Jack Lambert is mean and relentless wherever he goes, on and off the field! I do remember many times he would chase me in practice but no way would I let him catch me.
Practice gotta be harder than the games and it never is unless you want it to be as a player. The coach can't drive that
I usually settle into a routine during the season where I shoot for about 15 or 20 minutes before and after practice, and then do the whole practice.
I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.
In 1948, I began coaching basketball at UCLA. Each hour of practice we worked very hard. Each day we worked very hard. Each week we worked very hard. Each season we worked very hard. Four fourteen years we worked very hard and didn't win a national championship. However, a national championship was won in the fifteenth year. Another in the sixteenth. And eight more in the following ten years.
I wouldn't accept losing as a team, wouldn't accept losing as my team. It's like a war every practice. I think it helped us a lot.
We had a great group of guys when I was there, five of us, I think. It's a great competition. Every practice was hard. I think that's helped us a lot, everybody that was there.
I find it's only when something is trying to come through I really practice. And then, I don't know how many hours. It's all day.
My personal coaching philosophy, my mentality, has always been to make things as difficult as possible for players in practice, however bad we can make them, I make them.
I dedicate myself and work hard in the weight room and treat every practice as if it were a game.
That has never been a priority for me and I want the players to deal with a harder situation in practice than they'll ever have to deal with in the game. Maybe that's part of our ball security philosophy.
Their practice habits are terrific. I've been around some really good guys from different teams in terms of bringing it to practice. When I was in San Francisco, Bryant Young was that way. Every practice on it.
I think that when young players really see their game rise next level, it's when practices are like competition and there's no separation there. Of course, there are adrenaline and the butterflies; you don't have that so much in practice. You want to fake yourself out and try to get them there because you want to be as close to that game mentality as you can when you step on that field every single day whether it's practice or in your backyard or down the street with your dad.
I'm talking about: Are we competing today, every minute, in everything we do in practice. Are we letting loose and daring to be great here and now? And can we sustain that? And repeat it. Trophies are great, but we're trying to win forever.
In football, you're hitting, so you might as well hit in practice.
If I go as hard as I can in practice, make sure it's a lot harder than than a fight, then the fight's going to be easy.
I think generally the Japanese players have more intensity in practice but generally I do the same things.
I practiced two or three hours, sometimes none, sometimes six. It was very varied.
