Book of the Week: "The Champion's Mind" by Jim Afremow

We love champions. We marvel at the likes of Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods. People who have mastered their craft and excelled at the highest level. But what really makes someone like Tom Brady different than a Cam Newton? Or a Tiger Woods excel at a higher level than Sergio Garcia - their primes? Both athletes in each scenario are professional athletes, dedicating absorbent amounts of time and energy to their craft. 

What separates them is their mind. The exceptional champions have a stoic mind that allows them to shutout the negative and past failed performances and move forward towards greater greatness.

Imagine you're playing in the U.S. Open, and you have a four foot putt on 18 to win your first tournament. There are three parallel universes you can be in. In the Bronze universe, you are too excited; in the Silver, you are anxiously worried; and the Gold universe, you are calm and focused. 

In the Bronze universe, is where the term "scoreboard-watching" comes from. You know all you have to do is make this four-foot putt and you win the championship. You get so excited because a four-foot putt is a makable putt and making it for the win will put you in the limelight. But this excitement comes with a cost because you forget one key concept: YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO MAKE THE PUTT. 

With your adrenaline high with excitement, you may not go through or rush through your pre-shot routine and then hit the ball too hard and it lips out or runs five feet by the hole. 

The Silver universe is equally problematic too. As you're approaching the 18th green and see that you only have a four-footer for par, you begin to get nervous and thinking that if you miss this putt it'll be the end of the world. The belief that people will look at you in disappointment if you miss this four-footer. 

This negative way of thinking is raising your adrenaline. You're afraid of missing the putt that you become so tight that you stab at the ball and it roles a foot short of the hole.  

The Gold universe is where you want to be. (It is equivalent of being in the high-rent district of Krevlonia* as opposed to the favelas which is more synonymous of the Silver universe.) In Gold you're not thinking about the end result. All that is in your mind is the process and concentrating on executing what you can do physically instead of thinking about what it all means. You're living in the moment. "The Precious Present." 

And guess what? The ball goes in the hole in a high probability of situations. 

Being in the Gold universe is paramount for champions and high-caliber athletes. Former Harvard men's swimmer Schuyler Bailar highlights this in a Ted Talk at Johns Hopkins University. At one meet, Schuyler didn't have a great warm-up and really didn't know if he could continue to compete. He was falling into the Silver universe, but at that moment he caught himself and rebounded. He went step by step. And only controlled the things he could control. 

The things he was able to control were: getting up on the starting block, doing a dive when the starter blew the whistle, upon entering the water doing a pull out and once he resurfaced would take a stroke. From there he did that same thing. Taking one more stroke until he finished the race. 

Not trying attempting to do too many things in moment is what separates the great players from the merely good players. Thinking about Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS, the Red Sox were trailing the Tigers in 5-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning. All game the Sox were unable to muster much offense against the Tigers second ace of the staff Max Scherzer. They finally got their chance in the eighth inning when the Tigers bullpen door opened up. 

It wasn't long after until the bases were packed and David Ortiz stepping to the plate. We all know what happened after that. An easy swing on a first-pitch change-up sent the ball sailing over the bullpen wall and the iconic image of a diving Torii Hunter to tie the ballgame. The Sox went on to win and tie the series, but we're focusing on Ortiz here. 

His entire career Ortiz was known for his late game heroics. It's not an easy position to be in, but he thrived on the situation. In those moments, like in the eighth inning of Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS or Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, Ortiz was living in the Gold universe. 

Another player that comes to mind who has always lived in the Gold universe is the guy who called Foxborough home for 20 years: Tom Brady. All his career - going back to his college days at Michigan, Brady always seemed to be the guy that was called upon to bail his team out of trouble. But the one game that everyone talks about as his greatest comeback is Super Bowl LI that give him his fifth ring. 

The Falcons dominated the first three quarters of the game and in the process made Brady look like the aging quarterback he was. (Remember Max Kellerman's "Cliff?" tweet after Alford's interception?") Leading 28-3 with eight and half minutes left in the third, the Falcons looked poised to win their first Super Bowl in franchise history. 

In fact no one was actually believing Atlanta was going to lose, but somehow they did. And that somehow was the the mind of champion. There was still time left in the game and that was eternity for Brady. In football there is no 25-point play, so that meant only one thing, they had to take it one play at a time, one down at time and, eventually, one score at time. When they had to they settled for field goals and, on the defensive side, prevented the Falcons from adding to their lead. 

Taking it one play at a time eventually led the Patriots to complete the comeback and finding the endzone in overtime. 

* - fictional country named for a fellow golfer friend that we created. Here's the crest: 

BOOK OF THE WEEK: "13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do" by Amy Morin

Now is the time for women. For the longest time there was the glass ceiling where women could see the.career mountain top, but they were unable to unlock the door into the C-suite. But not anymore. 

If you look at social media, you may think 2020 has been just filled with negativity and yes while it has been less than ideal, you have to look at at all the positives that have come from 2020 that proves this is time for women. 

Let's start with Vice President-Elect, Kamala Harris. For the first time in the history of the United States the person that sits in the Vice President seat will be female. It really didn't come as much of a surprise that President-Elect, Joe Biden, picked a female, we were just unsure of who it was going to be. There were a lot of strong women it could have been, but the former Senator from California just made the most sense. I mean, seriously, just look at her, she looks like she could break at least six bones in your hand. And her "I'm speaking" comeback in the Vice President debate with Mike Pence was beautiful, you could sense Pence needed to change his pants after that one-liner. 

This week the Miami Marlins made Major League Baseball history, naming longtime baseball executive Kim Ng, the first female, Asian-American General Manager in the league. Not only is this huge step for women in the athletic arena, but it is also a big move for the Asian-American community, who for the longest time has also experienced a racial barrier in both their careers and education.  

But before those two, there was another female named to a prominent, high-profile position. Back on May 7, the oldest academic institution made history of its own with the hiring of its first female athletic director. Erin McDermott became Harvard's eighth director of athletics, but she is the first women to inhabit the corner office of the Murr Center. I was privileged to write her bio on GoCrimson.com and I will say, it gave me chills. She is certainly a presence wherever she goes and she was well-respected on a national stage by her Division III colleagues during her seven years at University of Chicago athletic department. 

McDermott now gets to work with and lead one of the women who has been a a pioneer of helping other women break barriers in their field, Kathy Delaney-Smith, 39 years at the helm of the Harvard women's basketball program. In her close to four decades in Cambridge, Delaney-Smith has coached many former student-athletes who rose to the pinnacle of their careers - CEO of the Kraft Analytics Group Jessica Gelman, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy, and Boston Celtics Director of Player Development Allison Feaster. (Side note: another rising female in a male dominated field worked with these four women to put together a tremendous video feature last year. Be sure to check it out.) 

Gender norms have been changing and they've taken a major jump in 2020. There used to be the connotation that men were the bosses and women were assistants in not just the workplace, but in other aspects of life. This concept was sensationalized in the box office hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding with the microagression, "the neck that turns the head." Along with the glass ceiling, these norms are being broken because mentally strong women don't fear breaking rules, they revel in it. 

Mentally strong women (and people in general) don't fear speaking up in meetings. They have a willingness to put themselves and their ideas out there, not worrying what other people will think. I recall back to earlier this year in our weekly communications meeting were discussing who would be our four candidates for COOP Athlete of the Week. We narrowed it down to three males, but I made a case for one of my female swimmers, saying we should really consider adding this person for gender equity consideration. It's these little wins. Not being afraid to speak out for what they know is right. 

They don't fear much. They face all challenges head on. 

It leads right into the next point. Mentally strong women don't feel guilty about re-inventing themselves. If they acknowledge something needs to change or they have to do better in one aspect of their lives, they go for it. They don't shy away from it. But that also goes along with not being fearful.. 

I think back to the scene in "Good Will Hunting" when Will and Chuckie are talking and drinking beers on the construction site in Southie. Will is afraid of taking the next step and taking the job with the MIT professor, but Chuckie explains to Will he's "sitting on a winning lottery ticket" with a way out of the mundane everyday life of a construction life. It would be an insult to Chuckie and the others if Will was still there. Chuckie was trying to tell Will it was 'ok' to leave and move on to something better. Mentally strong women see this and go for it. 

The time of women is now. 

Women have come so far in society, reaching pinnacle positions in leadership. We still have a ways to go and I don't want to see anything that stunt that growth and limit the potential we can continue to go in. https://t.co/kV6j6kpj7v

— lgraham413 (@lgraham413) November 2, 2020

Book of the Week: "Help Them Up" by Dan Horwitz

There are two institutions I've talked about numerous times in posts: Harvard and Newbury. I’ve said it before, at first glance, they appear to have nothing in common, but going deeper one realizes they actually are more alike than they are different. 

The one major thing that ties them together is: “it’s about the people.” And one of those people is Dan Horwitz. 

I first met Dan when he was a freshman in the fall of 2013. A 5-foot, 7-inch guard, youngest of five from West Hartford, Connecticut, his passion for basketball was radiant, despite being undersized. He constantly wanted to learn and pick the brains of his coaches, while being the consummate teammate. He is an encourager and his unshakable positive attitude is so infectious that you want to be around him and when you are you feel better about everything. 

He was also a work-study student and chose to complete his hours with athletics. Anyone familiar with Division III athletics knows we rely heavily on our work-study students to assist with all things from court/field set-up to statistical inputting. At the time, one of my top student workers was a junior and primarily worked in the winter and spring, for hour purposes, so I was looking for someone to be him in the fall. 

This is where Dan stepped in. Just as the exceptional teammate he was on the basketball court, he brought those same qualities to his work study job – doing whatever was necessary to help us out. It was not overlooked in my eyes, or in the eyes of our athletic director. 

HORWITZ TWINS: Ben (left) and Dan (right)

Come March it is quite common for Division I communications departments in the area to reach out their Division III counterparts requesting volunteers. Most of the time these schools have been asked to host rounds of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball tournament. That was exactly the case when Providence was hosting the first two rounds of the 2016 tournament. I knew how passionate Dan was about basketball and I also knew his twin brother, Ben, who was a manager with the Syracuse men’s basketball team, was equally as passionate. This was a perfect opportunity for the two of them. 

Back in May, the YouTube sensation Dude Perfect premiered its official documentary and Tyler Toney mentioned that he never met a pair of twins that loved being twins more than Coby and Cory Cotton. Sorry to tell you Tyler, but Ben and Dan Horwitz have you beat. Ben and Dan have been together their entire lives (minus those 60 minutes Ben was alone before Dan entered the scene) and do everything together. They are best friends and love being twins. So anytime Dan was presented with an opportunity to do something cool like work a big event he dragged Ben along. 

NIGHTHAWKS: Dan Horwitz '17 (left) &
Dan Lumb '15 (right)

Attending all these major events gave Dan the opportunity to witness how championship teams such as the 2018 Villanova men’s basketball team composed themselves on the court, on the bench, and in practice. He saw first-hand the different coaching styles of coaches like West Virginia’s Bob Huggins and Texas Tech's Chris Beard. 

He mentions in his book the 2019 Ivy League Championship Game in his home state of Connecticut. Getting the opportunity to volunteer at Ivy Madness, he witnessed the team camaraderie of the Bulldogs that extended to all members of the staff, not just the players. It was the championship culture that helped lift Yale over, rival, Harvard for its seventh Ivy crown. 

(Editor's note, I don’t think anyone who reads this blog will understand exactly how difficult it was for me to write that last sentence. BTW, during 2019-20 the Crimson got the best of the Bulldogs in its two regular season meetings. #GoCrimson)

Dan’s book “Help Them Up” is not just a book for basketball players and coaches, but for everyone on how to live your life. Take advantage of all the opportunities you can because you never know where they are going to lead you. It is how Dan lives his life. 

If you're a coach, a player of any age, or just a pure sports fan that wants to know how championship teams are built, order your copy at Amazon.com or click on the image on the right-hand side of the page. Be sure to leave a review when you're done reading it.