Vision Over Visibility
Posted: 3/25/2009 12:00:00 AM
As we near the closing of our 10th Anniversary with the Phoenix Polar Bears Junior team, I am asked often “who my favorite player or moment was?” The answer is always the same, “they have all been my favorite.”
The other question I get asked very often is how do the Phoenix Polar Bears continue to win championships(6), qualify for Nationals (8 Straight)and develop players so consistently?” Normally, I have not had very good answers for these questions, until recently.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am one of U2’s biggest fans. I love the unique sounds of the band, how they re invent themselves, how they have grown and what they have to say. It is in their latest work “No Line on the Horizon” released in February, “I finally found what I was looking for,” well at least a line that could maybe best sum up, the Polar Bears and what I believe coaching is all about. It is a simple line in a song called “Moment of Surrender.” “Vision over Visibility.” That is exactly what coaching, teaching, leading and parenting means to me. “An unbending determination to not see things how they are but how they could be.” I sell that deal every day to my players. I explain to them they may have a Mom who can give them a hug and a firm re-direct, or a Dad who can provide a mentoring only a father could and then a coach who will always see them not as they are, but how they could be!
Wear the rubber meets the pavement though for an athlete though is “Buy In.” My father used to say, “son, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink!” I revised my Father’s mentoring suggestion in the last 5 years to; “you can lead a horse to water, and sometimes you have to hold that horse’s head under water for however long it takes to drink the water.” Leadership is sometimes not easy, but my father also taught me, ‘coaches of integrity expect to be believed and when not ,let time let time prove you right.” “Vision over Visibility,” never compromise!