Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

BOOK HIM DANNO

I want to use some of the coaching energy I have for some kind of positive or practical endeavor. I have written several chapters of a larger and more concentrated lacrosse book on line as well as off line over the years, but it sort of sits there with me not having done a lot to it in the last several of those (years).

In many ways the journal has now become the ongoing lacrosse ‘book’ I am writing, albeit often fragmented around and by other realities and distractions.

THAT DOESN’T SEEM LOGICAL, CAPTAIN

While searching for stuff in life I try to use logic as my number one beacon. Yet, then I turn around after things are said but maybe not quite done and often wonder how the heck I got to where I am.

There is certainly no logic to the ‘development’ of the lacrosse book thing. I do have quite a bit of stuff to edit together, though.

At any rate I think I can safely say that writing has become one of my life hobbies, and I should therapeutically do it regularly for my own sanity, sanctity, and overall well being. Lacrosse just happens to be my best working metaphor.

I’m not sure this "The Lacrosse Book" (according to me) could ever be done until I am also done.

Maybe I should branch out and look for another one (useful life metaphor to beat to death) in case the future comes sooner rather than later.

THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S LIVES.

Now is a time when it is hard to talk a lot about us as a team and program. We are currently as out of season as it gets. So, I feel like I just want to pick a lacrosse metaphor ‘du jour’ or whatever, and then to ramble on about where I am currently with that subject or concept of lacrosse thought. Maybe this will help me redefine where I am as a coach and to break things down into manageable parts for upcoming team building projects.

DE JA VU ALL OVER AGAIN

I know that sometimes I might write about things close to or even in the exact way as I have in the past. I can’t always remember if I wrote about something previously. I also know some or all of the ‘facts’ I throw around in here might or might not indeed be factual, but I do try, sort of. I don’t always stop and look it up. I know I should sometimes.

BEAM ME UP...

So anyway, at this point in my "blogging" life I’m not sure that I can always differentiate between thoughts had at a prior time and perhaps previously written words, or from phrases only having been spoken aloud. Yes, I am older, but I’m not sure that it is senility that brings about this ambiguity. I have written many words over the past 6 or 7 years, by blog. I know I have many of the same thoughts over and over again, but truthfully sometimes it still feels "like the first time" even if I know I have had the same ‘idea’ a thousand times before.

There is always a new angle, though. There has to be.

MOTOWN MISSION

I try not to repeat (journal entries/entrees), but I am not afraid of making that mistake or writing about it twice. You could call it a case of "too much or over mission" as opposed to omission. At any rate I just keep pounding away in search of new thoughts, not old ones, but hey, sometimes the oldies just slip in the flow of now, or they are still the ‘goodies’ and bear repetition.

WORKINGMAN’S BREAD – The rant du jour

I really do not know how things really are in other lacrosse divisions and or programs, though I suspect they are not altogether different from ours. I believe that a player can come in here as a transfer, occasionally as a freshman, and make a significant impact using the skill and energy that he brings along with him to the team. I also believe, however, that if the same player tries to go for his second year using the same amount or less energy than he did for the first, then he will possibly be in for some sort of major falling short sort of a season. A player has to do MORE to prepare for his second and subsequent years or things will always catch up and then indeed pass him by.

The quality of the teams we compete with makes it so that individual talent and skill alone cannot guarantee continued success. The nature of the game demands more. Teams with the best players don’t always win lacrosse games, nor do they necessarily make the game ‘look’ better because they are "SWEETER" in their motions or capabilities. A team can have less skill and or talent or whatever, but with drilled players on a mission that same over-manned team can often achieve enough to get it done.

A HEAPIN’ HELPIN’ of the Borque factor

Dedication is something that happens inside a player. It cannot be put upon him; not really, there has to be something larger that he wants more than anything. This has to be a thing that he can never achieve all by himself. I, as coach, want to watch the dedicated player progress and I guess I more or less constantly search for buttons to push or switches to ‘flip’ on that can illuminate the individual path going in that straightest direction towards undistorted devotion.

I also think dedication as a solitary virtue, along with its derivatives, like training methods that expand the athlete, help the individual to balance the school and other outside college life challenges. A focused player works towards building a better and more balanced human not only for our team to use, but more importantly for later, for him.

YOU GOTS TO HAVE THE LOVE

There are too many kids out there at our level and in our division of play who are willing to do the work to get to the next level. I could be Vince Lombardi himself and I will never be capable of covering up for a too large lack-of-work gap.

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Flip Started Blogging Before it was Cool, Read Over 400 of His Entries Since January 2001
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