Move Without the Ball: Put Your Skills and Your Magic to Work for You - Softcover

Stedman Graham is chairman and CEO of S. Graham and Associates, a management and marketing consulting firm based in Chicago. He is the author of ten books, including two New York Times bestsellers. Graham lectures and conducts seminars for businesses and organizations around the country. He is a former adjunct professor at Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and is currently a visiting professor at several other universities. Active in philanthropy and community work, he is on the international board of Junior Achievement, is founder of Athletes Against Drugs, and is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.

Chapte One: Excel in Sports

Vince Carter: Man of Many Names, Singular Skill

His full name is Vincent Lamar Carter, but he goes by various nicknames: Vinsanity, InVINCEible, Air Canada, Elevator Man, and others. People who have seen Carter play basketball strive to come up with superlative nicknames to match the skills of the six-foot-six swingman, who was the fifth pick in the 1998 NBA draft. Carter led the North Carolina Tar Heels to an 83-22 record and two Final Fours in his three years there and now stars for the Toronto Raptors in the NBA.

Carter has lived up to his nicknames. For a few career highlights, see the box below.

Vince Carter NBA Highlights

Points per game, career: 24.1

Points per game, play-offs: 25.7

Career high, game: 51 points

Rebounds per game, career: 5.5

Rebounds per game, play-offs: 6.4

Assists per game, career: 3.7

Assists per game, play-offs: 5.0

Carter was the overwhelming choice for Rookie of the Year for the 1998-99 season, receiving 96 percent of the votes. He represented the United States at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, leading the team in scoring at 14.8 points per game and helping the United States win the gold medal.

As Carter's statistics show, he is far from one-dimensional in his game. The same goes for his life outside of basketball. He established the Embassy of Hope Foundation to support children's causes, initiated "Vince's Hoop Group," a program that recognizes students' achievements at a school in Toronto, and was named a Goodwill Ambassador by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

The Embassy of Hope generates hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for Toronto children's charities. Carter says he decided to establish the Embassy of Hope Foundation to help make a difference by encouraging young people to believe in their dreams.

Carter followed his own dream to NBA stardom, but not at the neglect of his college education. Though he left North Carolina after his junior year to join the NBA, he returned to North Carolina to finish college and earn his bachelor's degree.

He returned to school in part because he knew the eyes of lots of schoolkids were on him. He is used to showing young athletes how to move with the ball; he does that every game he plays in the NBA. By returning to college to earn his bachelor's degree, he showed young players how to move without the ball as well.

Don't Just Talk a Great Game...

You can learn to move without the ball, just as Vince Carter did. You can also learn to move with the ball. But it will take more than dreaming about success.

This world is filled with dreamers. Don't get me wrong, dreaming is an essential part of success. But the problem with most people is they don't get beyond the dreaming. What separates successful people from the crowd is they use their dreams to fuel their actions.

They don't just dare to dream; they dare to act.

It costs you nothing to sit around and daydream about how great life would be if you were an NBA superstar, or if you were the next great running back in the NFL, or if you took the pro tennis circuit by storm and made Serena and Venus Williams yesterday's news.

But it costs you plenty to act upon any of those dreams. It costs you hours and seasons and years of hard work. It costs you time and money and energy. It costs you hobbies and time vegging out and time just hanging with your friends.

It costs you your very dream itself, because it forces you to either achieve it or give it up, to pursue it or call it quits. No longer can you hide behind statements like "Well, I could have done this or achieved that if I'd really tried," or "I should've done it this way; then I'd have been a superstar," or "I would've been great if only the breaks hadn't gone against me."

Could have, should have, would have.

They get you nowhere.

True superstars don't have time for could have, should have, would have. They have no time for excuses, for whining, for complaining. They're too focused on doing all they can to be the best they can be in their sport.

That's what this chapter is about. You won't become a superstar, necessarily, by following the steps in this chapter. But you will take great strides toward realizing your full potential in sports.

That's all you can expect of yourself: to reach your full potential. That much is in your control. Whether you become a superstar is not in your control, because that involves stacking your abilities and performance level against others, and you can't control how good other athletes are.

So focus on reaching your full potential and let the chips fall where they may. Just as studies have shown that we use only a small percent of our brain capacity, I think it's also true that most of us don't come near to reaching our full athletic potential. If you come close to reaching yours, then you will make significant improvements in your game and get more enjoyment and mileage out of your athletic career.

What does it take to excel in sports? I think you have to do the following:

1. Know your talent.

2. Understand yourself and your role on the team.

3. Form a vision for yourself and set goals to make that vision happen.

4. Work hard in practice and in training.

5. Have a positive attitude.

6. Communicate and relate appropriately with coaches and teammates.

7. Be confident in your abilities.

8. Be durable and strong in overcoming setbacks.

9. Be hungry for growth and improvement.

10. Be smart.

Let's explore each point. As you read, consider where you stand and how you might improve in each area.

Know Your Talent

There are three mistakes to avoid here:

· You overestimate your talent.

· You underestimate your talent.

· You don't know your strengths and weaknesses as an athlete.

Players who overestimate their talent often coast, partly because they think they're so good they don't need to work hard. They also tend to be selfish, because they think they can "turn it on" and "rescue" their team whenever the game's on the line. They like recognition and attention and do what they can to earn it. These players often are talented, but not nearly as talented as they think. They end up hurting their teams because of their selfish play and their lackadaisical attitudes, and they don't reach their full potential, because they don't realize they have to work to do so.

Players who underestimate their talent hurt their teams in a different way: they don't contribute in ways that they can. They hold back because they're not confident in their abilities. They make it easy for the defenders to guard them because they don't know the talent they have and don't know how to use it. They don't reach their full potential either, just as a driver who drives with one foot on the brake will never reach full speed. These players are their own worst enemy.

Many players don't really know their own strengths and weaknesses. It's difficult to reach your full potential if you aren't aware of what you bring to the game, of how you can help your team, of what you need to work on to improve.

Many players who have excelled in the pros have done so by specializing. In the NBA there are defensive specialists such as Dikembe Mutombo, who isn't a big scorer but who consistently shuts down opposing centers. There are rebounding specialists such as Detroit's Ben Wallace and Golden State's Danny Fortson. There are scoring specialists such as Detroit's Corliss Williamson and Dallas's Nick Van Exel, who come off the bench to provide offensive spark. In baseball there are left-handed relief pitchers who make careers out of pitching to one or two left-handed hitters every other game. There are pinch-hitting specialists and defensive replacements, guys who are swift and graceful and superb fielders but who can't hit well.

The point is this: all those players know their talent, know what they can do for their team, and they hone their skills and provide what their team needs. They get everything out of their talent -- and that's all their coaches and managers can ask.

Are there more talented all-around players than the ones I mentioned? Absolutely. And they're sitting at home, watching these players perform on TV, because the ones still performing are experts at knowing their value to a team and how to get the most out of their talent.

As you consider your talents, think about what has worked for you in the past, about the areas or skills you are most confident in, where you feel most capable. Think about some of your greatest athletic achievements and how you achieved them.

Charles Barkley: Know Your Talents Expand Beyond Sports

Charles Barkley is a former NBA star who is not shy with his opinions. Perhaps surprising to those who followed his career, Barkley is not high on sports, at least not in the way so many African-American teens get it in their heads, that if they can't make it as a professional athlete, then they can't make it at all. Such sentiment infuriates Barkley.

No matter what color you are, your value as a person and your potential in life expand far beyond sports. Remember that.

Understand Yourself and Your Role on the Team

Kerry Ligtenberg pitched for baseball's Atlanta Braves in the late 1990s and the early part of this decade. For a few seasons he was asked to be their closer -- the pitcher who came in and shut the door at the end of the game, saving the game for his team. He performed in this role quite effectively.

Then John Smoltz took over the closing role for the Braves, and Ligtenberg was moved to setup man. He was asked to hold the score, to pitch an inning or so in the late innings and hand the ball off to Smoltz with the lead intact as Smoltz performed the more glamorous role of closing the game. Ligtenberg was an exceptional setup man. Though his role changed, he understood what he was being asked to do and went out and did his job, helping his team win. Though he rarely received the headlines, he was one of the key reasons that the Braves were so successful in the 1990s and in the early part of this decade.

If I were a basketball coach and I were asked if I wanted a group of talented prima donnas or a group of moderately skilled players who worked hard and understood the team concept and their roles on the team, I'd say you keep the prima donnas and give me the moderately skilled role-players. In fact, I'd say let's schedule the team of prima donnas and show them what a team sport is all about.

Coaches love players who understand their roles, because that understanding -- and the fulfillment of those roles -- helps the team accomplish its goals. To stay with basketball for a moment, there are team leaders and go-to guys; there are defensive and rebounding specialists; there are three-point shooters and playmakers; there are guys who are in there to take a charge and dive for loose balls and do the things that don't show up in the box score; there are even free-throw shooting specialists who are in at the end of close games to handle the ball and preserve the lead at the foul line.

There are roles for athletes in every sport. When you understand your strengths and weaknesses and how you fit into the team plan, you can focus on fulfilling your role. Yours might be a starring role or a supporting role; that doesn't matter. What does matter is that you understand the role and focus all your attention on fulfilling it.

Talk to your coach if you are at all unclear about your role. Ask also about ways to excel in this role. Your coach is in the best position to help you know what to work on to improve your abilities in your role.

Form a Vision for Yourself and Set Goals to Make that Vision Happen

Dan Gable was first a wrestler, and later a coach, with great vision. He set his goals very high and then he went out and, guided by his vision, achieved his goals. As a wrestler, he suffered only one loss (in his final NCAA match of his career), and he won a gold medal in the Olympics. As a coach, Gable guided his Iowa Hawkeyes to 15 NCAA team championships, coaching 45 individual NCAA champions and 152 All-Americans along the way.

Great athletes have clear visions. They know where they want to go and how they plan to get there. That vision is invaluable as they go through the work and the pain, the challenges and the setbacks, the ups and downs of a long season or career. That vision is their one constant, the one thing that remains unchanged. And that vision can often make the difference between achieving significant goals and falling short.

To form a vision, you have to know your strengths and capabilities. You have to know yourself, your dreams and desires, and how hard you're willing to work. You have to have courage and constantly ask yourself what is possible. And you have to be willing to challenge yourself day in and day out.

Your vision is your ultimate destination, what you're aiming for. As your talents grow, as you gain more experience and understanding about yourself, your vision can grow.

Your goals, on the other hand, are the checkpoints along the way to realizing your vision. If your vision at sixteen is to be a future Olympic 100-meter champion, certainly a few of your goals would be to win your conference 100 meters, probably to win the state championship, to earn a track scholarship to a major track school, and to improve your personal best each year.

Your goals let you know how you're doing in your attempt to realize your vision. Make sure your goals are realistic and challenging. If they're too challenging and unrealistic -- if the sixteen-year-old track star determines he's going to win Olympic gold when he's sixteen -- then the goals are pointless and don't help the athlete. If the goal is too easy -- if the track star simply wants to beat his competition in his area, and he's already proven he's far superior to them -- that doesn't help the athlete either. Put your goals out there, but set goals that can be realistically achieved through consistent hard work, focus, and steady improvement.

Form your vision for yourself as an athlete around the skills you have. Where do you most excel, and why? Don't be afraid to take a cold, hard look at yourself -- and don't be afraid to dream. Ground your vision in your own reality of who you are and what you have accomplished so far, and then imagine how you can expand that reality based on your own talents and desires. Dare to dream, then dare to act upon that dream.

Paul Wylie: Forming a New Vision for Himself

Paul Wylie formed a vision for himself as an athlete, and in acting out that vision he won a silver medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics in figure skating. For many years he was one of the world's best skaters, and his abilities took him all over the world, from competition to competition.

When he retired in 1998, he formed another vision for himself -- unlike so many athletes who don't prepare themselves for life after sports. Wylie enrolled in Harvard Business School and is now a marketing executive for the Walt Disney Company. He skates now for recreation, content in his transition to life after sports.

Work Hard in Practice and in Training

Walter Payton, the Hall of Fame running back for the Chicago Bears, was not the biggest running back around, or the fastest. He was simply the best.

Talent? Yes, Walter had talent. But so did a lot o...