The Winners Manual

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Chapter One: The Journey of Success!

• Decide your purpose, set your goals
• "If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them!"
• Developing Vision
• "The first step in creating an improved future is developing the ability to envision it."

Goals and Purposes

• Goals are important, but people need to understand that we are not defined by goals and whether or not we reach them

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• Separate who we are from what we do

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• What are some examples of goals in your life that you may mix up with your purposes?

Success

" Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming."

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• Jim Tressel emphasizes that no matter what the circumstances that happen or will happen, you can win in the game of life.

The Goal Sheet

Each year Coach Tressel had his team fill out a goal sheet to give them guidance in obtaining their goals and reaching their full potential

Chapter Two: The Block O of Life

• "Excellence is the gradual result of always wanting to do better." Pat Riley

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• "The greater danger for most of us lies in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aims too low, and achieving our mark." MichelAngelo

Purpose Components of The Block O

• Personal/Family
• Family is a major part of what they teach in their football program
• Does a great job setting goals for having a positive impact on their siblings.

Cont.....

• Spiritual/Moral
• Jim Tressel feels that his student athletes find a interest in some sort of spiritual things
• A University allows people to come from their own small world and join with people from different backgrounds and beliefs
• He wants them to learn from the diversity to grow and be challenged

Cont....

• Caring/Giving
• A young teenage boy was mowing the lawn with his #33 Ohio State jersey representing Laurinatis and ended up having an accident with the mower and they had to cut off the jersey at the hospital. Word got to the Ohio State team about the incident and Laurinatis went to the hospital to visit the kid and gave him a new jersey. This is a great example of caring and giving back to the community

The Goals Components of The Block O

• Football/Family
• Jim Tressel talks about goals and how they must be measurable
• Also, to be able to quantify what you want to accomplish
• You can't quantify kindness and respect and you can't bar-chart persons' thoughtfulness and encouragement

• Strength/Fitness
• Tressel emphasizes that they must develop good nutritional habits and maintain optimal health
• The Winners Manual lists the right kinds of foods to eat as well as good between meal snacks
• Also, he encourages plenty of rest into a healthy lifestyle
• Players should be disciplined in both studies and athletic schedules to ensure they can do all they need to do

• Academic/Career
• Tressel wants his football teams cumulative grade point average to be 3.0 or higher so they can place on academic all-conference teams and not just on the field
• Resources are available to all the players to guide them through schooling such as tutors and all the study sessions they attend

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Chapter Three: Attitude

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." William James

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"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln

Be where you are

• "Paradise is where i am" Voltaire
• "I rise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world" E.B. White
• How do these quotes relate to the saying be where you are?

Attitude is your choice

• Attitude is not something that comes naturally
• Must practice over and over
• Once obtained players have a feeling of power over their attitude.

Gratitude

• All the different people that we look up to are sincerely grateful for their blessings
• this is something Tressel tries to instill in his players to gain respect as a program

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• Promise yourself pg. 43

Chapter Four: Discipline

"Those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who gives up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest." Brutus Hamilton

"Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." St. Francis of Assisi

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What is Discipline?

• "It is not enough to get things done; they must be done right." Jim Tressel
• Discipline is "training that is expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior."
• Read pg. 71

Focus

• The following are what some of our players defined focus as.
• Focus is when your mental attention is centered on what you need to do. Nothing else can get into your head.
• Focus is when someone can resist temptation in the presence to further pursue a goal in the future.
• Focus means concentrating on your responsibilities.

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Be Your Best Where You Are!

• Focus on the "Moment"
• This means to erase everything in your mind from past or future thoughts and focus it all on what you are doing at that exact moment in life to put forth the best effort you can.
• "Experience each moment with a clear mind and open heart" Phil Jackson

Chapter 5: EXCELLENCE

• "The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor." Vince Lombardi

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• "Excellence is not an act...but a habit." Aristotle

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• "Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best." Michael Johnson

"Everybody thriving to reach their full potential."

• The process to reach your full potential begins by discovering our individual identities, finding our purpose, deciding what we would like to accomplish, and then creating a plan to achieve that.

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• Executing a plan to reach our full potential takes a lot of preparation. We must first uncover all the hidden things that can help or hinder our putting that plan into action.

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• Excellent preparation takes tremendous commitment, focus, discipline, and many of the other Big Ten fundamentals we discuss in the Winners Manual.

EXCELLENCE IN OUR PERSONAL & FAMILY LIVES

• Excellence means understanding the needs of everyone in the family and sacrificing the time and effort it takes to meet those needs.

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• Listening is an important skill and discipline. When we listen, we learn, and we move out of our own comfort zones and into the other person's world.

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• The college years are a time of family transition for our players

EXCELLENCE IN OUR SPIRITUAL & MORAL LIVES

• Pursuing excellence in our spiritual lives means that we seek to know God and create a relationship with him.

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• In prayer we also learn the greatest aspect of communication: listening

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• Listening with heart, mind, and soul will move us further along the path toward spiritual excellence.

EXCELLENCE IN OUR CARING & GIVING

• It will help us to achieve excellence if we can find areas in which we can reach out and make a difference in other peoples' lives.

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• Our world doesn't revolve around us; it revolves around the group, around the community, and it's in that group setting that our excellence will shine.

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• We must discover our talents and then determine how we can best feature those talents as individuals and as a team.

EXCELLENCE IN ACADEMICS

• "It is easy to be ordinary, but it takes courage to excel...and we must excel." -Full width mural in gymnasium.

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• Quote from Eddie Finnegan, former Baldwin Wallace track and football coach.

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• That's what excellence is all about: the courage to do what it takes to become the best we can be.

INCREASE IN EXCELLENCE

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• YOU ARE AT THE TOP WHEN... (1-14)

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• Circle the top 3 that matter most to you or you feel are most purposeful to your life.

COUNTING THE COST OF EXCELLENCE

• Vernon Gholston didn't play organized football until his sophomore year in high school.

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• He worked hard every single day to increase his excellence in every way.

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• Vernon Gholston went on to become the 6th overall draft pick by the New York Jets in the 2008 NFL Draft.

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COUNTING THE COST OF EXCELLENCE

• Four key things that helped make Vernon Gholston into the football player and person he is today:

1. Willingness to learn/work hard

2. Humble attitude

3. Passion

4. Timeless effort

REFLECTION

• What is one aspect of your work/school life that comes to mind when you think of excellence? Is it a positive or negative example?

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• Is there something in your life now that you know is not measuring up to the standard of excellence? What can you do to remedy that?

Chapter 6:

FAITH AND BELIEF

• "Faith doesn't mean the absence of fear. It means having the energy to go ahead, right alongside the fear."

Sharon Salzberg

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• "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."

Hebrews 11:1

• Faith and belief are not merely tools we use to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and forge ahead blindly. There is a substance to our faith.

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• There are 2 components to the fundamental of faith and belief:

1.) The faith people have in something bigger than themselves.

2.) The belief they have in themselves and what they are doing.

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• Faith is who you are. Belief is what you do with your faith.

THE MAIN EVENT

• Joel Penton was a 5th year senior in 2006.

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• His dream was to become a minister.

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• "Coach, I've had the opportunity to go out and share with a lot of youth groups and churches, and its been great. But I would like to do something beyond all of that."

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• He wanted to hold a big event where players would speak to people about how faith has made a difference in their lives.

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• Jim Tressel was nervous Joel would be let down if attendance was low because Joel had his heart set on this event succeeding.

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• Joel formed a committee and go nearly 100 church involved as well as Campus Crusade for Christ, Athletes in Action, and the Fellowship for Christian Athletes.

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• The Main Event achieved the goal that Joel had set: to allow himself, several of his teammates and his coach to share the role that faith has played in their lives.

BELIEF

• Belief is centered more in the individual, and it represents a strong, internal feeling that suggests, "I can do this."

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• Believe in the people you are with; believe in the preparation you've had; believe in the plan that is in place.

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• Joel Penton's Main Event was a example of how believing in what, why, and how he was planning the event.

YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY

• Tressel started coaching at YSU in 1986.

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• The first few years the team continued to improve and continue believing in themselves through the ups and downs.

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• In 1991, won the National Championship.

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• YSU went on to to 4 straight National Championship Games and won 3.

• During the 1991 season, YSU was 4-3 and playing defending National Champions Georgia Southern.

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• YSU beat GS. After the game the team stopped at Eagle Creek, running through Georgia Southern's campus, to take some of the "magic" water back to Youngstown.

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• The mixed it with Mahoning River water to create their own"magic potion" for when they made it to the National Championship game in 7 weeks.

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• YSU made the National Championship game. Poured the water onto the field before the game. YSU beat Marshall to kick off a 4 year run making it to the National Championship Game.

FAITH IN THE

PUBLIC ARENA

• Jim Tressel said his Christianity wouldn't be any different if we wasn't in a high profile job.

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• "I make sure when I give a talk about my faith that I'm not speaking on behalf of OSU but that I am there on my own behalf.
• "I do go out of my way to include others."

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• Jesus often spent time with people who were different, had a different faith, or had no faith. I believe we are called to do what is Christlike rather than say, "I'm a Christian. Look at me."

• In our lives, God wants us to love and serve all people, just as it is my responsibility to coach all my players and not discriminate- for any conceivable reason.

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• "I think it is important to go the extra mile with people who don't necessarily believe in what I do. I want them to think, Hmm, he treats me better than some people who believe what I do. I think that is a little of what Jesus did with his life."

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• You belive in your team so you play hard and trust your teammates are going to help you succeed. You must first believe.

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• Regardless of what aspect of life you want to name, whether it is about your faith or your family or a work assignment, nothing worthwhile is going to happen unless you believe.

REFLECTION

• It is one thing to talk about faith; it's another to live out what you believe. Why do you think it's difficult for people to live what they say they believe?

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• Think of a time in your life when a difficult task overwhelmed you. How did a belief in yourself help? Or, how did a lack of belief in yourself hurt you?

The Winners Manual

CH 7

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Work

•“Success doesn’t come to you… you go to it” –Marva Collins

•No matter what you want to do in life, if you want to be successful, you have to work at it

•Football players come in not understanding how much work they actually have to put in

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His grandfather

•Was a dairy farmer and never took a day off

•Died at 87, sitting in his rocking chair. He had a heart issue but it didn’t scare him at all

•Continued farming until he couldn’t anymore because he loved what he did

•Although he worked well over 40hrs a week he found the balance between work and family

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“You need something to believe in, someone to love, and something to do”- Tom Landry (Dallas Cowboys)

•Tied his grandfather’s story with how he wanted to continue working for as long as he could

•His grandfather as well as other coaches taught him what it means to work

•He admires other coaches and players for their abilities to work and their passions for what they do

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Work is a gift from God

•God gave people meaningful work to do from the beginning

•Anything good in life takes effort

•None of the elements in the Block O can be accomplished without work

•Work is required in all phases of life

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OSU Winners Manual

•Provide an in-season weekly schedule

•Outline rules of personal conduct

•One guideline:

–Not to stay out after 10pm (nothing good is going to happen after 10pm; no plan, no idea, nothing.)

•No drug use- the only thing that can help improve performance is hard work

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Persistence

•“Whatever you do, do it passionately. Failure is an event, not a person. Every obstacle presents an opportunity…if you’re looking for it. Relax! You only fail when you quit.”

•Persistence is a quality possessed by people who want to achieve

•Focus on the performance, not the performer

•Many people think their lives are defined by what they accomplish or the positions they hold

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•Wants players to receive criticism as coming from someone who loves them and wants to help them improve

•Not intended to make players think less of themselves- its all about their performance

•Admits to being wrong when in Ch 4 he told a player “You’re not worth fifteen yards!”

–Still can’t believe he said that

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Two types of persistence:

–1. start having doubts and aren’t sure about ourselves or the plan we’ve set but we press on anyway

–2. comes from something deep inside, it’s a part of who you are

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•Told the story of Antonio Smith

–Good in h.s.

–Barely played at OSU his first couple of years

–Worked hard

–Gave him a starting shot & ended up having a storybook year

–Candidate for the Thorpe Award

–Awarded best defensive back

–Named first-team All-Big Ten

–Starting cornerback on NCAA video game

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Toughness

•Mental toughness

•Physical toughness

•Moral and ethical challenges

•Doing the right thing when pressured

•Toughness off the field will affect their lives more than the decisions they make on the field

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January 1996

•Jermaine Hopkins- Youngstown State

•Altercation outside of his house, he walked outside and got shot and killed

•Very popular, All-American defensive end, set school records, helped team to two national championships

•Was preparing to graduate

•Everyone was very upset by this

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•Most difficult and toughest thing he had to deal with but he had to stay strong for his players and Jermaine’s family

•Retired his number- 58

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Spring 2006

•Tyson Gentry- OSU

•Punter and wide receiver got hurt on a passing drill, landed funny after catching a pass

•Fractured C4 vertebra; doctors had to fuse C3 and C5 vertebra together

•Has movement in his arms and some upper body but has a goal to walk again

•These situations forced him to handle every day with persistence and toughness

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Reflection Questions

•How many people do you know who have fallen into the trap of defining themselves by what they do rather than by who they are?

•What has been the toughest experience of your life?

•How is persistence linked with passion?

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The Winners Manual

CH 8

Adversity and Success

•Learned more from defeats than he ever has from victories

•The takeaway value of losses is so much greater

•Same for every team he has ever coached

•The knowledge he has gained from losing has helped him be more successful with winning

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Handling it

•More difficult to handle success than adversity because human nature tells us to rest on our glory when we have done well

•“if we get punched in the nose, we have an instinctual desire to fight back”

•Doesn’t work the same when we’ve been successful

–More ripe for a fall when you get puffed up

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Be Prepared for Adversity

•Learn to embrace learning and growing so adversity, when it comes, will be used as a stepping stone to the success we desire

•If you don’t know how, adversity will be taken defensively and will miss the opportunity to develop from it

•When we are successful, it is not uncommon to bask in the glory

•Put great quotes and reminders in The Winners Manual to help encourage his players and help keep them humble

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Potential Pitfalls of Success

•“Success is a lousy teacher. It makes smart people think they can’t lose”- Bill Gates

•When success clouds our heads, this is usually when “David beats Goliath”

•Can distract you from your goals and plans

•Sometimes losing can be seen as a breath of fresh air, for you to realize what you need to improve on and come back stronger

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Learning from Adversity

3-step process to ensure they respond positively to adversity on the field

1.Learn from it

2.Learn specifically what the right way is

3.Practice visualizing the right way until your consciousness accepts a picture of yourself performing correctly

•2005 season started the season off with 3-2 record, which he was disappointed with

•However the team came together and proved themselves the rest of the season

•Ended up beating Miami in the BCS national-championship because of their dedication and hard work that year

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Reflection Questions

•Do you believe you can learn more from a loss than a win?

•What life situations pop into your mind when you think about adversity and success?

•Has there ever been a situation where you wanted to give up but hung in there?

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Chapter 9: Love

"Concern for man and his fate must form the chief interest of all technical endeavors....Never forget that in the midst of your diagrams and equations." -Albert Einstein

• Tressell realized that if they focused solely on winning and set aside the loving care for individuals, they would place the team and selves at a disadvantage.

Commitment

Commitment is the key to every relationship. Whatever team you're on, whether it's a marriage, a family, a work team, or a sports team, in order to achieve whatever goals you've set, you must be bound together by a love that exhibits itself in extreme commitment and the laying down of one's life for the common good.

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The failure to commit ourselves is evident in so many aspects of our society. People want to be "cool" rather than committed.

What do you think?

Do you agree with Dr. Spurgeon when he says that there is a lack of commitment in our society? How do you personally deal with this issue?

Play better than you are

One of Doc Spurgeon's favorite sayings to players:

"All I ask is that you play better that you are. As an individual and as a team, play better than you are. You may not win. But that's all I'm asking. And for you to play better than you are means you're not playing just for yourself. you're playing for the man on each side of you, on ther other side of the ball, your coaches, the people cheering you on. You will forget being tired. You will not be tired. You will play better than you are. But you cannot do that unless you have love."

Love Must be a lifestyle

What do you think?

Loving and caring seem to be easier for some people than for others? Do you think it is difficult as an athlete to demonstrate and believe in these emotions/chacteristics?

Chapter 10: Responsibility

• "The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour."

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• Privledge to play at Ohio State-along with that privledge comes resposibility.

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• "When most people make a mistake in life, others may or may not notice. When a football player makes a mistake at Ohio State, the report explodes through the media."

Integrity and Truth

• A lack of integrity has a ripple effect
• Whatever your role, and no matter how small you think your role is, the team has to be able to count on you.
• In society as a whole, as with a team, everyone's role is huge, because the success of the team depends on hard work of each and every player.

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"There is a choice you have to make in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end, the choice you make, makes you." -John Wooden

Class

• They encourage players to exercise responsibility and right living by having class.
• Class is a way of life-a way of acting with confidence and style that reflects well on you and your team. Its having the freedom to do anything you want but choosing the right path.
• Class is not arrogance. It doesn't put you above anyone else and it doesn't call attention to itself; it simply treats people with respect.

What do you think?

What athlete's today show the most class? Why?

Guarding your Tongue

• The way you speak about others and the way you talk to others say so much about who you are.
• The words you use and the way you use them reflect the kind of person you are.
• Significant amount in Winner's Manual about guarding your tongue, because we give impressions about us by what we say.

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"Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble" -Proverbs 21:23

The Honor Code

• At the beginning of the year, the players write an honor code.
• Everyone, including coaches, writes it in his Winner's manual, and then sign it and pledge to follow the honor code.
• Code for 2007 season:

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it. As a member of the Ohio State football team/family, I will abide by this quote at all times in order to represent myself, my family, my teammates with the highest degree of class and dignity.

What do you think?

Do you think that the honor code is important and actually reflects the players attitudes and actions?

The Winners Manual�Chapter 11�Team

“Don’t be concerned for your own good but for the good of others”

• Together
• Everyone
• Achieves
• More

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Human Knot- Activity

• Form a circle, shoulder-to-shoulder
• Place a hand in the middle of the circle and grasp another hand.( DO NOT LET GO!!)
• Do the same with the other hand
• Now attempt to try to untangle yourselves, without letting go hands, into a circle.

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GREAT TEAMS ARE UNSELFISH

• DR. PAT SPURGEON – MENTOR
• Every team much have 2 vital ingredients
• Love for one another
• Discipline
• Discipline = Love.. Also = Unselfishness

RELATING YOUR GOALS TO THE TEAM

• The True measure of our love for someone or something is how much we give back to the object of our love.
• A GOOD Team player…
• Gives 100 percent
• Shows courage off the field
• Makes no mental mistakes
• Cares about the team above all else
• Demonstrates loyalty to ALL

YOUR NOT JUST PLAYING FOR YOURSELF OR YOUR TEAM BUT FOR EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTS YOU.

�Hope

• Hope… is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for early success, but rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.

-VACLAV HAVEL, DISTURBING THE PEACE

Hope

• A farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule braying and, after carefully assessing the situation, sympathized with the mule. He decided however, that neither the mule nor the well were worth the trouble of saving. Instead he called his neighbours together, told them what had happened, and askedthem to help him haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.
• Initially, the old mule was hysterical. But as the farmer and his neighbours continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back, a thought struck him. It dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, he should shake it off and step up ! This he did, blow after blow.
• No matter how painful the blows, or how distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought against panic and just kept right on shaking it off and stepping up. It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly out of the well

THE WINNERS MANUAL

THERE IS A CHOICE YOU HAVE TO MAKEIN EVERYTHING YOU DO.

SO KEEP IN MIND THAT IN THE END,

THE CHOICE YOU MAKE, MAKES YOU