Stars on Sports Intro: It's time for Stars on Sports! A podcast-radio show dedicated to sharing stories about our athletic program at Lansing Community College. LCC athletics has a strong tradition. 24 national championship wins! Over 170 All-Americans! 19 MCCAA All Sports trophies! Stars on Sports will introduce you to individuals that have contributed to our program success and give you the backstory on what it takes to develop it. We'll also dive into and break down the topics and issues facing athletic departments across the nation and right here at LCC. This is Stars on Sports!

Hello and welcome to another episode of Stars on Sports. I'm joined today by our assistant athletic director, Steven Cutter and our producer, Jereny Robinson. And today, gentlemen, I'm not sure how much sports we're going to get into. It might be more leadership, it might be sports. Who knows? Again, like I always say, we'll see where this goes. But over the last couple weeks in our office, as we record this at the beginning of an academic year, beginning of our fall season, we had orientation with our student athletes. Our fall welcome back. And one of the messages that we tried to hit home that I hope we emphasize this year is just leaving things better than you found it and picking up after yourself and being respectful of the things around you, locking up, picking up your trash, respecting everyone at the event and so trying to help our student athletes learn and behave like that. One of the quote that's just I've heard a lot over the last two weeks is how you do anything is how you do everything. So that leads us to our podcast here today. And it could go a number of different directions as we talked about habits or we talk about the people you're around, which I believe could be two other podcasts on their own. But it's even, you know, kind of made me hold myself accountable, you know, when I'm walking around as you talked about picking up trash or putting things back and we talked a little bit about in our podcast, before I forget, an example of Muni, the one time you in the bathroom when you're walking out during the game and picked something up. So we've talked about little. But the thing of how you do anything, it's how you do everything is again what I want our student athletes kind of to hone in on this year. And it's so important in sports because of training and practice. And practice gets talked a lot about in sports and it's a big part of our business, you know, more practice than games when you look at hours. But I learned a long time ago. It's not just practice, it's intentional practice. It's purposeful practice. And you know if you're practicing the wrong things or you know you're not learning how to do a left handed layup better, then you're not getting better and it's not going to help you succeed later. And I, and too often many do that go through practice just going through the motions or not being intentional about it. Intentional practice. One thing that I learned is very important in your success on exams or game day. So what's your first instinct when you think how you do anything is how you do everything?

Well, I think for the most part people are going to gravitate towards the things that they really care about or that they love. And a lot of times they'll gravitate towards the things that they're good at as well. And they might not love it as much, but they're good at it. And so when you're gravitating towards those things, it's, it's fairly easy to put in effort. And those things that you care about, those things that you love to do, it's easy to put in effort, but it's a lot harder to put in that effort for the things that maybe you struggle at or maybe you just don't really care about. And so I think you talked about how important it is to, to do this kind of stuff for practice and be intentional. But it's also on the other side of it, it's also really important for the, the student portion of the athlete because they're taking classes and sometimes those classes are extremely difficult. Sometimes those are, classes are maybe subjects that they struggle in or they don't necessarily like. And so we'd really try to teach in our program that if you can work hard in the weight room or you can work hard in practice, then you can work hard in the classroom and you can work hard on stuff that maybe you're not really good at, maybe you're good in the weight room, maybe you're good playing a sport, but you can also start working on being somebody a little bit different on those things that you don't really care about, but you must do them, whatever it might be.

And I think sports is a big part of that because even in practice it's not fun every day. It's not. There's either it's even broken down within practice, there's drills that you don't like to do or not as good as you mentioned might be one of the big reasons why you're not good at. I was listening to a track athlete say, you know, I'm running that 800, and I'm pretty good at the 800, but it's still going to cause pain. And his analogy was, even though you're better at something, doesn't mean the pain isn't still there. People think if you're good at something, there's no pain, but, you know, so, you know, it taught him to overcome that. I'm getting at the starting line, and it's still. It's going to be a hard two minutes for me, but I'm accomplishing that. So I agree that sports can help you with those other things in life that might come difficult or you don't want to do. And the examples I mentioned early on were, you know, picking up trash or the things you don't want to do. They're not fun to do, that could be even dirty. So I don't. But there is pride in. And I think once you get in the habit of doing it, you feel good about it and the facility looks and maintains a nice appearance. You know, we've talked about the broken window syndrome on this podcast in the past. So, yeah, it's just another analogy where sports can help develop habits or characteristics that can be successful in the classroom and in life. But you mentioned about, you know, it might be easier for people to do things they like to do well. And I've, you know, in the past, I've learned of leadership techniques of. Some believe that you should work on your strengths and make them even better and not worry about your weaknesses. And then there's the other side that, oh, no, you got to take your weaknesses and make them better. And I'm guessing it's somewhere along the lines of both, because, you know, as a team, if you have a weakness, it could get exposed or, you know, could be something that prevents you from achieving the success you want to do. But how do you teach your team to. How they do anything is how they do everything.

Well, I think the number one thing is modeling. It's often been said that most things aren't taught, they're caught. And so that really comes into the modeling piece. And so if you want, as a leader, it doesn't matter if you're a coach or, you know, whatever, leader of a family or anything else, super, super important and valuable to model what you want. And the teaching piece is still important because, like I said, not everything is taught. A lot of it is caught. But there are things that are taught, too. And it's just reinforcing it. We have a. Usually on a daily basis, we have a pretty complex practice schedule. And we expect our players to know that practice schedule, the ins and outs of it. And at the beginning of every season, most of them don't know what that is when they show up. Even though the practice schedule has been out since the day before, the night before, sometimes a few days before for that day. And instead of punishing them because they don't know it, we keep teaching and modeling. Here it is. You got to know it. And pretty soon it just becomes one of those things where they just understand it.

Yeah.

And but if we didn't teach the importance of that, it maybe they would be looking to our coaching staff or running to a board to look to see what's next. But because we teach that, that pretty soon, within about three or four weeks, they will have all those intricacies of that practice plan. So the things that are important, I think you have to constantly teach, but you don't necessarily have to punish every time they don't get it. But you just keep teaching it until pretty soon you step back and you're like, they've got it.

Yeah. So I had a question because I think that because you talking about the habits and how some people are stronger and like lifting weights or something like that, do you think that is because of the success that they gain early in that? And then once you understand, like you get to have the joy of the results of it and it makes you. It makes it easier to go back to that hard thing because of the success you had in that.

Yeah. And it really circles back to the belief system. But you know, where your belief system is in something will determine how much you put into it. And then how much you put into it determines what type of levels of success you have. Okay, you put a lot of stuff into it. Your belief system's high, you'll put a lot into it, you'll have some success. And then it just stacks on the belief system.

Right.

But if the 180 of it is your belief system, I'm not real good in math. I don't put a ton of effort into math. I don't do well in math. Just stacks on the belief system. Well, I'm not very good at math.

And there have been proven in youth sports that success helps with that belief system and that kids that are successful at a young age end up doing more of it because of that belief system or that support system that builds confidence. And you do more because you're good at it, that you're getting support and like built up on it, which then helps you be more successful by doing more of it.

So it starts at an early age and we just gravitate towards the things that we're good at and we kind of push away from those things that we're not good at. And sports is another one of those things. If you interview kids as they get older and you know, ask them what sports they played when they were younger, they will tell you usually quite a few different sports and then ask, well, why aren't you playing X sport anymore? And it's most of the time I wasn't very good at it. I didn't like it.

Ah.

And it goes to habits, you know.

Same thing with your golf game, right? Do you like to play golf?

You know, like my parking too? Do I like to park cars, pulling in today thinking I should be practicing, backing up? But no, golf is frustrating and challenging game, so I don't gravitate. You're exactly right. And that is true in sports and in practices and with kids and individual skills like left handed layups or dominant handed layups compared to the other handed layup and how people handle that. You know, like you said, you don't punish early on. And too often we don't teach leaders to not punish early on. And so kids get afraid of failure or get afraid of getting in trouble or making the team run or something that they don't have that belief system and doing that skill well, and it's almost counterproductive. And you know, I talked about habits because how you do anything and how you do everything becomes habits, you know, those small decisions of, you know, and then because it might not be something you like to do. So how do you overcome something you don't like to do, and we've talked a lot about it before, is start small, breaking the skill up, stacking wins if you get off track. You know, talked about, we haven't talked on this podcast about red light, green light, yellow light, system of, you know, trying to get back to the green light as fast as you can. So there. Sports leadership and leadership as a whole in society has really dived into breaking some of these things down because the premise of how you do anything is how you do everything is probably not doing those things you don't want to do or do well, getting you to do those well, especially when nobody's watching, which is important in sports. Like, you've seen a lot of locker rooms. What are you doing today that your rival isn't doing or what's your rival doing that you're not doing that how important it is when you're working, when no one is watching. Like we talked about a holiday weekend. Did kids play cats? Did kids shoot baskets? Did kids run on their own? And is it more important that they did more than their opponent did? If you're comparing yourself to your opponent, it is, but it's still about being better yourselves.

So still a competition, I think, with yourself. And the most important thing is the word build. Build great habits and rituals that'll serve you, not beat other people, but to serve you. And. And that's where the habits and rituals come in. And you build those habits. Then a lot of times you're doing that stuff when nobody's around, nobody sees it. And that's where the premise of, you know what you're saying, where you want to see people doing things when nobody's watching. Well, that, that comes from thing. And those habits and rituals that you build.

And we've talked about, like, how long it takes to be good at something before, and I, and I saw somewhere, like, it's three weeks for you to build a habit into a routine. And I don't know if that's an exact science or something, but you have to do something repeatedly for three weeks for it to become, like, just a natural thing for you to do and a habit. But another big part of this podcast that I think ties into it is one of my other things that we've talked about is contagious proximity or the, the five people you hang out with. And so that's another thing that I think lends into how you do anything, how you do everything, who you're around. I've always believed in an accountability partner, that someone that holds me accountable, someone that challenges me to be better, someone that sees if I walk by a piece of paper, hey, you didn't pick that up or something. Because it's easy when no one calls you out on something to keep doing that over and over. And I'm not saying and in a negative way. Journey, when we talked right before the podcast, when we talked about habits, you, you know, bad habits. And that's again, where our mind naturally goes to are those negative things. So having a. Not only an accountability partner, but an encouraging partner. And I think that's where a team can really be helpful in this. And to your point, you know, leadership is modeling. I learn that more every day. And we've, you know, we've talked about videos of coaches that are servants and Go out and do tasks that they're not above or beyond or think that, you know, they shouldn't have to do that. The most successful ones are leading by example. And I had never heard that phrase about taught and caught, but I think that that is true for. For leadership modeling. But again, at that culture of a team that can help lead into, you know, how you do anything is how you do everything. Because there is that time when you're by yourself, but in sports, you're with your team a lot. Even in individual sports, you still have a team setting, a practice partner that you're running or jogging with that you know can help you move better.

Yes. Saying is so challenging.

Which one?

The how you do anything is how you do everything is. Like, when I hear that, I think I might have to put that up somewhere because, like, it challenges me to be better at the things that I'm not like better or at least give the proper.

And I'm smiling because you're right. That's what it held me accountable when no one is watching or when I'm walking down the hallway, like, why aren't I doing it now? If I'm not doing it now, will I do it when it needed most of me? And. But it's also come down to consistency, too. And we've talked a lot about consistency on this podcast, but it is a scary phrase. You're right, because I think too many people, especially in athletic, think, you know, if I don't practice hard when the game comes, I'll be able to step up and play at my optimal level. And, you know, what you learn is the more you do something, the better you will be at it. And it's not easy, and it does take you out of your comfort zone. So I'm glad you brought that up, Journey, because I agree. I think it does scare a lot of people. I think it does make people uncomfortable. I think it does challenge people to be better because I think they think they only need to be good at the things they want to be. Or. And we're talking sport, too, but I think of more of the life lessons.

Yeah, it's good life lessons, but even in sports, it transfers because, like, if you hear about the personality of Jordan, they said that he wasn't just trying to be good at basketball. He wanted whatever was happening. Card games, if they was. If they was throwing a ball against a wall or sliding again, anything that was. Anything that was happening, he wanted to be better, the best at it. And that makes me say, okay, I don't Know if I wanna have that type of first night, but I wanna be great at whatever I do. Like, at least give my best effort at everything I do. So like I said, I like that. I like that phrase. And I'm gonna stick on to that.

And that's something we struggle with. In my previous job, I was talking to one of my more successful coaches and we talked about having fun. And on more successful team, the fun was probably more at the end when you accomplished your result.

It's because winning is fun and losing is not. And so if you put this work into it and you win, it's like, heck, yeah, let's do some more.

But also, though, if you are pushing to win or be successful, it's harder work. I mean, that was my point with the coach. He goes, there's teams out there not working as hard. But back to your point. Do you want to be great or you want to be the best? And it's okay, whatever you want to be. But there's certain things that you have to do to get to that level that are different than the other groups you're comparing yourself to. But in the end, it's, you know, because we've talked about people that are all in and fail. I mean, that's tough. I mean, when you've given everything you've got like Jordan did, and if you didn't win, you know, what's the result? But to your point, not just winning, but, you know, those competitive, driven, focused people deal with that difficulty. But in our experience, most of the time you do experience what, you know, I'm a big believer is you get out of it what you put into it. Overall, the averages are that. That happens. So, yeah, it is scary. And people that there's a fear of success out there because people are afraid to invest in something because they might not get the result out of what they want to do and that transfer over into other parts of your life. I would, you know, this quote is arguing that a lot of it does. Do you agree with that?

I think so. I think ultimately you're looking just to challenge yourself, not compare yourself to others, but challenge yourself to be better, not assume it's somebody else's job. You've talked about the garbage and those different things that are, you know, somewhat menial tasks, but, you know, not assume it's somebody else's job, pick it up because it's somebody. Somebody else will have to do it if you don't. So why can't. If you're walking by, why can't you do that?

Yeah. I think even when you're not getting the level of success that you think you're still affecting people. Because when you're doing things at a high level, even like I remember playing on some teams where we didn't win that much, but they respected me. They knew when I came on that court, like, you know what I'm saying, like you, I'm gonna make it hard for you. So, like, even when you don't have the level of success, you still have a certain type of success within that.

It's even more important when you level success. Cause those are the things that will hopefully help you get to that level by consistently doing the things that haven't gotten you there already. Because if you're not doing them, that's probably some of the reasons you're not getting to where you wanna go is you're not doing certain things. But to your point, competition becomes so much a part of what we do. And, you know, I've talked about one of my beliefs is be better today than yesterday. And, you know, listening to things is, you know, be the best version of yourself. Not, you know, compete against yourself. Because when you compete against yourself, again, you get to that negative kind of tone, maybe that you failed or you didn't get something done, where just being the best version of yourself. And Martin Luther Luther King Jr. Said it best about, if you're going to be a minesweeper, be the best minesweeper that you can be. And that's true for any task that we do, if it's worth doing or putting the effort in. And in our jobs, it's a lot of effort and time that do it the best that you can. And that's the little task. Because usually the little tasks are what make the biggest deal. And when you're trying to perform at.

The highest level, that's good.

So any closing thoughts on that?

I think the mindset is one of the biggest things. And so ultimately, instead of competing against yourself, if you just change the words a little bit to with, instead of against competing with yourself, you're trying to get a little bit better. This, we could go on and on about trying to get better, but biggest thing is be able to measure it if you're gonna. If you're gonna get better. You know, maybe it's 1% a day, 14 minutes, 24 seconds or whatever it might be, dedicate that 14, 24 to whatever that you want to get better at, then you can kind of measure that. And you're like, I put in 15 minutes today on whatever I want to get better at. And then maybe you can get to 2, 2%, you know, 28, 48, something like that. But if you can measure it, that that's a really good way to get better. And this could be for sports. It could be for anything. And the biggest thing to understand, if you're on a team, you can't take your practice time and say, okay, I spent two hours at practice because the rest of your team did, too. And the rest of the teams that are in that season are doing that, too. So it's. It's the other stuff, and that's a.

Great point about time, that it's not always more time or more effort. It's, you know, sometimes what you do within those and breaking it down and stacking wins, which are common themes in this podcast, are definitely very important in how you do anything, is how you do everything. And it is a challenge. And it's a challenge that I hope I hold myself accountable for this year in our athletic department, but also something I'm looking forward our coaches and student athletes living by, too. So great discussion on how you do anything is how you do everything.

Yeah. I'm telling you, I'm going crazy on these laundry baskets. It's happening. I'm going to learn how to take things that I don't like to do.

And just batch work.

Yeah, let's get it.

We'll get into that at some point.

Okay. All right, so our last question of the podcast, for those that are still listening out there, it's kind of twofold because I don't know which one I go, but. But it's goofy. But did you have a favorite cereal growing up or a favorite snack like a Hostess or the Brownies or the Star Crunches or the Ho Hos or any of those?

I'll go first on this one. I definitely had a favorite cereal growing up. It was Wheaties, I thought.

Okay.

I thought it, you know, because kind of how they branded it and how they sold it and everything, it was kind of. Yeah, it was going towards the athletes and really had a feeling like this is going to make me a better athlete. So I bought into it, you know.

Wow. I feel I'm not even answering it now. Wow. Excellent marketing by Wheaties. And I don't know what cereal company that is. I have a lot of. I don't have a lot of weed. I do have my share of Wheatie boxes at home that I've shared from our famous teams or athletes on there, but I went more towards sugar cereals instead of the breakfast of champions, you know, like Lucky Charms or Captain Crunch.

Okay.

You know, I heard some pro athletes like combining cereals together to make one. And again, I think the cereal companies out there are doing that more and more.

Do a really nice job on the cereals because they put stuff in the bottom of the box, Right?

Right.

Did you go in and grab it as soon as you opened it, or did you wait till you got to it?

No, I feel like you had to get it out of there, See what it was.

Me too.

No, we going for the toy.

I forgot about that.

All right.

What about you, Derek?

Man, that was two strong questions.

Let's start with cereal.

All right. Start with cereal. When they first came out, it changed my life. The Reese's Puffs.

Oh, okay.

Life changing Reese Puffs.

My cousin has some and he poured me a buck and I'm like, oh, this is crazy. Like, this is good.

Yeah, I like cereal. I don't eat as much now as I did growing up. And we didn't spoil ourselves when we got a sugar cereal, it was like a special treat.

Oh. And when they did the crunch berries by themselves. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I like all the Captain Crunches.

That's a game changer too.

I almost feel like you gotta break it up in the healthy cereal and sugar cereal. I like cinnamon Life, which. Who? The guy on tv. Mikey was the only one got you.

Honey bunches of oats. My favorite healthy cereal. Oh, those are fire.

Not a big raisin brand. You like the raisins in it?

I was forced to eat it, but I ate it.

Okay. I like honey nut. Cheerio. Again, I like cereal. So. So, good one. We'll. We'll keep the snack one for another. Yeah, that's a whole another topic then, so. But again, always good talking to you gentlemen on life, sports and food. So until next time. Go Starz.

Stars on Sports Outro: Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry and Jereny Robinson. You can listen to this episode and other episodes of Stars on Sports on demand at LCCconnect.org to find more information about our athletic program, visit LCCstars.com thanks for listening. Go Stars!