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. 25 national championship wins! Over 190 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, Dadalion Lowry. And gentlemen, I'd like to start where we left off from our last conversation. And our last podcast was about Dan Campbell and going forward on fourth down. Daedalian, You and I were in a leadership training last week and Dan Campbell was, you know, actually came up a number of times more than Ted Lasso, actually. So I was a little disappointed about that. I mean, come on.

Ted was also brought up.

He was, he was and he should be because again, a lot of leadership lessons from Ted. But in our last podcast, we focused on how Dan Campbell normalized going forward on fourth down. And you know, in our leadership training, it was talking about authenticity and how authentic he is as a coach. But you know what I thought I didn't do? Well last recording was show how he does that. I mean, what his practices look like. And you know, because my point was, I mean, when they go for it on fourth down, it looks like another play for them. They look pretty relaxed, they look confident, they look like they've done it every day in practice and if they don't get it, they move on. Where in the past it used to be like, man, if you don't get it, you know, the game's over and there are times it could be so I believe, and I don't know, I'm not at the Lions practices every day, but they treat every rep like it's a game winning situation and that helps them not flinch when the real one comes around. And I think that's important. And you know, coach, I'm going to rely on your expertise a lot. But that's easier said than done to try and treat every rep in practice like it's a game winner or even, you know, having those standards in practice. But it is about that. And it's even more than that. It's about the mindset, you know, because we've seen many athletes you know, thrive under pressure and athletes fold under pressure. And those are defining moments in people's careers. And you know, Michael Jordan said it best. He probably missed more game winner than he made. But we're celebrating the many that he did make. So I hope as we talk about Dan Campbell again, that part of it, not just going forward on fourth down, but that mindset in pressure situations. And it is training, teaching them how to handle that situation. When I played basketball, I actually liked crowd noise because it made me focus. It made me concentrate when the gym was quiet. That's when I got nervous, like, you know what's going on. And I think that's a perfect example of handling mindset. And you know, we go into issues. Can you cheer during free throws? Should you cheer during free throw? Should you cheer during a volleyball serve? I actually think it helps people if they've trained properly to focus better and perform better under pressure. So what do you think, coach? I mean, a lot of different angle there.

Yeah, I mean, that was a whole thing. One thing that we're teaching is how important it is to be the hardest worker when nobody's watching. If that can be your standard. Because what the typical standard is is you tend to touch the lines, you tend to work a little bit harder when a coach or people are in the stands or whatever, there's people watching. But if you can flip that and you can be the hardest worker when nobody's watching, then when there are people there, that somewhat takes care of itself. Or there is a championship on the line, or it's a. It's the fourth quarter, it's the final minute, that stuff will take care of itself because you've built the confidence, you don't need the applause, nobody's clapping for you, nobody's watching you, but you're working extremely hard at that point. It takes care of itself.

I agree, because that's training. If you're out working, you're in shape. And I also believe that if you're working hard, you're not as tired physically or mentally that you can focus better. In reality, most game situations are at the end of the game of defining the career, that having that work ethic, having that focus, having that resiliency helps you. Because to my point is that mindset at the end of the game and changing it around that you're nervous or you're afraid and even that game winning field goal or something, it's getting to the basics. And I want to talk about some of those basics, which again, you're really familiar is and it starts with controlling the controllable. You can't control the crowd, you can't control the external factors, but you can control your breathing, your body language, the routine, to your point of practicing every day when no one's watching, that that prepares you better than anything for. Because you don't know when that situation could arise. And for some it never arises. And for others, you know, probably some of the better players that you want, the ball or field goal kickers, you mean, you know, they don't get paid. I get paid well in the NFL, but not position speaking. But they can win or lose a game at the end. So they know that goalies in soccer, in hockey, so that approach to practice I think does hit home. Being the hardest worker helps you physically and mentally be ready for when those pressure moments take place again. Another thing I know your team does really well is the mental part of it. And in researching this, you know, changing that mindset from I'm nervous to I'm ready, I'm prepared for this, you know, and it goes with routines, it goes with breathing, visualization, self talk and, and, but really your training, you know, back to your point of doing everything, especially when no one's watching because a lot of times in practice no one is watching. And you know, how do you handle yourself? You know, like I can agree, I was a cross country runner. So he, our coach would say, go out and run three miles. There were some days we took shortcuts, you know, that we ran two and a half, we cut through the cemetery, you know, and that's going to impact us down the line. You know, for the most part we didn't. And we had a successful. It starts with leadership, starts with, you know, the team leaders of them helping control those things.

And then ultimately yourself because, you know, you're cutting the corner or whatever. So ultimately it just comes back to you and making those decisions.

Yeah, and it does start with yourself because in the end that's who, you know, got to perform when it matters. And how have you done it? And the more disciplined you are, the better chances you will be successful. And in those moments. So when we were talking about Dan Campbell last week and they used authenticity, I think of innovator because of this, you know, and again, this mindset hasn't changed. I mean, we can think of, you know, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, you know, Serena Williams, Tom Brady, you know, just pro athletes, we think of that, you know, stepped up in game time situations or even, you know, I was reading for this, an example, Naomi Osaka, who Was a tennis. Was a tennis player and came back from match point in the US Open. You know, just, you know, like even in volleyball, like when it's 24, 23 and you're on the losing side, that next point is the end of the game. What about those other 20 points that get there? How are you. You know, the good teams handle it like any other point and the nervous teams, they get tense and pressure that, you know, this point could cost us the game. So again, to your point, it is physical, but I know also you do a lot of mental things in pract and in your case the mental part is more applicable to everything, not just game winning situations. Correct. Do you do anything with game winning situations like bottom of the ninth stuff or the more just doing one thing. And it applies to all.

We try to encompass everything, whether it's game winning situations that are positive or negative. And it starts at the beginning of practice. But there's a paradox with the confidence and mindset and stuff. And that paradox really feeds into the fake it until you can make it. If you can start working on confidence and mindset, even though you're not quite there, it helps you build it really quickly.

Yeah. And again, I think that is part of the training is doing it action. Yeah, but it's still, there's still training there and I think we lose focus of that sometime. That again, we emphasize the game winning situation, but it's all that training that applies to every play before that event. Like my point was with volleyball, we're focused on the 24, 23 thing, but it really should be treated at the same. If it was 14, 13. And I think that's where Dan Campbell had done well in making fourth down like any other play in the game.

Which also ties into the mental side of it, which then goes back to how the team looks when they're going for it. And it's the ability to teach and learn how to respond versus reacting to things. And that's. That's a mental piece and that's a huge tool. And you're seeing a Lions team. We're talking about the Detroit Lions and Dan Campbell incredibly a lot here. But that being said, they're responding. They're not reacting to, oh my gosh, this is a big fourth down situation. You know, if we fail here, this is going to be a really big deal. They're just responding and they're responding based off of what they do in practice and what the expectation levels are. And, and so they're, they're not a reactive thing. And for all of us, whether we're driving in our cars or anything else, the more we can work on just responding versus reacting to every little thing that happens. We are going to end up in a much more productive space for ourselves. A much happier space. And then if you're in the sports world, you're going to end up in a you're going to see more wins on the scoreboard.

The Dallian if you were paying attention in leadership respond versus react with another big part of our leadership training last week and I think very important. But yes. And again neither one of us maybe you're a Lions fan but we are spending Lions but it's just because he intrigues me because of this situation and these situations are defining in sports and in leadership. But you know we talk about like you said, responding versus reacting or the mental approach to that play but I've seen teams that did panic and threw the ball away and plus it's your opponent's job back to controlling the controllables or you know, people call timeout the ice kickers or people blitz to try and like disrupt that preparation.

It works. Sometimes it does work.

I mean I've seen a lot of defenses, you know that try to make the beat up the play.

Hey, don't miss this shot. You know, just you see people talking to people shooting free throws.

Yep.

People no pressure here.

Yep. Yeah. Right. Well there is a lot of pressure but you got to change that mindset. And again that's where again visualizing self talk focus.

It starts all before those moments.

Right. And but it is mindset and mindset as you you know believe can a strength and something that it's like a muscle that can can be built the problem and again why I keep going back this it's hard to replicate in practice, you know the game winning situation that really define or the fourth down play because it just doesn't mean as much in practice where you know in the game it does but practice is where that preparation becomes then preparation is so important in these situations and I think you know we're focusing on that fourth down play but today I wanted to focus on all the things that go into making that normal. And it does start in practice. And again I would love to watch a Dan Campbell practice and I have seen clips and such but because it's a balance too because you know you have a sequence of events for a week of practice that usually the day before games are less intense or you know, quarterback don't get hit in practice.

That's the hard part about it, because, like, if you watch. If you're. You're really enjoy watching sports and you watch like an incredible game or a match or whatever it might be, and it's back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and you're kind of on the edge of your seat as the clock's ticking down. Once that's over, you're a little bit emotionally mentally exhausted just from being, you know, the ups and downs. And so imagine having a practice where you're working on all this and you've got those levels way up there. You couldn't sustain that. That's not sustainable on a daily basis. And so that's a part of the reason why it's really hard to be able to mimic that in practice.

And I agree. I think it'd wear you out or you would lose confidence or just a lot of different variables. But there is a fine line of you got to practice it and you have to do it. And finding that balance and working on it, though, in practice is important because, again, in the grand scheme of things, it's not really a unique or special formula. It's another play at the last point. There were 40 points before that. But, you know, it is repetition, confidence, and preparation, and the more you train for it, the more you do it. But there's also that, the mental part of practicing that. And I'm not. And I don't know if the lion do that. I mean. I mean, mental performance as, again, you're certified and, you know, very well qualified in that.

I think they're probably getting complacent. I think they're like five and three right now, so.

Yeah, but, you know, is that because of this or because of other things? And then probably a combination and I mean, but there's still, you know, even if, you know, the thing back to your point of practicing hard every day, back to Dan Campbell being authentic, I think they do go hard. And I, you know, I've had that experience. You know, I had a coach and we might have talked about them before that he was the hardest worker I know, and he had. His teams were the hardest workers that. And that was our strength. And he made our program more successful than it's ever been in its history. But we didn't have much success in the playoffs, and some of us believe is because they were tired, they were wore out, they were injured, they were banged up. And, you know, that's one of the things where I took strength to the extreme, became a weakness. And I wonder if the Lions experience some of that because it doesn't seem like Dan Campbell lets up. He seems to go all out all the time. But the nice thing at that level is they have the resources, they have staff. You know, even when I think of mental performance, he might not be implementing, but I'm sure they have a mental performance coach somewhere in that system. But for the rest of us, and I think this is so important in sport and teaching it and training it and dealing with it, that helping kids succeed in it, you need to do those things in practice, you need to help them prepare for it. And I don't know if we do that enough. And the great ones, I mean, I'm not sure they did it enough, but they did it, you know, so, you know, so I wanted to talk about how Dan Campbell does go for it. But the behind the scenes of going for it and what we see on that fourth down play in football, there's so much behind the scenes.

There's a process.

Process, yes. And again, that process is just real quickly just controlling the controllables between breathing, visualization, self talk and trusting your training. And again, I don't know if we cover those enough. And I know that's where I think it's beneficial. A lot of our teams on here at LCC have one week session of leadership and you implement that since you've been here and other teams have done it. And this is where you can cover some of that and practice some of that. Because again, you can also do it after the practice repetition. And then you know, we have coaches that do well, that bring people in together and go over that. But I think it needs to be an emphasis and a point. And I think the good teams find time outside of practice and covering it and dealing with this and practice it because practice, you practice the play, you practice the free throw, you practice the field goal, you practice the serve. At any point, you practice the last hundred meters in a cross country meet where you're running neck and neck with that person. And again, it's having that drive. So the Daedalian, we kind of left you out today. Are there any thoughts or think?

I mean, not particularly. I mean, you guys just make me feel like I need to practice more. I can tell you that I am not the greatest at high pressure situations when it comes to sports. I, I will often choke when I do not want to. And a lot of it is self talk. You know, I get myself in a mode of come on, this one counts. The one thing that I have gotten better about though is response versus reaction and I noticed a point last night because it was bowling last night where I kind of got mad at myself because I threw a gutter. And it was one of those things where I had to brush it off and go, you know what, that's okay. It's, you know, mistake. Go to the next one. And I managed to like get a spare, a ten pin spare. And it was just kind of funny that I used to get much more frustrated with myself when I would perform poorly at bowling. But I'm noticing like not every game's good, but I just don't beat myself up as much about it.

People don't throw perfect three hundreds all the time because it's hard.

Oh yeah, it is.

You know, one way of solving that gutter is putting a bumper up high bowl.

But I'm pretty sure there's a regulation.

There for the league rules, so. But a couple good points. The dalian so I'm glad that you did chime in is the one you feel like you have to practice more and I agree with you. But I would also argue it's intentional practice and practicing these things. Not necessarily more repetition, but more repetitions and doing this. And the second thing you bring up is I think a lot of people feel this way that when we just sit here and talk about it, we don't probably feel like we do well in those situations. And maybe that's where ego comes in and we'll talk about ego in a future podcast of having that confidence or having previous success in doing that. You know, and you know, even within my kids sports, you know, some, you know, have hit game winning shots or caught game winning catches and it was one time they weren't in that situation a lot. But I wonder how they feel by if just doing it one time prepares you. I'm not sure it does. I think it has to be more than that. But it starts with the bricks of one time of having that success and free throws too. So yeah, I mean, but it also applies just more like I'm talking sports and bowling is a sport, so we're talking that too. But you know, these things also apply when you're giving a speech or in a job interview or you know, the other pressure situations in life that where sports help you. You know, I was watching news show on and the guy said sports got me out of my funk from the lesson that I learned in doing sports and he was a runner. So yeah, so I think those do hit home about practicing more, but not just more of the fundamental skills, but also, you know, all the, you know, consistency and, you know, the mental part of the situation. So because in low lane, there's twofolds of it. One is winning against the other team, but also if you got a 300 game going in those last couple frames, you know, you're bowling a perfect game, but you're nervous, you know, and you gotta break it down back to the principles of just focus, self talk, you know, don't think about the 300 game. Think about that next, what you've done to. For that next frame.

Certainly, certainly a little twist of irony for you there is that we're nowhere near the top of the game this year.

Then we're moving.

And there was a point where I'd said to one of my teammates, I was like, well, we don't need any strikes. Don't bother, you know, just basically tell him, have fun, enjoy. And he managed to get five strikes right after I said that.

That's a paradox, by the way.

It is, it is. And having fun, relaxing, it's an effort paradox.

So at some point we'll probably talk about those two.

We should. Because a good one is, you know, sometimes we get caught up and we're forcing it instead of just playing and letting our. I think that happens in golf more than anything. You get over there and think of so many things instead of just go up and hit the ball and rely on your training up to that point.

It was definitely one of the things that went through my brain when you were talking about high pressure situations and people distractions, things like that. I can tell you that some of my best games, unfortunately are usually when I'm just out playing all by myself. And a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm not really there doing anything other than really trying to practice the game. And I just do very well. And I'm always afraid that's going to be the one time I get the hole in one, because then it won't count because nobody's there to see it.

But I think that sums it up in a nutshell. And that's what Dan Campbell had done with fourth downs is just go out there and do. It's not fourth down. And I think we forget that sometimes. Just go out there and have fun. Just go out there and let your training be your performance. Not thinking of all the things that go into what will happen. Again, very similar to respond versus react and ERO, all those things in a nutshell. So well done in summarizing anything else, Dan. All right, so two different ways to Go today on our food. Question one is and dadaly, you had this idea, and we can wait on if this is why, but we're getting close to the holiday season that normally you have a dish to bring that, you know, like, you know, like if you're going to a family event, every, every family has. Like in our family, one daughter always brings this, one daughter always brings this. So that could be our question. Or we can hold off to that. And the second one would be hard shell or soft shell taco?

Soft shell.

Really?

Yes. Not even close. As long as the shell's warm.

Wow. The dahlia. Now, I gotta know if you side with him or not. You usually side with him.

Interestingly enough, I do not this time. And what's also interesting is I was soft shell, I think probably since my 20s, and then it's just recently all of a sudden I became a hard shell guy. Even better than that, though, is a corn tortilla that's slightly crisp, so it's almost soft, but not quite. You know what I'm talking about.

There's a lot of variation.

Best of both worlds.

Some have the hard. Yeah, like a crunch wrap taco I think is like a hard shell on the outside and a soft shell.

And where do you fall on the shell scale?

I'm kind of with you. I love tacos, so I will harder soft shell are. And my wife makes like, she makes them like, she put them in oil and makes them crispy so they become hard shells. And they're. But they're like the soft shell material. They're excellent. I'm hard shell now. I probably used to be soft shell, but I kind of like the crunch now and even the Dorito flavored one.

Well, and that's where I was going to go next as a Dorito fan. Because you like Doritos? You like Doritos? Have you tried them? Do you like them?

Never tried them.

Okay. You haven't tried it yet?

No.

I don't know that it's as good as Doritos themselves.

No, but it's a nice little touch. It's hard to taste with the spicy meat and all the toppings on it. But I like the Dorito tacos. I like a chalupa myself. That's kind of that, you know, harder soft shell.

Now, have you done the hard shell with the soft shell wrap?

I have. I mean, I've tried everything, you know. You know, so there are a lot of cool variations. I love tacos, but. But I kind of like the crunch of a hard shell. Taco.

That's fair. That's my choice.

Do you prefer will you eat a hard shell or is it just too messy or you just prefer soft shell?

I would eat a soft shell preference thing.

Okay, well, good stuff. That went. A little more detail and we'll think on the back of your mind your go to DISH or the holiday season for our next one. But until then, go Stars.

Stars on Sports Outro: Stars on Sports is recorded live at the WLNZ studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry. 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!