Cori Close Edit
Mon, 8/23 6:48AM • 28:36
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coach, choice, life, people, habits, create, ucla, players, coaches, reality, choose, winning, called, hearts, growth, women, practice, question, train, taught
SPEAKERS
Paul Barnett, Cori Close
Paul Barnett 00:00
Coach Corey close. Good morning, your time and welcome to the great coaches podcast.
Cori Close 00:06
Well, thanks for having me. It is good morning and out here in the West Coast and the United States. So but it's great to be with you. Thank you for having me.
Paul Barnett 00:13
I can see the sun shining outside there. So I might start with a really simple question. Could you tell me what you've been up to so far today?
Cori Close 00:20
Well, so far today, I've spent 45 minutes out on my back deck, having sort of just some personal is my little anchoring time. And then I had a women's basketball oversight meeting with the NCAA and now I'm with you. So the morning is still young here. It's so what 9:30am West Coast time and excited just to be able to talk leadership.
Paul Barnett 00:44
Well, thank you very much. We're excited to get your view on it. Because of course, you've had a long, illustrious career with UCLA. We'll get to that as we move along. But perhaps if we could start I'd like to just name check some of the great coaches that you've got firsthand experience with john wooden, Mark French, Kathy Oliver Geno Auriemma, I always get the pronunciation. That's correct. Yeah. Well, thank you This and this Sue samro. So I guess you're in a pretty good place to answer this question, which is, what do you think the great coaches do that sets them apart?
Cori Close 01:15
Well, I think that the real great coaches know how to build genuine relationships. And I think we tend to focus so much on the X's and O's or the mastering of their of their craft from a wins and loss perspective or strategy. But I don't think that's the great separator, I think the great separator is truly understanding people, and truly knowing how to invest in their lives from the inside out and have developed trust, and especially with this generation, they really, Coach Sue semrau used to always say they don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care, and just think they're gonna pick out a fake a mile away. One of the things that all of the great coaches I've had the opportunity to be around it was that it was really about a genuine investment in people first, then out of that came the opportunity to perform at high levels to help them master their craft to push them to find gears inside of them that maybe they didn't even know they had. But you have to develop trust, and genuine that they know it's truly a transformational experience. It's not transactional, these coaches are not doing anything to get something in return. It is truly so that they can transform lives and through sport, then you have the trust to be able to maybe push them to uncomfortable places where the real growth really happens.[PB1]
Paul Barnett 02:35
Talking about real growth, actually one of your players, Lauren Miller, she said that she wants us to grow in our ability to be leaders, but she also wants to grow herself. It just was intrigued me a little bit, I thought I'd ask What have you done recently to grow as a leader?
Cori Close 02:48
Well, I hope I'm doing things every day. I mean, honestly, that that's something that coach wouldn't really modeled for me and was he talked about all the time about to be a consummate lifestyle learner. This is not something I do like, okay, every month I do X, Y, and Z like this is a lifestyle choice to constantly be learning, ask more questions, give less answers, to have a humility of what can I learn from the person to my right or to my left, really, despite any titles are anything else to just make the lifestyle choice to be a consummate learner? And so that's really what I'm trying to do. And I want to model for our players, one of our three core values in our program here with UCLA Women's Basketball is a growth mindset. And what does that mean? It means everything that happens to me today is an opportunity to learn and grow. And I want every player as they leave our program, to have a deep sense of what a privilege it is to look at life through the lens of growth and not through a fixed mindset lens. And if I want them to really adopt that, I've got to model it myself. I've got to show them my pride in being better today than I was yesterday. And when I fall short owning that and saying, Hey, you know what, I fell short. Here. I made a mistake here. Let's get back onto the growth path[PB2] . I'm really thankful that Lauren would comment to that in because I really want my actions and my role modeling to speak louder than any word I would ever speak.
Paul Barnett 04:16
There's such a power. I think in owning your mistakes. I was talking to my own girls about that just recently. But I'd like to follow up if I couldn't just ask what are the other two values that are central to your program?
Cori Close 04:26
gratitude. We just think a contented life really comes from being people have gratitude. So I said growth, mindset, gratitude and being lifestyle givers. I just believe that you wake up every day. And I actually made a speech about this at my high school graduation. And I still believe that I'm turning 50 this year. And I still believe it to this day, just like I did when I was 18 years old that every day. We have a chance when we wake up to look at the world through the lens of what can I give or what can I get and it's a choice you have to make because I think we were all pretty selfish humans. To our own devices, but I think the reality is, is that purpose and depth and contentment come from looking at the world through that lens of what can I get? How can I invest in someone else. Another great quote that I got from Coach Wooden was, the only way to have a perfect day is to give to someone else with no expectation of anything in return. That's how you create a perfect day. And so if we could have a bunch of lifestyle givers committed to creating perfect days of giving to other people without any expectation of getting anything in return, how cool is that? So that's our third core value life. So lifestyle givers, being people of gratitude, and having a growth mindset are what we try to build our habits around in our values in our culture around at UCLA, women's basketball,[PB3]
Paul Barnett 05:49
Coach Cory, was there a person or event that ignited this passion inside you to coach
Cori Close 05:55
for me personally, my faith is a real driver. For me, my relationship with God is something that I feel deeply connected to that and I want to live out of purpose to make other people's lives better because of what I've received in my own heart. And so I think that's really where it comes from, that I don't want to be self absorbed, I want to live life with great passion and great purpose and loving people, loving all kinds of people really well with hopefully not an expectation of anything in return. And in loving people that are different than me, that maybe even disagree with me. I stole this from great author Bob Gough, but I don't want to just do love, I want to become love for the sake of others. And so that's rooted in what I've already received what I believe I've already received in my relationship with God. But that's really where the source of passion comes from. And that's really where my y originated.
Paul Barnett 06:50
I love this idea in your program, where you talk about people's their response, being stronger than the E event. It's such a simple but powerful idea. And I was wondering, is there an example you could share with us where you have applied this successful to an individual that's helped them overcome something? Well, I
Cori Close 07:10
actually just had a conversation with one of my players yesterday, it's one of the best players in the country. She's battling an injury in so she hasn't done it yet. But I fully have confidence that she will choose it and will do it. But I said to her, look, you had to have surgery, and you had to have a little bit of setback of how you were going to train this summer. Yes, I get that those feelings are real and valid. But you had no control over that event. The reality is that happened, but you have a ton of control over your arm, your response. And what I did is I said, Okay, at the end of this time that you've not had to sit out so to speak, what do you want to be able to say about your response? What do you want to be able to look back and go man, I chose to strengthen my arm, I chose to respond a certain way. And as a result of those choices, this is what transpired. This was the work I did in the dark that got revealed in the light, so to speak later on[PB4] . And then she articulated that and then we reverse engineered, okay, it's maybe not going to be in the way in which you thought you were going to train. But why can't you just accomplish the same things? Because you've chosen to respond in a really powerfully a creative way, it's going to be really a wonderful adventure to be able to see her do that. And we came up with this two month plan of ways in which she could learn, grow, train, and maybe even come out better as a basketball player, even though she probably never would have you discovered any of those new avenues than she would have normally. Another example for me was that the pandemic, honestly, we at UCLA, women's basketball, we were shut down pretty much from March 13 to September 21, we were the last women's basketball program, we believe that was able to come back together. So we were so far behind. And so in the middle of the summer, when I seeing all these other college teams start to train together and start to have this, I had a choice, right? I had no control over that event. The reality is LA County was not going to allow us to get back together period. I couldn't do anything about it. But the choice to control my are my response. In light of those events. I had complete control over. So one of the ways we got together as a staff and said, okay, we can't train physically together, but we can train mentally together. So what would that look like? And actually, one of the people I called is the originator of the R factor. Tim kite. Tim and Brian kite have been really great mentors of mine. I called Tim and Brian kite I called Trevor Moab who wrote it takes what it takes. And then I call Joshua Metcalf who wrote chop wood carry water when in the dark, and he's been a great mentor as well. And I said, Okay, look, I'm not able to train physically But we can train mentally helped me developed the best 12 week mental conditioning program in the country. And so we embarked on creating this mental training mental conditioning, curriculum and plan throughout that summer. And it has been really dramatically life changing. And I think that not only did it sustain us through a very, very difficult year, we only had six or seven players on our roster most of the year, it was a really hard thing. But the work we had done mentally and the strengthening of our our throughout that entire summer, I think was not only a key to our season, but also a key to a life skill that our players will have with them the rest of their lives, let alone me. So that's a long answer to your short question about an example of strengthening your are your response, but sometimes when we all tend to look at like our circumstances and go, Oh, this is what we can't do, this is what we can do. But when you are committed to your response, or discipline over default, you choose to say, okay, where is it that I can grow maybe an unpredictable way as this event is hard, this event is not what I would have chosen, but maybe it will force us to the uncomfortable places where the real growth and change happens when you have to make those hard choices that develop deep character and life changing habits. So it's a work in progress. It's an everyday kind of thing. I also don't believe you can carry it over. I think you got to choose it every day, you got to go, Okay, I'm going to choose to strengthen my art today, I'm going to choose to choose discipline over default, because I know I am I'll go back to old habits or comfortable ways, and not a lot of good or growth happens that happens in comfortable ways.[PB5]
Paul Barnett 11:41
It's an amazing answer. I mean, so many people, so many all of us are still struggling with this many countries are still locked down. What is the one thing one little small tip you could give anyone who's listening on how to strengthen it tomorrow?
Cori Close 11:55
You know, I think maybe asking yourself the question of what are three areas that if I do nothing, I will default to but if I make some small habitual discipline choices, I can overcome [PB6] for instance, and to be if I'm being really honest, this morning, I did not do a great job of this, I sort of I try to not look at social media, the first 30 to 45 minutes, I'm awake in the morning, and also the last 45 minutes before I go to bed and sort of no screens in that period of time. And I'll be honest with you today, I didn't do well, I wasted some time and I didn't get as good a time just to start my day and Fill my cup up, so to speak. That's one of those situations where I didn't choose to strengthen my art or to choose discipline over default. And I sort of just settled in and before I knew it, I'd wasted a half an hour, right? The reality is if someone were to strengthen their arm tomorrow, it's just to make a decision that what's going to govern your feelings in your circumstance, I would say not to decide is to decide if you don't decide in advance. Look, I may have some hard things that happened today. But I'm going to choose to look and strengthen my response no matter what. And if you don't decide that that's how you're going to do it, then usually your circumstances overcome your feelings or your moods or your choices. And so I would just say if you want to strengthen your our tomorrow, decide that your art is going to be more important than your circumstances period. And if you don't decide that usually your circumstances when[PB7]
Paul Barnett 13:23
don't want to pick up on this theory of this idea of choice actually, because when you're an assistant at UCLA, you went off and you spent time studying Geno Auriemma at UConn, I've got this great quote when you were reflecting on it. You said you can't wasn't born a powerhouse. They constructed their program that way by emphasizing the power of choice and it caught my eye because I wanted to ask you why is choice such a powerful predictor of success?
Cori Close 13:48
Well, I think you're talking about growth, right? And I think I think you always have a choice. You always have a choice to strengthen your art, you always have a choice to work hard, you always have a choice to invest in someone else. Nobody's making you be there. Right? No one is making us show up today. You are choosing it. I think again, it goes back to fixed mindset versus growth mindset, right? And you're not looking at the world is happening to me, you have choices of how you're going to look at the world. Not that there. The life is fair, the circumstances are always good. There's a lot of difficult real challenges in life. But I do believe the only thing we can really focus on is our choice within that if you focus on the things out of your control, okay, your non choices, then it will adversely affect the things under your control. So I just think going back to Okay, I have a choice here[PB8] . I remember growing up, I used to say to my mom, I'm bored and she would say boredom is a choice. You can choose to be bored or you can choose to do something else. And I think even at a very early age, it was brought to me that hey, you know what, everything. It was just another way of saying a growth. mindset. No, it boredom is not happening to you, you're choosing it. And you can choose to get out of boredom too. And so I think the same thing. And when I was at yukons practices, I counted, for instance, a really incredible choice that I think they've made to create an elite habit is the way they communicate on the court. And every coach if you ask them, what's one of the keys to teamwork, all of them will say communication. But very few are willing to make the uncommon choices to develop the habit where that's just what you do. And over four practices that I watched at UConn, I counted, I think seven times in for practices that someone didn't call a screen or say someone's name when they passed, or whatever the case might be. The habit of communication within the play, was chosen over and over and over again, to the point that it was just a part of the character and culture of what they did. And I think that is the power of choice, right? When you make the right choice. enough times, it becomes an elite habit. And that's something that I think I learned watching Gina REM is practices, but there is tremendous power and choice. But you also have to make the correct choice over and over and over again,
Paul Barnett 16:15
lighting 2020 you secured your 200th win at UCLA. And reflecting on it. He said, it isn't about 200 weeds. It's really about 200 hearts. So when did hearts become a symbol of winning for you?
Cori Close 16:29
Well, I don't mean to sound like a broken record. But one of my visits to john Wooden's house, I remember sitting down with him and I would love to bring to him and say, Coach, what would you do? If I was a head coach? I would want to do this, this and this. What do you think? And number one, he would always say, Well, what fits your personality and your principles. It's not about my program, it's about yours. And you have to coach within your personality and your principles that you've committed to.[PB9] But one of the things he did say, and he would never say it was advice, he said I was just sharing his opinion. He He never gave advice. He said he just sharing opinions. But he said to me, he said, you know, Cory, whatever you do, when you have a chance to get your own program, he said, Remember that you're not coaching, bouncing, mean jump shots, or ball handling or offense or defense, you're really coaching hearts. And if you coach hearts, well, you'll develop deep character. And through deep character, you will have better teammates and teamwork and choices and discipline and it will winning and performance will become a byproduct of teaching hearts, which lead to teaching character, which lead to better habits[PB10] . And so I think that's really what I want is I want people to feel like their hearts were changed as a result of being involved in our program. And therefore, their character was able to be developed. There's a phrase at UCLA because we've won the second most amount of national championships of any university in the United States. But everyone says champions made here. And in our practice facility, it does say the same thing champions made here. But underneath that, from the inside out, it's always about what's happening on the inside and our heart and our character. And it doesn't make winning less important. It doesn't make excellence any less important. It doesn't mean that we're not competitive. It just means that we order things that it starts with the heart, and the character and the choices and the habits. And the winning is a byproduct of making the really hard competitive choices that bring about winning ways. I saw
Paul Barnett 18:29
this wonderful video that you put together around black women matter. And it was in response to of course, the grand jury decision that was connected to not indict the offices on Breanna Taylor's death. Simple, it's powerful. But the road to creating that must have been quite emotional.
Cori Close 18:45
It was very emotional, and a lot of really hard raw conversations. And actually, I just had a conversation with Jackie Karstens, who you had on this podcast and who really inspired me to be on this podcast is what is it like to be a woman in sport number one, and then to be a black woman in sport, and let alone in our society. And those feelings are so deep and the biases that take place in our society are still so real. As a white leader. The reality is I'm leading predominantly black women or women of color in our sport make up about 67% of the division one teams, it's really important that I try to understand and I try to listen because the reality is I have never walked in their shoes to that extent. And so in creating that video, there was a lot of like, Okay, what does it look like to have you feel like I'm getting in the trenches with you? What do you wish I understood that I don't, what is the message we want to create? How can we do it in such a way that is powerful, but also creates further dialogue? And understanding what is it can we create something that is going to want people to say, Oh, I want to get to know them. More I want to hear more of their story, I want to know how this affects them. And so those things have been constant, the more than a dream has been created sort of out of that. And that's an organization within our team. And the thing on the bottom of their mission statement is, so that everybody will feel safe, seen and heard, regardless of their background, identity, religious beliefs, so on and so forth. And that has been something that video was just one of many examples that were trying to come alongside each other that people from all backgrounds, all religions, all socio economics, fill in the blank, all races that we can all feel safe, seen and heard and have powerful dialogue, and stand up for what is right, and stand in the gap with and for each other. I have learned more from them than I have taught in this case, it has been really challenging for me as a leader, but truly it has changed my heart. And my players and my staff have really walked with me well and taught me well. And I'm eternally grateful for that,[PB11]
Paul Barnett 21:04
coach. Cory, I have this great quote from you. And you say, the more you have players that can find their own solutions, the more quickly they adjust. So you have to teach players to have awareness, and be solution minded and fix things. And I know this is actually a key part of your gameplay. But I was intrigued by this idea of teaching self awareness. And I was wondering, how do you go about that?
Cori Close 21:24
Well, I think I'm someone it's really counterintuitive for me, because I like to plan everything to have a structure have a strategic plan. Yeah, and I want everything to line up. But the reality is, basketball games don't line up that way. Life doesn't line up that way. So one of the things if I really want to be able to teach, mentor and equip our players for championship level games, as well as for life, I have to be able to allow some chaos allows some struggle that in practice and created embrace it. And believe me, I don't like doing it. But I think the ramifications and the the yielding of skills is so great that I don't want to miss out I read a great book a year and a half ago called rare leadership. And it talks about how whether you're in business, or education, or sports, that they've studied all these elite organizations that have great growth, it could be your business production, it could be fill in the blank, but where there's great growth, two characteristics were an existence, struggle, enjoy. And one of the things that I really tried to create in every single practice is a high amount of struggle, even chaos, adversity, but also joy and how those marry and they don't always happen in the same way or the same form, or at the same time. But I really do believe that if you're going to be ready for the adverse environments that we're going to face in basketball games, at the highest levels, as well as in life and in relationships, you got to be willing to face those adverse situations and allow it to create some chances to choose your right to choose your responses. We call it neutral thinking to to get back to neutral and ask yourself, what's the next rights behavioral step, what I want to do is I want to create the perfect practice plan that's going to yield the perfect amount of improvement in the areas that I want to see[PB12] . And then I want to be able to check that box off after practice and go by and I was a good teacher today. But that really is not an accurate definition that may make me feel good in the moment as an educator and as a leader and as a teacher. But if I'm preparing a group for battle, that's not gonna work. And so think about how the military chooses to train like a navy seal. Or you look at the most highly disciplined and competitive people that comes from such a sense of how they handle adversity, chaos, you need to have the self awareness to know that this is a good thing. This is not a bad thing. This is something to embrace and to hopefully conquer. I have players all the time or parents who say, Well, I just need you to give my kid more confidence. Ah, I can't give that unfortunate if I could, I would. But the reality is the only way you can have true confidence is to earn it. And you do that by conquering really hard things. So my job is to create those really hard things in practice over and over again, as soon as they grow in such a way I raise the stakes, I change the environment, I create a different level of adversity and then watching them and guiding them and teaching them and giving them skills to have the awareness and the choices and the habits to handle those increase adversities with more and more efficiency and toughness[PB13] .
Paul Barnett 24:40
Being very generous with your time today. Corey patch just one question if I could finish, you were an assistant coach for 18 years, and now you've had 10 years as a head coach. So it's 28 years in total, not a bad run so far. When you finally hand in that we swim a clipboard and you sit back and write that book or whatever it is that awaits you What legacy? Is it that you hope you've left with the athletes that you've touched?
Cori Close 25:05
Well, I really hope that number one that they say man she loved and led me Well, I pray for this every morning that I would be an uncommon transformational coach that lives out my mission to teach, mentor and equip young women for life beyond UCLA when I told this story several times, but it just it answers your question very pointedly, is that on my fourth day on the job, and I had met many of coach Wooden's alumni, but I had never met john Valley. And they told me Hey, you need to meet with this guy. He's, he's the dribble for the Cure guy. It's a community service thing we're involved with. And I said, Okay, fine. And he walks into my office, and he sits right across from me. And he says, I've been married 38 years because of what Coach wouldn't taught me. I've started three successful businesses because of what Coach wouldn't taught me. I've conquered cancer three times because of the strength coach wouldn't gave me and then he really got me said, I survived the death of my 12 year old daughter, because of the way coach wouldn't love me. And then he pretty much said, Okay, well, Welcome to the family, Cory. So you dribble for the Cure, and he walks out, then I run over to my computer, and I look them up. And he didn't even mention that he was the starting guard have to have coach wins national championship teams. And he played seven years in the NBA, because it pales in comparison to the man he became. And that's really what I want my legacy to be is how many john Valley type of stories can we create creating an uncommon transformational experience and it doesn't make winning or the competitive excellence that we're trying to create any less important, it just means that it comes from it always will pale in comparison to who, who they're becoming. And I had this really Joshua Metcalf, who I referenced earlier, as was our mental conditioning coach for a long time and, and he brought our team out onto the floor of Pauley Pavilion, and he said, bottom line, he said, What are the only two things are going to stay with you for the rest of your life from these four years, and one of our players said, I want a banner Baby, I want to raise a banner and Polly Pavilion. He said, that's an excellent quest. And he said, I hope I get to see you do that. But the reality is, is that banners hanging gyms, someone else on the team said, Oh, the Natty though I want that ring, I want the ring. And he said, awesome. The habits of excellence that you're going to have to have to achieve that ring are going to be amazing to watch. But he said rings are in trophy cases, and they really just collect dust. But he would he said to them, he said your question of that level of excellence, you should hold yourself to those kind of habits. And as I worked with USA, basketball, they don't ever talk about gold medals. They talk about gold medal habits. But he closed out with our team. And he said the only two things that are gonna stay with you for the rest of your life from these four years is who you become and who you impact.[PB14]
So you asked me what my legacy what I want it to be, as I want to have really strong, amazing women that are proud of who they have become and who they have impacted by a result of choosing UCLA and being a part of our uncomment transformational mission. And we really want them to feel proud about who they become and who they've impacted because those two things will stay with them for the rest of their lives.[PB15]
Paul Barnett 28:15
amazing women transformational leadership quests, excellence habits. I think that's a perfect place for us to finish. Thank you so much, Coach Cory, it's been an absolute honor to spend half an hour with you today.
Cori Close 28:25
Well, it's been my honor and thank you for caring about coaching and impacting lives and sharing people's stories that's meaningful to me.