Ask great questions, get great answers!

D uring a football conference last year I posed the following question to a coach, “Why do you have your athletes lift weights?” After recovering from the shock of being asked an apparently ridiculous question, he replied, “To get stronger.” In just a minute I’ll tell you why this is a weak answer. Then I asked the coach to get his assistant coaches together so I could ask all of them the same question. He did, and I asked them as a group to tell me, on the count of three, why they lifted weights. One, two, three . . . guess what? Every one of these coaches gave me a different answer: “To get better!” “To prepare!” “To win!”

Not only are all these answers as weak as the head coach’s response, but the fact that they all had different responses showed that this coaching staff was not thinking as a team. Before telling you the response I was looking for, consider that the answer to this particular question has the ability to ignite a profound passion in athletes, stimulating a winning attitude and an incredible work ethic. Coaches at any level can use this great question to guide their athletes into responding with a great answer. This is why our BFS clinics are so powerful. We get a great answer.

To prepare your athletes to answer this question, you must first have them decide on a unanimous, unified team goal that is well thought out. They must feel passionate about this goal and believe in it. The team may have additional goals, but you need one big one. It must permeate everything, and it must be specific. One example of such a goal is winning a regional or state championship.

OK, now you’re ready for the answer to the question “Why do you lift weights?” Here it is: “To win the state championship!” (or another specific, major goal). Now answer these questions: Why do you stretch, run speed drills, come to practice, go to class, or go to class on time? The answer should always be the same: To win the state championship!” On a scale of 1 to 10, how hard are you willing to work to make such a goal happen? In my experience, athletes and coaches generally give an answer that is somewhere between 8 and 10. The majority answer “10” unless they have heard of our Be An Eleven program. If so, then they answer “11.” But what does that mean? Most do not really know. OK.

Sit up straight in a chair. Now, raise both hands high in the air. Are you doing it? Try to reach one inch higher. I bet you can do it. Now get another eighth of an inch. I bet you can do that too. You see, even though you were told to reach high, you could have done more and then even more. That is what being a true Eleven is all about. If you are a coach, have your athletes go through this simple experience together. What would happen if every athlete said the following with great passion and meant every word of it right down to the core of their soul? Everything we do, we do at an Eleven pace. We do this because every one of us wants more than anything “To win the state championship!”

Now that’s a great answer! September/October 2004

From BFS Magazine — September/October 2004. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).