Don't Fall Off Your Chair, Tim

Not only is speed and conditioning Coach Tim
Kauppinen a friend, but he is a dedicated dad who
reads this e-letter regularly. And he has a 6th
grade daughter who plays basketball.

Here's some good news Tim wrote about the other
day:

Dear Dean,

Holy crud.

My 11 year old daughter actually listened to me.
Can you believe it? I know, I know, it may be the
first and last time it ever happens - but you've got
to hear the details.

Last week, on the way home from Madison, my
daughter starting telling me about her basketball
goals for the season (she's a point guard). These
were her top two:

1. Beat Deerfield (the team her team loses to
every year)

2. Score 39 points over the season (I'm not exactly
sure where that number came from)

I thought those were pretty good goals. They were
specific and had a definite time frame - she HAD
heard what I have told her about goal setting.

My daughter continued (and this really made me
swell with pride).

"I have them written down in 3 different places",
she said, "places where I can't help but see them
every day."

Written goals. She was on a roll.

And you know what? By the end of Saturday, she
was already seeing the power of her goal setting.

She played two games in a round robin tournament
on Saturday afternoon. She scored 10 points (she
may need to adjust that 39 for the season goal),
made a number of steals, assists and even blocked a
shot (she's under 5 feet, but is finally listening to me
when I tell her jumping in games is a good idea).

"Boy, was that girl ever mad when I blocked her
shot", she laughed.

Better than all of that - her team beat Deerfield.

Amazing how few people actually have written
goals when they are so simple and powerful a 6th
grader "gets it."

[the other] Coach K

P.S. Here's the secret to getting kids (or anyone
else) to listen to you. First, be sure what you're
telling them is something that works (like hill
sprinting for endurance, flab loss, and strength.
See the proof today at:

http://www.deandelker.com/hill_sprints.html

Second, model the behavior that you want them
to learn. My daughter has seen my written goals
posted around for a couple of years now (fitness,
sprinting, & business goals) - she's seen it work.

What can I add to that.


Shoot for The Stars,

Dean - The Dean of Shooting Hoops

Copyright 2006 Delker Enterprises, Inc.