Podcast Tips “Dawn Staley”

I recommend watching Playbook episode 5 on Netflix.
Dawn Staley by telling us her story will indirectly give us a lesson in coaching and leadership.

Podcast transcript

Hello everyone, new podcast tips, go to my website www.marcoprincipi.it to find material on mental coach and to listen to other podcasts.

Today I want to tell you about Dawn Staley who is, who has been, a legend of American women’s basketball both as a player and as a coach.

I got to know his story thanks to the miniseries that I recommend you watch on Netflix which is called Playbook in which some coaches tell their story and also tell some of their secrets.

It is a very interesting series there are different sports but for those who love the world of football basketball I think they are worth seeing to see all that I like or dislike even the protagonists of this series.

Honestly I didn’t know her because I don’t follow women’s basketball so much but she is perhaps the character that struck me the most especially for her rules.

Let’s start from her story she is a legend both as a player and as a coach. She won pretty much everything she didn’t win just one thing as a player she lost the final and it was the final yesterday.

In the university field I see one thing that haunted her for years that continued to relate to the game and she could not overcome and understand that defeat.

Only over time has she figured out how to get out of it and says she completed her journey when she managed to win the title and as a coach together.

Let’s talk about his rules which I found really interesting and funny the first I found very funny is to bring your own ball. What does it mean. It means that with the kids who go to the pitch, the scarce is never made to play.

Sometimes some of these kids get smart they say ok they don’t let me play but I carry the ball if I carry the ball they have to make me play the same thing she did she did it because she loved basketball her older brothers played basketball in the neighborhood field and she wanted to go and play with them being a woman being smaller we would never let her play and then she had started to go with the ball.

Often the boys did not have the ball and therefore were obliged to let him play with them. They discovered indeed that he was very strong and at the same time she and became even stronger because she learned some secrets that can only be learned by creating street basketball and above all the guys who did not want to lose with the woman played with her in a really hard way and this greatly strengthened it. So if you want to get smart if you want to get in where they don’t let me in. Bring your ball.

Altro punto o regola molto importante che ci racconta è quella di uscire dalla propria zona di comfort. She now tells her athletes I want you to feel uncomfortable. It will not be easy and all new but it is normal.

This is because in her university years when she was a player, she came from a city, or rather from a neighborhood of Philadelphia mainly of Afro-American people and lived in public housing what they called Project.

Who is not used to used to seeing white people talking to them and socializing with them. And when at the University of Virginia it seems to me where 95 percent of those attending were white people, almost all the professors are white and you don’t go to integrate, the shy can’t speak.

And she couldn’t get invited for this, even though she was very good on the pitch, she had serious scholastic problems so much so that her mentor put her back to the wall. If this continues you are out. We do not care that you are a great athlete but something university you have to combine study with sport.

After a few days of great difficulty and desire to give up, she took courage and decided to face hers who asked what she should do. And the writer you have to get out of your comfort zone you have to make yourself uncomfortable doing the things you don’t want to do the things that are more difficult for you mentally you have to open up you have to start studying.

You must be another person there are making us uncomfortable. We can change is really a positive change. So getting out of the comfort zone is crucial for this. And she immediately understood her teacher’s message and made a radical change.

She became one of the best students. And of course the best athlete. This is because she was able to defeat the barriers of her own mind and then get out of this comfort zone and face life, unexpected problems, in a different way.

Another interesting rule is that of 24 hours as mentioned before She was obsessed with the defeat she had in the final of the tournament and when she was a player and could not get out of her head for this she did not want her athletes to have the same problem that of being all very competitive not to endure a defeat or to get too excited for a win and therefore instituted the 24 hour rule.

So you have 24 hours to celebrate or to reconcile on defeats and then you go on. Another rule of the coach is to leave behind both the negative and positive things we leave behind and move on.

And then maybe a sentence that I liked very much I did even a painting and that you helped her a lot is what she delayed is not denied. So she got lost in overcoming this obsession that comes from the final.

He was advised to hear this sentence and he made it his more than he was advised what delayed is not denied. In fact in the end even with a delay of 15-20 years she still managed to win the tournament and series.

So this is something that applies to everyone. A failure a problem something that blocks us does not mean that we will not be able to do that thing but we will not be able to overcome a problem maybe our success is only delayed. It is only part of the process that will lead us to reach our goal.

And this in my opinion is just the most important thing in this whole series and in the history of. So remember what delayed is not denied.