How to "MAKE IT"

"Self discipline is the rejection of instant gratification in favor of something better. It is the giving up of instant pleasure and satisfaction for a good opportunity or reward that is far more important and valuable in the future. It is the ability to go through the rigor of repeating an activity again and again until your skill or competence increases." *

Ok, the above is a great way to understand how we push through and achieve our goals.

And....I have been dying to write this email for a long time about one of our players here at the Iowa Energy. But, amidst winning the divisional title, coaching in the All-Star game, having nine 10-day call ups, the league's MVP, and the league's Rookie of the year, the daily emails had to take a back seat.

But the player I want to talk to you about today is one of our guys who made it, Cartier Martin who played his college ball at Kansas State.

Cartier was our first round draft choice this past year after having a "decent career" at KSU. He started until his senior year where he then came off the bench under a new coaching staff. I did a lot of personal research on him before the draft, talking to several people that both knew him and that he played against in college. They all confirmed the same things about him being a good guy but they all talked about his work ethic as well, which seemed to strike a chord with me with everyone I talked to about him. So, we surprised most people when we chose him with our first overall selection (he was only a mid level salary player).

Anyway, the story goes quickly like this. He is pretty much not on anyone's radar in the NBA. He plays 21 games for us, gets a call up to the Charlotte Bobcats for 10 days. He then makes their team and ends up not only playing for them for the remainder of the season, BUT even starting in the NBA!

How can this be?

Well, I have NEVER seen a player WORK like him......EVER.

I am not talking about coming to practice early and staying late. A lot of our players (in fact most of them) do this. Cartier was on another level. If practice was at 4pm. I would see him down in the gym at NOON. I am talking 4 HOURS BEFORE practice. And he was working and working on all facets of his game. He would be doing two ball dribbling, shooting tons of Free Throws, shooting of course, footwork and even passing drills. Most of the time down there by himself (he even asked me to create a "music" workout for him, which we called C2 and he downloaded the workout to is ipod). My instructions would be something like...... "Go to the right wing, pump fake, take one dribble and pull up......do this for 90 seconds.....ready..GO!" To finish off the workout, I dropped some music in the background that I thought he might like (and would motivate him). It turned out to be a 90 minute workout for him. His first response was....."Coach, I love this, can you make the workout longer for me?"

He was down on the floor every day WORKING. He would go through two sets of practice gear a day because of all the sweat he would work up. He also was a leader. Every practice, every game. One of those guys pushing their teammates. "Let's have a good practice today and we have a big game coming up", were often heard coming from his lips. It is no wonder to me that he got the call and that he struck in the NBA.

One last story before we finish up for today. When Cartier went to Charlotte for his first 10 day contract, on about the 4th day, the team had an 11am practice scheduled for the day. He arrived at the practice facility at 7.30am to find it locked and no one around. A security guard saw him at the door and didn't know who he was, and had to call the coach's to say "who is this guy, claims he is on the team". The coaches said "yes, he's a new guy" and that it was ok to let him in. The coaches asked the security guard to watch and see what he was doing there that early. The report: "hit the weights hard, ran and shot and dribbled the entire morning, absolutely worked his rear end off all morning."

Hall of Fame Coach, Larry Brown fell in love with Cartier right there and then.

Is it any wonder?

It all comes down to discipline and hard work. I really believe that.

What do you believe?

Have a SuperGood day!

Nick Nurse

P.S. - One week to go for EARLY BIRD prices for the Summer Program Camps. We'll show you how to WORK HARD and give you the teaching and drills that you need to improve this summer. Just click on the link for more information. Nick Nurse Basketball Camps

*Taken from the book: The 12 Factors of Business Success: Discover, Develop and Leverage Your Strengths by Kevin Hogan, Dave Lakhani, Mollie Marti