Dabo Swinney

The Post and Courier Newspaper sat down with the Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney recently to see what he learned about his team this spring, and to learn some more about the man.

You consistently talked about things like tempo and quality practice reps this spring. It seems one of your goals, if not the No. 1 goal, was to really change the culture this spring. Did you accomplish that?

"We got as much done in 15 days as I think we could have. The other thing we did is had about 1,100 competitive reps which is fantastic, so it was extremely competitive. I can tell you we didn't have near that many competitive reps last year. That's a result of tempo and how we structure practice. It was get better or get exposed. If the attitude is not right we don't have a chance. The main thing is creating an attitude of winning again, an attitude of expectation. An attitude of 'hey, hard work is OK, I have to pay the price.' "

That's interesting that you tracked competitive reps. I guess you are a believer in the 10,000-hour rule: 10,000 hours of good practice, combined with talent, can create greatness.

"If you do something enough, it becomes fundamental. It becomes habit, and when you get in the heat and walk out there in front of millions, your just reacting. Tiger Woods every time we see him hit a big shot. He's hit a thousand times just like that with no one looking … it just becomes a reaction. He probably creates competitive reps as he is practicing, 'OK, down two strokes, got two holes left' … if you are doing things the right way, your fundamentals will hold up under fire. People are so clueless when it comes to doing that.

Greatness is achieved, it is not a given. Yeah, you are born with talent. Take Jerry Rice for example — he is the greatest wideout every to play the position. It is not even close. He was not the most talented. The reason he was great is his work ethic and commitment to little things. He worked on his mind, he took care of his body. He pushed himself further than anyone else was willing to go."

So do you instill that work ethic and drive or must you recruit it?

"I can draw Xs and Os all day on that board; a lot of coaches come in and do great things on the board, but coaching and leadership is really about getting people to do things they don't want to do, getting them to places they can't take themselves. Motivating people to be great. … Coach (Bear) Bryant also talked about there are four kinds of players. You've got those players that have it and give it, like C.J. Spiller. You have players that have it but won't give it — you want to get rid of those guys. Then you have players that don't have it — and this is what the majority of your team is — but don't know they don't have it and give way beyond their ability. And then you have the guys that don't have it, and know they don't have it. You want to be nice to them because they will make great alums. … You've got to be able to motivate all those different guys. … I think that's what separates good coaches from bad coaches."

BECOMING GREAT

"The good ones, they put aside everything going on in their lives and focus specifically on basketball. Thats how they become great." Keith Smart (Assistant coach for the Golden St Warriors.)

RICKY RUBIO

"I'm only 18 years old, but on the court age doesn't matter," Rubio said of his leadership skills. "If your teammates don't respect you, you can't be a point guard, so that's very important. When you are a leader, the point guard who leads your team, your team gets better."

PASSION

Trump: "Passion is a key ingredient to success and even more so to bouncing back. If you work hard without passion, you're just wasting energy."

COMPLACENCY

Urban Meyer: "Do I worry about complacency? Sure I do. That's why we're going to have the toughest off-season we've ever had."

BORING PLAYS

Tony Romo on what he's learned after 39 starts: "Highlight reels don't win championships. They don't. The boring plays win championships."

SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE

"Dr. Charles Garfield, a psychologist who studied peak performers and highly successful people found that one major difference between them and others less successful was that they concentrated on one main goal while other dissipated their efforts going after many goals."
-William Cohen-

"Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination."
-Major General Karl von Clausewitz-

"The man who tries to have everything ends up by holding nothing."
-Frederick The Great-

"You can have anything you want - if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."
-Abraham Lincoln-

"Success demands singleness of purpose."
-Vince Lombardi-

"The fundamental qualities for good execution of a plan is first; intelligence; then discernment and judgement, which enable one to recognize the best method as to attain it; the singleness of purpose; and lastly, what is most essential of all, will-stubborn will."
-Marshall Ferdinand Foch-

"Simplicity, clarity, singleness: these are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy."
-Richard Holloway-

"Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one's aim."
-John D. Rockefeller-

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

“To be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, you must have their confidence. Hence the supreme quality of a leader is unquestioned integrity. Without it, no real success is possible whether it is in a section gang, on a football field, in an army, or in an office.”

DISCIPLINE

Here are some thoughts on the importance of discipline and a great example on the Yankee great Mickey Mantle.

He may have been the most naturally gifted baseball player of all time. He was clocked rounding the bases in an incredible 13 seconds. Yet, his speed was nothing compared to the power of his hitting. It's been said there were home run hitters, and then there was this man - in a league of his own. The Guinness Book of World Records credits him with hitting the longest home run ever measured, at 643 feet.

The player I'm describing is the great Mickey Mantle. By the age of 19 he had been called up to play for the New York Yankees. He won a World Series his rookie year, and his teams would capture seven championships over the course of his career. By the time he retired, Mantle had played more games as a Yankee than any other player, and had been named MVP of the American League three times. He still holds the all-time World Series records for home runs, runs scored, and runs batted in.

Yet, in spite of his impressive accomplishments, experts believe Mickey Mantle never reached his potential. Most blame Mantle's chronic knee injuries for preventing him from doing more. But injuries weren't the root of the problem. What most people didn't know was that Mantle was a raging alcoholic.

At age 62, with his health and family life a mess, Mantle checked into the Betty Ford Clinic and started the long road to sobriety. Looking back from this vantage point, he assessed his career:

“I never fulfilled what my dad had wanted [to be the greatest player who ever lived], and I should have. God gave me a great body to play with, and I didn't take care of it. And I blame a lot of it on alcohol. Everybody tries to make the excuse that injuries shortened my career. Truth is, after I'd had a knee operation the doctors would give me rehab work to do, but I wouldn't do it. I'd be out drinking... I hurt my knees through the years, and I just thought they'd naturally come back. Everything has always come natural to me. I didn't work hard enough at it.”

Despite his great natural talent, Mickey Mantle never disciplined himself off the field. By the time Mantle was ready to change, it was too late. His liver was ruined from a life of alcoholism, and he died at age 64 from inoperable cancer.


Four Truths about Discipline
What were you born to do? What is your dream? To become the person you have the potential to be, you have to cultivate a life of discipline.

1.) Discipline Comes with a Price Tag
Discipline is costly. It demands a continual investment of time, energy, and commitment at the expense of momentary pleasure and ease. Discipline means paying hours of practice to win the prize of skill. Discipline means giving up short-term benefits for the hope of future gain. Discipline means pressing on to excellence long after everyone else has settled for average.

2.) Discipline Turns Talent to Greatness
When you read about someone like Mickey Mantle, you realize that too much talent can actually work against someone. Super-talented individuals can coast on sheer ability and neglect building the daily habits of success that will sustain them. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow shared much insight when he wrote:

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

If you want to reach your potential, attach a strong work ethic to your talent.

3.) Discipline Focuses on Choices, Not Conditions
In general, people approach daily discipline in one of two ways. They focus on the external or the internal. Those who focus externally allow conditions to dictate whether or not they remain disciplined. Because conditions are transitory, their discipline level changes like the wind.

In contrast, people with internal discipline focus on choices. You cannot control circumstances, nor can you control others. By focusing on your choices, and making the right ones regularly, will help you stay disciplined.

4.) Discipline Does Not Bow Down to Feelings
As Arthur Gordon said, "Nothing is easier than saying words. Nothing is harder than living them, day after day. What you promise today must be renewed and redecided tomorrow and each day that stretches out before you."

Becoming great isn’t easy, its built day by day, month by month, and year by year.

ATTITUDE

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance or skill. It will make or break a team, a company or a home. The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day about the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. The only thing we can do is control our attitude."

-- Charles Swindoll