TALENTS: If you are creating a win the day culture, you and your athletes must agree that there are three talents in our system. The first one is obvious and most teams you play will have this. It’s called PHYSICAL TALENT. You can work with athletes on improving this talent yet for the most part, maturation and time helps to develop this if you’re a good teacher. The second talent is MENTAL TALENT or mentality. Not every team is mentally talented but more and more, to train this aspect of performance, we see sports psychologists being hired on all levels of performance up to and including the pros. You even see this with kids as young as five or six in sports like gymnastics, tennis and golf. There’s so much room for development with this talent and it’s growing rapidly. The third talent is one I call SPIRITUAL TALENT. Very few teams are working on this aspect of performance and perhaps it is one of the most important pieces in championship cultures that I help to develop. Few people know how to strengthen this talent. My brand, WAY OF CHAMPIONS, specializes in this crucial aspect of championship performance. By Spiritual Talent, I’m not talking about religion. It relates to the specific “heart” directed character traits such as courage, commitment, patience, perseverance, tenacity, fearlessness, accountability, integrity, vulnerability and resilience, to name a few. The good news is these can be learned and therefore, taught. And this is what this book WIN THE DAY is all about. You’ll find all of these and more in Parts III and IV. As you peruse this book (WIN THE DAY), you will discover many more ways that I create outside the box, unconventional, new normal sports cultures.

INSTANT POSITIVE RESPONSE

 Here is #3 in my list of the New Normal for championship teams. It is practical, and easy to implement.

3. INSTANT POSITIVE RESPONSE – IPR: Once again, in traditional cultures, the athletes’ response to a mistake, a miscue or error is to drop the head and shoulders, feeling sorry for themselves and embarrassed because they believe they let the team down. During the time it takes to grieve the error, the opponent scores in offensive transition or establishes an advantageous position on the field. As a result, two mistakes are made at the same time: the original error, plus the mistake of not responding properly. Because of the frequency of such an occurrence, I developed the concept of IPR, instant positive response My teams practice this new normal daily and when an error occurs, they communicate loudly on the field “IPR, IPR” to get that athlete who committed the mistake back into the hurried flow of the next play. Being mindful of this idea actually helps to commit fewer errors. But as we know, there are two types of athletes – those who make mistakes...and those who will.

   
   

HEART FROM THE START

 Here is # 2 for The New Normal in WIN THE DAY

2. HEART FROM THE START: Here is a new normal idea that I know you’ll want to implement immediately. It is called “Heart from the Start.” It’s a simple concept based in mindfulness. How many times have you experienced your team, in practice or a game, come to the field and have a sluggish start? They sit back and wait to see what develops so they can go with the flow. Before they realize it, they have fallen behind and struggle to get back into the event. Admittedly, there are certain times when it might be a good strategy to go with the flow, but I believe that most of you reading this are thinking, “I want us to BE THE FLOW. If that is your goal, then your culture can establish your new normal called “Heart from the Start.” Being mindful of this phrase and attaching a specific action plan that describes what this looks like, what it means specifically to begin the game in this way, you can practice it daily and when the time comes, the execution is a precise replication of that action plan. The phrase “Heart from the Start” becomes the affirmation mantra that will “jump start” our competitive juices as you compete with your hair on fire. Remember, for this to work well, you must identify specific behaviors

or actions you wish to execute and practice that on a regular basis. Coming out on fire in the first five minutes of a game sends a convincing message to opponents that your mean business.

INVESTMENT SEASON

 Here is the first of several New Normals for you to implement.

1. INVESTMENT SEASON: Most athletic teams in the sports world have what they call an “off season”...that’s normal. My teams, and now yours, do not have such a season. In the spirit of Native American Tradition, we have as our new normal, the family “investment season,” based on a selfless, giving mode. Working together for something bigger than any one of us. Here’s how I implement this season with my teams. Let’s use lacrosse as an

th
example. When “Fall Ball” is over around November 15 , the athletes

typically have approximately two months “off” during the holidays and when they return, have lost the big edge they built up with hard work all Fall.

What I do for my athletes is invite them to INVEST in their team so that they can collect dividends down the road. I appeal to them through one of our core values (Selflessness – see Part IV) by asking them to find ways to give, through work, to their teams. Here is how it unfolds:

1. How do you specifically want to be physically and mentally when we begin our season in 2 months?

2. What specifically do you need to do to make that happen? Their list can include items like go to the gym, practice stick skills, play wall ball, do cardio workouts.

3. Then I say, from your long list, choose 4 items that you’d be willing to commit to so you raise your level, come back fit and do this as a way to GIVE to your team, one truly fit teammate, in shape, ready to charge on the first day back. Do this as a way to demonstrate the value of Selflessness. Tell them how this is The Investment Season, our new normal.

4. Encourage them to form convenient small groups to keep each other motivated and focused. They can do group texts to keep checking progress.

THE NEW NORMAL

 We purposely move outside our comfort zone, we think outside the box into areas that are unknown and frightening, and this has become our new normal.

Coach Bob Hansen, Middlebury College Men’s Tennis National Champions

I love this quote. Much of what I do is outside of the box and my comfort zone, which I like. That’s what my brand WAY OF CHAMPIONS is all about. So you can see from the book you’re holding that most of my work is unconventional; I’m not your typical sports psychologist. In fact only 15% of my work could be called sports psychology. I’m not as interested in fixing problems as much as I am in creating new normals: progressive cultures based on the 115 championship cultures I’ve helped tobuild throughout a long, fun-filled career. I’m interested in profound change – more of the emotional spiritual type. I weave a quilt of various cultures from Taoist, Buddhist and Native American cultures together with Western psychology in order to win the day. I am regarded nation-wide as a sports psycho-philosophical coach, using psychology, philosophy and spirituality to construct championship teams in athletics and life. The next several posts will give you individual specific "new normals" to IMPLEMENT with your team and culture. These gems really work well. Read about all of this in my book WIN THE DAY.

WIN THE DAY or WIN THE GAME

 Here is the foundational building block for all my champion teams who value COMPETITIVENESS as a team value. It works so well. This is taken from my book, WIN THE DAY.

"Through our conversation, emails and texts, Jerry Lynch helped me to pass on his Win the Day philosophy to our Warrior culture to achieve success. I believe a team culture has to be connective, caring and authentic and Win the Day. In his book, he’ll help you to implement its guiding principles". 

Coach Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors

The ancient Chinese book of strategy, THE ART OF WAR by Sun-Tzu, teaches us that the war is won before the battle begins. In other words, for sports, it’s all about preparation, doing all the controllable little things that position us for ultimate victory. It is in reading this 2,000 year-old tome that the win the day approach was first conceived of by me.

When a team shows up to win the game, their focus is on outcomes and results, something they cannot control. In turn, this could cause them to become tight, tense, tentative, nervous, fearful and stressed. When such feelings occur, confidence declines and self-doubt rises. Losing confidence positions you to compete at levels lower than what’s possible resulting in a lackluster performance.

Conversely, when a team shows up to win the day, they focus on all the little things that they can control. For example, a basketball team would concentrate on boxing out, crashing the boards, sprinting the lanes, diving for the 50/50 ball and playing “in your face” defense. What are the little things in your sports? Ask your athletes to create a list and when appropriate, do it by position. When you execute your controllables, you become calm, relaxed and poised. As a result, confidence climbs as self-doubt wanes. Even the pros like the Golden State Warriors forget about their culture norm of winning the day and must be reminded by coach Kerr to show up to simply compete and let the outcome take care of itself. This happened during their 2015 championship run when they were down to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the finals 2 games to 1. The distracting media talked about the fourth “must win” game. Steve reminded his guys to play Warrior ball, focusing on all the controllable little things and compete in this way. They won big that night on the road to the NBA title, their first of 3 in 4 years. They accomplished this by winning the day.

I used the concept of win the day recently on a visit with one of my teams, men’s tennis at Middlebury College. To give a little history, they had

played for the national championship the year before and lost in the finals. The team came back determined to win it this past season. I listened, observed and noticed how stressed they seemed and they hadn’t even begun their season, four months away from the tournament. They wanted to talk about winning it all and I suggested that they let that thought go and focus on what’s important now? (WIN). I mentioned that when they focus on outcome and results, it’s something they can’t control and it can make them tight and tense...no way to play tennis. In its place, I recommended that they focus simply on the important process of being connected with their values and friends and thereby win the day: doing their mental and physical routines, working hard at a consistent high level, one ball at a time, demonstrating positive body language, supporting each other, being selfless and fearless, demonstrating courage, patience and perseverance, getting proper rest, eating well and doing all of this each day. They adapted the concept, placed the mantra “win the day” on the back of a shirt and rode this focus to winning the national championship.

Their head coach, Bob Hansen, talks about it this way: “Win the Day is a concept that has helped me crystallize what I’ve been trying to do for years. The guys could get their heads and hearts around this idea and focus on what’s most important in the moment. Now, every single practice is a Win the Day event.”

Cindy Timchal, coach of a national championship team in women’s lacrosse, continues to ride my win the day mantra to victory at NAVY. “We shout it out all the time. It helps us to play free, confident and release ourselves from competing. It diminishes the fear because we can believe that winning the day is within our power.”

This win the day concept does not guarantee victory on the scoreboard but it does assure that you’ll give your all and get the most out of yourself. It helps a team to connect. It is manageable, measurable, and controllable.