The Most Important Letter in the Alphabet

What is the most important letter in the alphabet? I would ask my players this
question at our first basketball practice. They would look at me funny, then give
the standard couple answers, U and I. When they would answer I would say why.
They would explain their reason. Then again I would say why. This would really
confuse them. They didn’t understand I wasn’t asking them why, but saying the
most important letter is Y.

When I started coaching I had to approach the job from a rather unique
perspective. I had never been coached myself. I learned the game growing up by
playing in the driveway and watching it on TV. I started out coaching smaller
children so we began with the very basics. Since I was self-taught I had to examine
the things I did to learn the game. Then I could teach them to the players. It was
hard to remember how I learned until I started asking myself why I did certain
things. This forced me to completely deconstruct the game. The important lesson
I learned is that I really don’t grasp something until I understand why. When I
learn why, it leads me to what, how and other important answers.

I later discovered that teaching players why is the key for coaching legends Bill
Belichick-New England Patriots and Geno Auriemma-UConn women’s basketball.
Their players understand their jobs on a deeper level, “why”. That helps them be
more effective at their tasks because they make better adjustments during the
game.

I also learned something else. If I made the players why bigger they would figure out what and how. An example was rebounding. Why is it important to rebound
well? You have to have the ball to score. Too often the other team was
outrebounding us. My solution was to make the why bigger for my players. We
would keep track of rebounds during games. If the other team had more
rebounds than us my players would have to run extra laps in the next practice.
They hated to run. Therefore, they figured out how to apply the skills I taught
them to be better rebounders. Playing well is about execution, applying what you
learned.

This helped me because now when I want to understand something deeply the
first question I ask is why. Asking why takes more time. It gets me to the source. If
it’s something that needs correcting, why will usually get me to a permanent solution. If I don’t get to why, I usually end up treating symptoms of the problem.
Often those will keep reoccurring.

Asking myself why will cause me to examine my motives. Why am I interested in
this? Should I be interested in this? Is this worth my time and energy? Will it get
me what I want? These are valuable questions to me.

Also if I’m lacking motivation I can look at ways to make my why bigger.
Motivation is my key to achievement. If I’m not able increase it, then I move on to
something else instead of being frustrated.

I’m going to keep asking why. It’s by far the most important letter in my alphabet.

May you have enough today, one moment at a time.