Fundamentals
I was a youth football coach for one year. That year, my team of 8th grade misfits went undefeated. At the end of the year, I was asked to never come back and coach again, because I wouldn’t teach the kids the way the “system” wanted me to. I was one of eight teams at the 8th grade level within this system, and we were all supposed to follow the same system.
But I knew the system was broken.
Have you ever watched a children’s karate class? You see the kids progress from class to class, and get higher colored belts because their parents keep paying and dragging them to class every week. Eventually, the kid becomes a black belt, and puts on a demonstration for his cheering grandmother of breaking pre-scored boards. But nearly any grown man in the room you know could kick that “black belt’s” a$$ in a real fight. I always imagine those kids outside of the studio in a street fight, and someone punches them in the face and they try and call time out because their opponent was not using the proper form.
Back to my team. I was a first year coach, and the veteran coaches stuck me with all of the misfits. The fat kid whose pants fell down when he ran, the attitude kid that would as soon fight you as listen to you, and the other kids that didn’t make it to the top of the supposedly unbiased rankings. There were snickers in the room as the rosters were finalized. My team was literally the island of misfit toys.
Game on. The first thing we did was threw out the play book everyone else was using. Then we threw out the “lesson plans” that were designed to get all of the kids the same football knowledge. I didn’t want my kids to have the same knowledge as all of the rest of the teams. I wanted them to win. The moms were pissed after the first practice when I told them there would be no mom-provided “snacks” like all the other team moms provided.
Our kids needed three things.
So we had to start from the beginning. We had to do conditioning. Sometimes during the conditioning, you have to fix the basics (like literally taping the fat kids pants with duct tape so his pants would stay on. ) It was ok early on to strengthen where we were weak until we weren’t weak any more. The other coaches could laugh all they wanted, but we were going to build. One building block at a time. Nobody had to see where we were going, but we had a plan.
We had to teach the fundamentals. While the other coaches were running “drills” we were teaching kids how to be intentional and repetitive and deliberate. We had to teach them how to get their fat asses into the right place at the right time. While the other coaches were having fun scrimmages, we were teaching our kids how to block. And while the other coaches were having snack time, our kids were learning how to protect each other like warriors.
One of the fathers of one of my kids wanted to fight me. Why? Because of the unorthodox methods we were using. The day he wanted to fight me on the field, it was because of the chainsaw and axe handle drill. We brought out a chainsaw (in it’s shealth) and an axe handle. We held them a few feet from the ground, and made our kids fire from their three point stance and stay low enough to clear the chainsaw and axe handle. Over and over and over again they fired out under the chainsaw and axe handle. The dad thought we should do something fun. But we knew the kids needed to get the basics down, and the fun would come later. We weren’t handing out participation trophies, because the only real trophy was for the winners. Our kids would fire out lower and faster than any other 8th graders ever had.
Long story short, their fundamentals, their discipline, and then unpredictable nature of how we executed unique plays lead to the first ever undefeated 8th grade team in school history. I was then called in after the season by the league officials and told based on the parent complaints we would never coach in the little league football system again. One and done.
I am coming back to the Millionaire Fastlane Forum after a long absence. I have had some great wins, and some epic losses since I have been gone. The reason I am coming back is to re-educate myself on the fundamentals. I will unpack for you all where I have been and what I have been up to, and get back in the business of sharing the journey with you all here at the forum.
Times are tough out there, and some of the razzle dazzle doesn’t work any more. But what will ALWAYS work towards victory is fundamentals. Blocking and tackling. The timeless principles of the Millionaire Fast Lane. Back to the basic message of business fundamentals that hallmark any business, with a roadmap simply contained within MJ’s original writings.
Methods change. Markets change. Some of you may be struggling, and being honest I have struggled with more than a few things over the past couple of years after my latest exit. I will share those details with you along the way. But this message was for ME, and for YOU.
The fundamentals are what you need to have etched in stone. They should be written on your white board, and your decision matrix should be revolving around the fundamentals. That’s the reason you originally came to the Fastlane Forum. And it’s the reason I am back.
We need three things.
Talk soon...Vigilante
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