Three coaches at Notre Dame made a big difference in my life, not that I played any football when I attended Notre Dame. But Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz - they all made a difference to me, and I respected them for their attitudes about life and how they handled loss.

There are always people you can turn to for help and advice. Former coaches, people I used to play with in Belgium and in England. It is good to have people you can look to for support, but in the end you are out on the pitch on your own and you have to come through it for yourself.

My biggest problem was to get the coaches to understand that I was a runner, and I wanted to prepare myself based upon the calisthenics I did and get myself ready. For example, I used my forearm when I ran the ball, so I didn't want to do pushups because I wanted my forearms to heal.

I'm getting used to this as a coach because it's a little jealousy from a lot of these coaches around the country. I do understand that, because we are NBA players trying to come back, and we didn't have any experience as college coaches. So we didn't, quote, unquote, 'Pay our dues.'

Everyone goes through those stretches. Everyone you talk to in this game, old coaches, old teammates, old players, whatnot, they all have those, 'Oh, I was 0-for-25, I was 0-for-30 one time.' I just try to not to get it that far, get it to that point and take it one at-bat as a time.

Coaches would have me in the gym do 1,000 kicks for a practice. I would do them until everyone was gone, until I had done all my kicks. People asked me why I would do it - that's stupid. But my coach told me to do something like that, and I knew it would benefit me, and I would do it.

The Dream didn't need to struggle. He's homegrown talent, straight from the WWE Performance Center, trained by the best coaches in the world: Norman Smiley, who's known from coast-to-coast, Matt Bloom, head trainer, and I am protege of the one-and-only The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels.

I had a phenomenal six seasons in Washington and really can't say enough good things about my experience there. It's tough to move on from teammates, from everyone involved in the organization, from coaches and teammates, to the chaplain, to even friends in the community, our neighbors.

I've actually seen guys who I considered relatively stupid college coaches, then go to the NFL, and sanctimoniously think they understand that something the rest of us couldn't perceive. They're an idiot before, they're an idiot now, and they'll be an idiot afterwords. It's mind-numbing.

I didn't really think I was really good, I was just playing the game because I enjoyed playing it with my friends. Then once I started playing organized soccer, parents, coaches and other teammates were telling me to keep going and that I could become something so I started believing it.

When you're at home for Duke-Carolina, you have a crowd of close to 10,000 around you, loving you. That's awesome. But it's also a lot of fun in Chapel Hill, where it's you, your teammates and your coaches, and no one else. I enjoyed the games at Chapel Hill a little more because of that.

When you start the game, coaches will tell you to do stuff in a particular way, and kids do that. But the moment you start first-class cricket, the coach needs to tell you, 'Try this, try that,' instead of, 'Do this, do that.' If you feel comfortable, you can take it; otherwise, leave it.

There's a responsibility to the coaches, to the organization, to the front office, to the owners, to everybody who believes in you enough to give you what you've gotten, to the fans that show up every day and pay to watch you play - all those things combined. It's not fair to take a day off.

In a small club you have to do everything: negotiate with the bus company, do all the contracts, all the press work, all the coaching work. It was really exhausting. There was very little time for other experiences and to see how other coaches work and how people work in different countries.

The Olympics were something that was put in my path. I knew I was capable, I worked so hard for it, so I guess it's like, Why wouldn't I want to go to the Olympics? But it was never something that I was really, really dead set on. It was just what my coaches and everyone else forced upon me.

There's different types of coaches in life. I don't have to be a coach on the basketball court. I can be a coach for businesses. I can be a coach for kids. I can be a coach for people who have gone through adversity, because everyone has had some type of damn accident in some form or capacity.

In Seattle, I've talked about how Pete Carroll is such... I'm kind of surprised at the variety of styles that successful coaches can have. Some are very communicative and positive and energized - like, Pete Carroll has all that in spades. Some of them are more cerebral; some are more directive.

I'm interested in Dathan Ritzenhein's future in the marathon, and I believe that's where we need to address some issues he seems to have. He's had good marathon coaches - both Brad Hudson and me. He's figured out the fueling. He's got this incredible aerobic engine. But something's still wrong.

There needs to be somebody that looks out for what's best for the game, not what's best for the Big 10 or what's best for the SEC or what's best for Jim Harbaugh, but what's best for the game of college football - the integrity of the game, the coaches, the players, and the people that play it.

In recent generations, women's sports have been a blessing. Some of us can remember the bad old days in the '50s, when we would discover in casual schoolyard play that a girl could outrun most of us or hold her own in basketball or hit a softball - but there were no teams, no coaches, for girls.

It never surprises me how good Shaun is. Even the coaches are surprised by the things he does and I can understand why. He can strike the ball so hard, yet his legs are only about 12 inches long. But I've been watching him do things like that ever since we were kids. I know what he's capable of.

In France, sometimes, you have some players or coaches say, 'If we go there, and we come back with one point, it's okay.' Here? No chance of this! Everybody wants to win. I think every team is playing to win matches, so the game is hard and fast, intensive. I really like the Bundesliga for that.

As to adding variations to my white ball bowling, ever since I started playing IPL, I realised you need variations. You can't survive on line and length. You need coaches around you who can guide you to get there. I have been lucky that I have had seniors and coaches who have helped me get there.

The world is full of people who want their ears tickled on strategies for wealth creation and protection and so-called revealed secrets to wealth creation. And there are plenty of slick 'business coaches' who are more than willing to do just that - for a fee. This is the world of the seminar guru.

Coach Spurrier was just an amazing competitor. I felt I learned to really love the competition of it all from watching him and being around him. All his assistant coaches were great recruiters, very professional in how they handled their business. So as a young guy, I got to see that all the time.

Even after you win the championship, the work doesn't stop; it probably only becomes more. I'm just basically focused on what I need to do. There's a lot that goes into this - diet, preparation, assembling the right people around you, sparring partners, coaches, etc. - so I'm not enjoying anything.

I don't measure myself against my coaches, I don't measure myself against my teammates. If I'm doing jiu-jitsu for sport, I don't measure myself against the guy I'm rolling with or whatever belt he is or how many stripes he has on his belt. I measure myself every day against the guy I was yesterday.

It's true that if it's always going to be that if you win the World Cup or European Championship, you're a success, and if you don't, you're a failure, then you're bedding yourself for a lack of success because there aren't many coaches who have won those things, and there are thousands who haven't.

There were some coaches, some teammates, some sports psychology people who I could trust and rely on. They were very important to keep me focused on the right things - the things which would be beneficial to me instead of catastrophising things and worrying about things which were not in my control.

I try to be passionate about every aspect of my life, how I love my wife, how I serve my wife, how I serve God. In the same way, I try to be passionate about football. I try to serve my coaches with passion. I try to serve my teammates with passion. I try to serve God, through football, with passion.

In one of the largest studies ever done on the effects of executive coaching - over 70,000 respondents - we learned that the biggest mistake coaches make is in not following up. It didn't matter who the coach was or what method they used. Failing to follow up made any approach to coaching ineffective.

Baseball always gets credit for the foundational part of masculinity - the father thing. The eternal game of backyard catch, 'Field of Dreams', the Ripkens, the Griffeys, the Bondses, so on. But football is the real paternal game, because it's a conveyor belt of father figures, in the form of coaches.

The talent in Florida, it's great, but sometimes it's underdeveloped, and it takes time for those guys to develop... I experienced it when I was with the Florida Gators, they're development players. For whatever reason, the high school coaches aren't paid near as well as the ones in Georgia and Texas.

I can remember having meetings with my coaches when things were going bad. I told them, 'Hey, we've got to be positive. This is the time we need to step up. You've got to make sure they know everything is going to be okay. Keep teaching. Once they see you are down, you lose them and that can't happen.'

I think I have some ideas on coaching, but listen, coaches work harder than players. The hours they put in, the headaches that they have. That's the one thing I've never liked about coaching. They have all the emotion, passion and preparation without actually getting to be able to dictate what happens.

As the West Coast offense has spread out among the NFL, as all of Bill Walsh's assistants and all of Mike Holmgren's assistants have gone on to be head coaches, it's all the West Coast offense, but it's all a little different, tailored to the personnel or the coordinators or the resources each team has.

I think days like Wiffle ball and other things that we do throughout the year to hopefully get guys to maybe take a breath and enjoy each other and enjoy this process and enjoy the season. I would argue that it helps you heighten your focus when it's needed. You never know; us coaches will try anything.

I know my role on this team, and I'm expected to prepare and to perform every week and play well. I relish that opportunity - to be somebody the guys can count on week in and week out, to play really well. That's what really motivates me: to make my coaches proud, my teammates proud, and the fans proud.

I never thought that shoes would be the reason that you recruit players, but it's a factor. I think we need to get the shoe companies out of the lives of the athletes. I think we need to get it back to where parents and coaches have more of a say than peripheral people, but that's easier said than done.

My dad was a high school coach for 30-plus years in North Carolina, and he was inducted into the North Carolina High School Coaches Hall of Fame. He's the best coach I've known, in every way, all the way around - relationships, motivation, going the extra mile, always putting his kids first and foremost.

I told our players at Butler, 'I hate to break it to you, but you aren't playing beyond here. That's reality. So why are you so concerned with yourself?' It's a hard lesson, but I told them, 'How you handle your role on this team will be remembered by your coaches and your teammates. It will define you.'

I never thought of what I was doing as a way to sell the NFL. I was making movies about a sport that I loved, about players and coaches that I respected. I wanted to convey my love of the game through film. And most artists convey their love through art. And my art and my love was expressed through film.

Thank God, I have sort of a pan-European accent rather than Russian, which doesn't sound very pleasantly to Americans. For them, we speak with a rather rude pitch, and that might be our actors' problem there. Now I've begun working with language coaches in Los Angeles to get rid of the accent completely.

As far as the Jets go, I'm competing to play. It will be a heated competition between Kellen and me, and I'm excited about that; I will do it in a respectful way. I have the utmost respect for him because he's a great player. Whatever's best for team will be best for the team and the coaches will decide.

I see a lot of actors that are doing things to please their coaches, their teachers in the past. They say 'No' to parts they should have said 'Yes' to simply because of the opinion of people in their past. I have no one in my past who is judging me and saying, 'Maybe you shouldn't do that.' I'll do it all.

There were high school coaches such as Charles Boston that took me under his wing and taught me the fundamentals of football. And when I went to college there was Robert Hill who took me there and he showed me what hard work and determination would do if you put forth the effort and you take a little time.

You always give credit where credit is due - to high school coaches, college coaches - but my dad, the foundation that he built with me, is where all of this came from. The speed, the determination, the mindset, just the natural belief that you can do anything you put your mind to, it all comes from my dad.

To me, Dan Evans is an example of somebody that puts the clock back a little bit and tells everybody: 'Listen, tennis is not a freak sport where you need to have rich parents, who sit in your players' box for every single week of the whole year, and you need to talk to your coaches' box between every shot.'

I happened to be in a position in Superior where I could play three sports, and when I came to Minnesota, I had the understanding they would allow me to play three sports. Kids now don't have the same amount of time. You have coaches that think baseball is 10 months a year. Hockey is 11 or 12 months a year.

Any praise goes to my coaches and my teammates. I have the easy part of waking up and going to the gym. They're the ones that have to break my bad habits and teach me new things. They're literally my everything. In my personal life, it's my wife, and in my professional life, it's my coaches and my teammates.

Share This Page