championship behaviours edit
Tue, Apr 04, 2023 11:00AM • 35:13
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coaching, idea, people, athlete, deliberate practice, sport, team, skills, book, outcome, affords, volleyball, ability, based, connected, behaviors, game, engage, mental, part
SPEAKERS
Paul Barnett, Hugh McCutcheon
Paul Barnett 00:00
Hugh McCutcheon Hello, and welcome back to the great country. And g Cheers. Thanks
Hugh McCutcheon 00:05
for having me. Appreciate it.
Paul Barnett 00:07
Very excited to get you back. Because of course, today we're going to be talking about your new book. And I guess my very first question, well, actually, before I do that, I should start as I always do, and ask you, where you are in the world and what you've been up to so far. All right.
Hugh McCutcheon 00:23
Well, I'm sitting here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And yeah, I just got back from the from work, I'm actually stopped coaching, in terms of coaching volleyball, coaching a team and now working with all the coaches and the programs in the athletic department. So it's very cool to exercise some of the things that we're talking about in the book and use those in different spaces. You know, the book was a framework for competitive excellence in sports. And so I get to put that to the test. So lucky me. I say,
Paul Barnett 00:55
Yeah, well, I I must congratulate you on the book. I read it in two sittings. Absolutely loved it, there's a lot of stuff in there for, for parents, or just for people that are running any kind of organization doesn't need to be a sporting one. But what was the impetus to write the book?
Hugh McCutcheon 01:12
Oh, it was a few things. I think initially, there was a, an idea around this, this notion of different teams, different populations, and having similar levels of competitive success. You know, having coached college men and college women and Olympic man, Olympic women and professional men, it's, it's been an atypical path. And yet, even though we never really were worried about winning, or focused exclusively on winning, even though we know that's part of our job responsibility, you know, we're still able to have really strong levels of success, you know, close to 80% wins over the course of 25 years. So it just felt like having a principle base for a lot of the decisions that I was making with all these different programs, or, or at least guiding principles that were helping me make decisions, it seemed like, trying to cement that into something that was accessible for, for everybody seemed like it was pretty cool. And in addition, I, I also was seeing that, you know, with my kids, kids are almost 11 to 13, now that they're involved in new sport, and the coaches have been fine, don't get me wrong, but just the lack of structure and rigor around this really important role that people can have, and especially in a child's life and in anyone's life. So to that end, the idea of trying to put something out there that could help people to be better in this space seemed worth pursuing
Paul Barnett 02:34
you. I'm a father of two girls, myself. And the theme in the book that really connected with me, was competitive excellence. It's such a powerful idea. And could you tell us a little bit more about this, this central idea?
Hugh McCutcheon 02:48
Well, first of all, we if you're going to live in the arena, you have to, you're going to have to compete for a living, that's that's just what we sign up for. But within that, you know, even though we all aspire to the outcomes, we have to understand that there are so many parts of that competitive equation that we don't get to control. There are lots of things that we do, certainly, but but the idea of competitive excellence is connected to the very real need to define oneself in this thing, versus feeling like you're getting defined by the outcome or your opponent. So it's really the idea of taking control of the things you can and, and defining who you're going to be in those moments and controlling that. So you have the best chance of getting the outcome that you aspire to,[SB1]
Paul Barnett 03:32
in the context of not being defined by the outcome, what role as the coach play in unlocking this idea of competitive excellence.
Hugh McCutcheon 03:40
I want to preface all of this by saying that, that winning and having having this idea of committing to best practice, or the emphasis on on process is not a mutually exclusive thing. Really what I'm trying to speak to as this idea of like, let's maximize all the things that we can to give ourselves the best possible chance of achieving the outcome. So it's not like you're either outcome based, or you're process based, and you've got to choose a camp, that those things actually work really well, synergistically, especially relative to long term success with long term success is sustained outcomes. But also, I would say, the growth and development of the athletes that you're working with, not just as competitive commodities, but as people as well.
And, and I think that's, that's part of it is, is there's so much focus, especially throughout our life of comparison, social media, all the stuff that goes on, where we're representing that these three seconds of our life where we had it together somehow represented our 24/7. And yet we know that that's a false narrative. But those those images or those narratives are so powerful and as a result, people, you know, get off of maybe becoming the best version of themselves and either try to become someone else or something else, or if they don't feel they have the ability to maybe achieve the Come that they deem desirable, then all of a sudden, they just stop, they stopped doing stuff altogether for fear of being foolish or seeming insufficient or whatever their idea of being embarrassed because you're not enough and, and I just as I was going through all of this, that idea of like, hey, look, all we can do is the best we can do. And that's easy to stay and it's a little bit hackneyed, I get that. But that idea of best effort, were best effort as best intention and best effort and best method, best practice, all that kind of stuff. I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot. But if you can invest in that, then yeah, sure, you're gonna go compete your win or you lose, you're good enough or you're not. But at least you'll know you did the best you could and what more can you ask?[SB2]
Paul Barnett 05:39
It's a really great summary, I think of what we're all trying to achieve as parents, leaders, partners, perhaps or managers even at work. But there's another element of the book that really connected with me, and you talk about this idea of deliberate practice is a means of developing expertise. And it sounds simple, deliberate practice, but it's much, much, much more difficult than that. We've got people listening, I guess, who, who they wanted to bring more deliberate practice into their sporting or the non sporting teams, where would you tell them to start?
Hugh McCutcheon 06:13
The idea of deliberate practice is, obviously Anders Ericsson, who I proudly say it was a very good friend of mine, and, and just such a wonderful man that we lost too soon. And but we had many talks around, you know, what does his research on deliberate practice in controlled environments with controlled constraints and outcomes and all that good stuff where there was a very linear relationship between the work and the outcome? You know, like, the more you work them in, the more instruction you got them, the better you got? And it was all very clear, how does that transfer to something like sport where you've got complicated skills and systems, a lot of randomness, and also this very real idea that you can work as hard as you can, and you may not get the outcome, and you may not even get to play in a team sport, you know, you can be the first to practice in the last league, that doesn't mean you're going to be on the starting lineup. So how do you build cultures and systems that support that I the amount of, I guess, physical and emotional and mental effort that's required to engage in that idea of deliberate practice. And so the term gets bandied about, I think, somewhat recklessly, because it's not. It's, it's, well, I've tried to give it context within this framework. But don't mistake, deliberate practice with just showing up and practicing. And certainly don't mistake practicing with sweating, sweating is just working out, you know, the idea that you're going to come with an intention, and a really clear idea of what part of what skill that's connected to this task that's going to allow us to get to this goal. linking all of those things together is really what it's about, and being able to cross the line every day and give it your best. And you should be fairly feeling exhausted at the end of that with with your mental and physical engagement and that activity. And that's hard to do. And not everyone's comfortable doing that. But it's, it's got to be uncomfortable. If you're not pushing, if you're not stretching, and you're not growing I,[SB3]
Paul Barnett 08:11
you I know you've only been in your new role for a short period of time. But have you had any quick success or early wins, where you've engaged some of the coaches you're working with on this idea of being more deliberate in their practices?
Hugh McCutcheon 08:24
Well, with a few of them, because everyone's at different phases in this season. So there's a few teams that are that are getting ready for, for the fall, or for the or, you know, whatever autumn August here in the northern hemisphere. And what we've really tried to talk about within within this idea of intention, there are two parts to it, there's an intent to learn. And then there's an intent to compete, which I think, I think is an important distinction. But But all that being said, connecting what I'm going to do today to try and to win whatever the national championship, it can be a bit tenuous at best, unless you figure out how to really link that to certain identified skills or behaviors or levels of execution that you have to achieve, again, to give yourself the best chance of getting the outcome. So within the context of the discussions with Anders and working through how to build that into sport.
One of the things that I got to was this idea of, you know, having having the outcome goal, alright, let's win the the battle or the trophy, or the cup or whatever it is. And then really looking with this idea of some kind of correlative analysis says at what, what skills and at what level of execution, what do I need to acquire to give myself the best chance of achieving the outcome? You know, so, the example you know, I'm a volleyball guy, right? So in our sport, it's serving, passing and sailing out and then there's some transition offense in there as well if you had to get a fourth kind of Maslow's hierarchy of volleyball needs. But, but it turns out that blocking is an important skill and it's a great skills, spectacular skill, but it doesn't correlate very highly to winning so. So if we want to spend all that time and practice and time is our enemy right or, or maybe it's our friend, but we've only got so many hours or so many days to get it done. So we have to prioritize what what to do. And so that idea of identifying the key tasks and the level that are really important to achieving the outcome or giving ourselves the best chance of achievement, and then linking those tasks to our skill constructs, which are the ways that we teach the fundamental skills that we need to get good at to achieve the outcome. And those skill constructs are based in, you know, chunking information and trying to distill these complicated skills into the purest essence. So trying to find the four or five things that matter the most and teach to those. It affords us this opportunity. And I it's probably sounds a little complex, but it's, it's beautiful, in its simplicity, in my opinion, I can walk into the gym, or walk onto the field, or walk onto the pitch or whatever it is, and have a very clear idea of what tasks I need to get good at, at what level I need to execute. And I also know what pads I need to work on today. And with these skill constructs, they need to be incremental, certainly, but they they're also sequential. So you know, I can work on my footwork, and then I can work on my arms. But if I haven't got my footwork right, then my arms will always be a little bit off kilter. So I've got to get these things right before I can move to the next thing. And so it's this idea of adding adding layers and layers rings on a tree, as you were, you know, that's what we're trying to do here. [SB4]
So that's probably more than you're asking for Paul. But here's what it affords us, this idea of the ability to engage in deliberate practice activity, have an intention, have a focus of something concrete and real that I can use today, that's going to help me tomorrow, and then continue to build on that over the course of a season. So that at the end, when we're competing for the Big Cup Trophy met, or whatever it is, I've got the best chance of getting
Paul Barnett 12:04
you another idea that resonated with me in the book was how you go about helping athletes to learn to read the game. I was really intrigued by it. And I thought it was it was very unique. And I was wondering if you could just outline these methods that you use when it comes to helping people develop this skill?
Hugh McCutcheon 12:23
Well, I think in any sport, I'd say it's certainly at the elite levels, the ability to see things to read the game is probably the premier skill. I think oftentimes I've even seen in, in football and soccer, you know, the best players scanning the field, it's catch, getting the pitch and seeing the spaces and identifying things way before their opponents, or their other teammates aren't. So there's, there's a narrative around excellence that's connected to the idea of some genetic predisposition, some talent based thing that they're born with, that affords them this opportunity to be the best that they can be. And certainly, genetics play a part I mean, talent in sport, we know that they're connected. But it's this ability to see things and to read things. at the elite level, that becomes I think, this very clear differentiator, the best, the best in any sport. Yeah, like, they're athletic, you know, like, again, they will use volleyball there, they're long, and they're strong, and, and they can do all the skills at a really high level. But the great ones can take, you know, see a play, and from all of the potentially infinite things that can occur, they can, they can distill based on each contact, they can reduce the number of things to one or two at the point at the point of contact that they know, it's either this or this. And that's a whole lot easier to do that, then somehow, you know, thinking, Well, what's going to happen, what's gonna happen, what's gonna happen, you want to play this game. Somehow, with the idea of I'm seeing, I'm in control versus I'm constantly in surprise. So the reading thing affords you the opportunity to obviously see the space to see the game play the game. But it also gives you time, it gives you time, and it gives you the ability to make the right choices. And to me, ultimately, that's got to be a huge benefit to any athlete. So these athletes aren't super, I mean, they're phenomenal. And they're talented, but they don't have a big ace on their chest. They're not jumping over a tall building in a single bound. They don't have 2010 vision or something, while they do have is the ability to see it. And it seems like they're almost effortless in their execution of playing sport.
Paul Barnett 14:39
But how do you teach that? Whew, is it innate? Right and it'd be unlocked.
Hugh McCutcheon 14:44
I think it can to a degree. Part of it is helping the athlete to identify what to look at and what matters. Yesterday I was at American football practice with with the team here at Minnesota and the coach PJ fleck. And they run a phenomenal practice. And so I'm watching from from the baseline as they're working their offensive sets. And I'm trying to see where it's going and who's got got it. And I've watched, not very much American football, right? It's certainly not from that angle. And it was hard. It was hard. And I know that game more than more than most is about pattern recognition. So can I learn to do it? Well, yeah. So how do you do that?
Well, first of all, you got to really, really, really look at the right things. And you may not see them for a while, but you got to look at them, you got to get used to looking at the moments of contact, or the people that have the ball, and then seeing what happens next. And then over time, then you understand what the things you're looking at what they actually mean. And then you build context around it, and then you can, you know, get to the next step, [SB5]
but as a volleyball player, so before I became a coach, I was an athlete. And I started relatively late in the sport. So I always felt like I was catching up. So you know, a lot of the best players in the world start very young, and they see things and they know what they're looking at from. From a young age. I started in my mid teens, and I didn't know much at all, that I was passionate about it. And I wanted to learn and I was I was really trying to figure it out. But it took me years to understand what I was what I was seeing, and now after 25 or 27, or whatever, it's been years of coaching it. Now I can oh yeah, this is gonna happen. And it's gonna happen. But it just takes time and you got to, you got to make sure you're looking at the right things. And I have this very clear memory and volleyball, we have this idea of looking at the header as a block, looking at the hitter, to get a better idea of where to set up and how to stuff them. And for you know, three years or two years, at least, I was like, oh, yeah, look at the header, look at the header, you know, and thinking I was somehow doing it, but I wasn't. And then finally, when I was like, Oh, look at that. Look at them. Now. I understand now look at them, and then I can see what it was actually going on. And then it was easy. I was like, oh, yeah, what are you gonna do with it? I tell my coach that he was very angry. But we're also excited that like, yeah, we've been telling them for three years. Come on. So it's, it's a tough sell. But it's you got to do it.
You got to engage in that, like, hey, what do you see? And what are you looking at? What does that mean? Did you see this? Did you see that? It's a very Socratic method of inquiry. It's not the usual kind of didactic coach player, you know, I say jump use our high, how high?[SB6]
Paul Barnett 17:30
You there's a quote in your book that caught my eye, you say, coaches should strive to be five star teachers first, then five star coaching will follow. I tell people often that coaches need to be salespeople before they can become change agents. Now, I am a self confessed sales guy. That's how I started in life as a sales rep. And I wanted to ask you, what's the connection between being a five star teacher and a SATs person?
Hugh McCutcheon 18:00
Well, listen, if we don't get the buy in, we're not going to change anything. And that's what you got to do. And we're not, like I said, when I was selling a used car, here, we're selling principle based stuff that can help the athlete to make the changes and achieve the things they hope to achieve. But it's, it's this very real thing, we can lead the horse to water, we can't make a drink, they're not going to make change unless they understand why they should make change. Now I get it, you could beat that into them and be totalitarian in your approach or whatever. And you might get some short term shifts. But mainly those shifts will happen out of compliance or fear of some kind of consequence or retribution. That seems like a I mean, fears based coaching happens, I'm not saying that it's not a thing, but it just seems like the collateral damage. For that for the athlete. And for the team over the long, long haul is really, really not worth it. It's not it's hard to sustain. So going back to this idea of salesperson, making it really clear like hey, here's where we need to go. And here's why you need to do these things. And and here we go, we need you to engage well, then it becomes a decision on their part to, to buy in or not. But But as John Wooden said, if they haven't learned you haven't taught so if you're going to teach, you got to get the buy in[SB7]
Paul Barnett 19:21
buying to belligerent optimism, which I know is something you talk about a lot. How do you use this as a leader? Well,
Hugh McCutcheon 19:31
leadership can be a bit of an island. I think it can be a lonely space, especially in a profession, like coaching where there's a disparate, at least in my opinion, a disproportionate amount of, of power and authority and stuff that's given. Oftentimes, there's not an end. And so to that end, there are going to be plenty of moments where in a world that doesn't want you to show do anything in terms of vulnerability or weakness, but you're going to have doubts. And you're going to have moments where you're going to wake up at four in the morning and wonder what the hell you're doing and how on earth are we going to be able to fix this? So can we figure that problem out or whatever and, and so to that end, the idea of belligerent optimism is connected to my resolute belief that I can figure it out. It's not arrogance, which is probably an overestimation of your abilities. It's, it's confidence, that even when the world says you can't, you believe in the principles that are guiding your methods, and you believe in your ability to sell it, or do whatever and, and figure out a way through it, because to me that one of the key elements of of leadership is belief, belief in the mission, belief in the process, belief in the way you're doing it. And if you can't believe in yourself, well, it's surely hard to get anyone else to believe in you. And so I call it belligerent optimism because it the negative the doubts, the all that stuff, they're there. But you have to take a stand. And that's why principle based methods allow you to take a stand and something that's got scientific rigor to it and some something substantive behind it versus, you know, these hopes or my opinions or something, I can rely on facts, I can rely on the laws of physics and all that kind of stuff. And generally, that helps me to get through these things.[SB8]
Paul Barnett 21:29
The book, you talk a lot about high functioning teams, and you can you actually interview some of the athletes that have participated in teams that you've been a part of championship teams, gold medal teams, silver medal team, as well. And you've got this definition of a high functioning team, where you say they are a group of goal focused individuals with specialized expertise and complementary skills, who collaborate, innovate, and produce consistently superior results. It's one of the better definitions I've read of a high functioning team. And, and whew, we've done about 150 of these interviews now were great coaches, but it was it was great. And I wanted to just, there was one element of it that continually comes up. And it doesn't matter whether they're in sport, life work, wherever and even in families. It's this idea of improving collaboration in teams, sometimes it's called cohesion, it seems to be this sort of this secret that people are always trying to unlock. And I wanted to ask you, what tips have you got? Or have you even found methods that work better than others when it comes to improving collaboration?
Hugh McCutcheon 22:41
Well, a few things come to mind. I think one of the one of the most freeing things that we've we've done with teams is really give teammate behavior, a clear structure. And what I mean by that, Paul is I think a lot of people get onto teams or even into organizations or into professional contexts in the workplace. And in while we might have the HR definition of what an employee is, there's, there's this or on the sports context, we have an idea of what it is to be on a team. But what does that teammate behavior look like? And what does it actually mean to be a teammate, and oftentimes teammate gets blurred with friend, as an if we're going to be if we have chemistry, whatever that is, cohesion, then that somehow that's expressed by us being, you know, hand in hand and, and and we're all you know, rainbows and ponies, and then together, which is occasionally happens. But what we've found is that if we can talk to people about the responsibility of a teammate as something that's actually more important than friendship, not the friendship isn't important. But on teams, let's say you've got you know, whatever, 20 people on a team, it's unlikely, perhaps even naive to expect that you would have 20 best friends, what you have is a few people that you really connect with, maybe some people that you have a good history with. And then other people that you're cool with, they're fine, but But you know, we don't have to be best friends, but we can be great teammates, if we can take the expectation of best friends off the table. And that affords us the opportunity to operate in truth. So where I'm going with this is like if we all expect friendship as the result of being on a team, then oftentimes we'll get foe friendship will get fake friendship. It'll be disingenuous, not poorly intended, but not authentic.
And I think part of the magic to high functioning teams is authenticity and, and the ability to operate in truth. So if we can get our teams to be friendly, and and not that friendship isn't cool, or you know, is not something that might come to fruition are already there. That's fine. We're not against friendship. We're just saying be friendly to everybody. So To be honest and direct, but that doesn't mean you get to be mean, you've got to be kind and considerate. But you've got to build empathy and understanding, you've got to get to know people, you've got to be respectful, inclusive, all that kind of stuff matters. And one of the other big things on teams, I think, is also the ability to forgive, because we're all we're all tainted with the human condition. And we all make mistakes. And so can you, you know, I talk in the book about forgive and learn. But I think that's, that's the way to go. I mean, forgive and forget that that's leads yourself to make the same mistake. Yeah, don't forget, but certainly forgive and learn where forgiveness is, I forgive you, and we move on, right, we're not going to hold on to grudges. But all of that stuff around teams, affords the group the chance to be real, and to be themselves, to feel safe to build trust. And ultimately, in my opinion, trust is the currency that makes high functioning teams work. And if you're not, if there are spaces between what you're saying what you do, be that on the court, or even socially, then then trust is compromised. So being able to give people the freedom to be accepted for who they are, for them to commit to the team in a way that's authentic, and to build relationships that are based in truth affords us the opportunity to really bring that into the court, Pittsfield whatever and build on that foundation.[SB9]
Paul Barnett 26:26
One of the other behaviors you go into in the book is mental skills. What I liked about the way you talked about mental skills was you broke it down. And you said, you listed them out as being breathing routines, self talk, visualization, body language, emotional control, and journaling. And now you talk about each of them. It's very, it demystifies, what can often be a bit of a black box for a lot of people that aren't in elite level sport. But he was wondering if you could share a story on how you've focused on mental skills with a team or even an athlete and help them improve just to make it a little bit more tangible and real?
Hugh McCutcheon 27:06
Sure, yeah. Well, first of all, to your point, I, when I was an athlete, there was a, there was this huge amount of mystery around sports psychology and performance psychology, and, and even the idea of, like, oh, I need to talk to or, actually, when I was playing, we didn't have a sport starting to go to but you'd read a book, you know, you gotta read the inner game of tennis. And then somehow that did you try to reconcile who was self one and self two and figure that out. But the narrative was that somehow you were broken to even engage in that pursuit of, of figuring that out.
But I think the reality is, we all have to accept that our bodies don't do anything without our minds telling you what to do. Right? So. So if you start from there, and again, I'll get to you to your to your story in a second, but the idea that these things are connected and not siloed was, was really important for me. So that whole notion of kind of the physical mental, in the, in the, in the social elements of, of competition, leading to achievement was something that I really believed in. And then as, as I was looking at the way the mental game was treated as an external, it seemed to me like, we should just accept that this is part of the deal. When we're teaching sports. Yeah, we've got the physical skills, but we also need the mental skills they should, and those shouldn't be separate, they should be connected, we should be talking from day one, about the fact that at some point in our season, it's gonna get really big and scary and, and, you know, all this kind of stuff. And we need to prepare that for that from the beginning. [SB10]
So when I, when I think about the mental games, there's probably two athletes that come to mind. One, one was operating from a position of fear. And she talks in the book, Sarah Wilhite, who was a remarkable volleyball player. But at the beginning of her career, was limited by the expectations of others, and even the expectations of herself, you know, things had been relatively easy for her in her high school and club career. And now all of a sudden, she was a big fish swimming with other big fish. And it wasn't so easy anymore. And now the outcomes that we're somehow validating, and defining, we're giving her the same reinforcement. And so over the years, we would, we would spend a lot of time working on how to, for want of a better phrase, kind of exercise those demons, how to free yourself of those expectations and how to just be present and engage in the moment of competition. And, you know, by her senior year, her success was unparalleled. She, she received every award that collegiate women's volleyball had to offer and, and she's still playing, you know, she's in Japan right now playing professionally, but it's just, it was a remarkable transformation. And just because she learned how to control that part of her mind. It allows you to control her performance on the court. Now, the other person that comes to mind with this idea of the mental part is emotional control. All and it would be Riley salmon and Riley now as a coach it Concordia University here in in Irvine, California. But he, his path to the national team was somewhat atypical, he had a bit of a chip on his shoulder. And he thought that if he just, you know, worked and yelled and beat his chest, and you know, was was in it kind of physically, and, and I would say, reckless with his emotion, that somehow that was going to be enough that if he just, you know, grunted and groaned and yelled and screamed and forced his way through stuff, that that somehow that would allow him to achieve his goals. And what he found is that, that those behaviors were I mean, they, they were okay, they weren't helping him to be better. Because, you know, at some point, you need your rational forebrain to engage to make decisions, that and he was always trying to, you know, fight his way through stuff. So he was constantly battling. But it also was kind of polarizing at times, because he was so out of control emotionally, that he would say stuff. And he wasn't really aware what he was saying, or he would do stuff. And he would kick a ball over here, or do it was kind of polarizing from his teammates, because he clearly wasn't about the team, it was all about him. Right? So and I don't mean that he was selfish in any way. But that kind of emotional behavior, it seems really self indulgent, doesn't it? So, with Riley, you know, again, we talked about salespeople and trust and all that kind of stuff. And we had lots of talks about how this looked, and what what were the strengths he could play to, and tried to help him to figure out how to how to live his authentic life on the court how to be true to himself, versus trying to be someone else or trying to live up to an expectation or, or try to be something that he wasn't. And so by giving him really clear definitions of what his strengths were, what his value add was to this team, and how he could best serve his teammates and the goal of the team, he was able to embrace that. And yeah, there were times we got close to the edge, but we could talk him off the ledge a little bit, get him back into control. But again, it's another idea of hey, you know, if he could control himself, he could control his performance. And if you were to go back and watch any of the certainly the middle round matches, of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, I mean, Riley was just took some unbelievable swings, made some incredible plays. And here's a guy that's punching above his weight, anyway, but he was he was phenomenal. And so I just think that going back to your, your initial idea of like the mental game, I mean, the mental and the physical are connected, you can't change that. And I would suggest also, the social element of sport is part of it, too. But therefore, we have to teach to that we have to, we have to give people the the tools, the ability to work on these parts of their mental game, so that they can complement or augment their physical game.
Paul Barnett 32:55
Here, it's a great way to talk about the mental aspects of the game and the physical aspects of the game and how they come together. But I'd like to finish with another great passage from the book if I could. And in the final page, as you say, we have a responsibility to ourselves to live each day, as best we can, with best effort and best intention, honoring the significant relationships in our lives and drinking deeply from the cup of humanity. It's a it's a really great quote. And I guess the question just simply is, how do you hope to achieve this intention in the years?
Hugh McCutcheon 33:26
Well, I'd say say that, and I remember writing it, and I get a bit goose bumpy, you know, because, because it's so true. And as I was writing all of this, it was a very intense process, putting the book together. And what I find is, you know, I don't if you remember, in that conclusion, there's, there's this very real discussion about the fact that we give away so many of our today's to yesterday in the whole rhetoric of regret, or we or we give so many today's away for tomorrow's in the hope of something better, and without really knowing if that's going to be the case. And you're asking, Well, how am I living that? Well, you know, the decision that I made to pivot out of coaching a team directly and now working in a different way, hopefully, you know, coaching in a way maybe that's not the correct power dynamic, but certainly being an advocate and resource for coaches and teams. allows me to to live that in a very real way it feels like I'm honoring my commitments to try to be the best and I say this knowing that none of us are perfect, but you know, trying to be the best husband I can. Certainly being the best father I can try to do what I can to help the teams and and all that kind of stuff. So I just feel it as you say that I get emotional because it's like well, I feel like I've been given that opportunity and I just am so grateful for
Paul Barnett 34:55
it. You It's been fantastic to spend a little bit of time with you game today the books called championship behaviors it's relevant for everybody not just people who are involved in sport and I thank you for joining us today
Hugh McCutcheon 35:09
they are truly a pleasure it's always good to see you