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Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal
Wednesday, September 10, 2002
The much-needed night of rain last night was followed by a day today that was mostly gloomy, yet universally welcomed here in this neck of the woods. I was in my "front yard" a few
minutes ago, surveying all that I am fortunate enough to see. The gray day was disappearing under a soft blanket of night. The city lights of Fort Collins twinkled below, spreading, and becoming
brighter as each second passed. The air smelled wet, and good. A cool breeze stirred, and I got my first whiff of the cold weather to come. For once I almost relished the aroma. For the first
time since I got here to Northern Colorado just over 6 years ago I liked it when the initial sense of winter came to me. It did not send the shiver of dread down my body that it had the six
times before. I think there are a lot of reasons why. Certainly Under Armour type underwear and learning the fine art of layering, along with always preparing for sudden changes in weather are
part of it, but I hope it is more. Maybe, finally, after 50 years, I am at a time and in a place in my life that makes each season seem just about right. I no longer feel the need to try and
impose my will on Mother Nature. It can be whatever She wants. As a coach I feel renewed, and excited to build a "Pyramid of success" for this team. We begin the Mission Friday. It
is not just fall ball anymore. Before, the thought of starting the "real" season (in my mind) this early would worry me as a recipe for potential burnout. I no longer fear the pitfalls
of the changes that will and must happen to this and every team as it goes along. I have a vision for this team, and somehow, a nine-month long season sounds really good to me right now. I think
these players truly love to play.
>From a coaching standpoint I am a content. I am much clearer about the things that I want from a (this) team than I have been in a long time. That alone should make me better able to coach.
I am not banking on their ability to see everything my way. I am banking on our ability to build something we all understand and believe in.
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Working on basic fundamentals must build skills and teach as well. It must do both. If a lacrosse "fundamental" doesn't teach you how to do something fundamentally better in a game,
then this particular fundamental is, to me, fundamentally useless. I feel confident right now that with this team I will be able to recognize the things that work for us, and hopefully the ones
that don't, too. Fundamentals are big with me, because, of course, they have "fun" built right in. I'm not sure the players always get the "fun" part, but hopefully the process
of improvement is fun more often than not in "my system".
Anyway, fundamentals build skills. Trust evolves from players believing in and understanding each other's abilities. When skill and trust are connected by communication, it will manifest itself
in the simple, but often elusive intangible, which is the cliché, CHEMISTRY. Whatever that ultimately really is, I want it. I have always wanted it, but perhaps too often I have waited
for it to come to me, or to just show up at some magical moment. I know now that I always need to have a vision, and in order to see it I have to create it. It will not show itself without work.
I must at times use some strange components. It's all combined in a certain way, and in specific or unspecific amounts. You never know. At least I don't. I have established here in print many
times that I do not project the future very well, but I can be Hell on "now". I must create the compound. I must find the right catalysts. My "lab" at this moment is fall
ball. Lacrosse and this kind of chemistry are made for one another.
I write about what I see. I do not create a fantasy, and then try to make it come true. To my way of thinking, true goals evolve from the perception of possibility. My focus is to see the possibilities.
I got totally pumped up watching us play last Friday, It was not because of potential pre-season All Americans, because the ones that might be weren't actually looking the part. The ones nobody
knows about were out there looking mighty okay for early September in terms of how they played, and more importantly, in terms of how they were collectively thinking.
Tomorrow is September 11. Millions of people will together reflect upon the significance of "Ground Zero" and the 365 days that have gone by since those two words joined our everyday
language. I believe it is always important to know where you came from. I figure that the things you saw along the way will help illuminate the path to where you are going.
I think the origin of Ground Zero has something to do with being the place where something very powerful originates. I know my world is small, but if this is the case, then my hope is that this
Friday will be a Ground Zero for a bunch of Lacrosse Yahoos here at Colorado State University.
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