Ryan Maksymchuk

Teacher. Weird Question Asker. Laugh Out Louder. ...and I like buying guitars. He/Him

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

Late in the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, Villanova blew a 10-point lead.

With 4.7 seconds left, UNC hit a 3-pointer to tie the game.

Villanova's head coach, Jay Wright, called a timeout, and as his players walked to the huddle, they were all saying the same word:

“Attitude.”

“It's the most important aspect of our program,” Coach Wright explains in his book titled, Attitude. “We wear 'Attitude' wristbands. And when we break a huddle, we say '1, 2, 3, Attitude.'”

The test of Attitude, Wright taught his players, is:

“Where is your mindset after something bad happens to you?”

Where is your mindset after you blow a 10-point lead? Where is your mindset after your opponent hits a 3 to tie the game with 4.7 seconds left?

“When I looked into the eyes of our players,” Wright writes, “I saw no anger or regret. No one bemoaned [the UNC player's] 'lucky shot,' or that any of our guys had failed to stop him from grabbing the pass that led to that shot, or anything else.”

Instead, “they were all saying, 'Attitude. Attitude. This is what we do. Attitude. This is what we do.'”

With this mindset, the players returned to the court.

Villanova's Kris Jenkins inbounded the ball to Ryan "Arch" Arcidiacono. Arch dribbled up the left side of the court, crossed half court, cut right towards the 3-point arc, where he underhanded a pass to Jenkins, who caught the ball with 1.3 seconds left, and, in perfect rhythm, jumped then released the ball with 0.6 seconds, and hit a buzzer-beater to win the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

Takeaway 1:

A primary indicator of physical fitness is recovery time. If you are doing all-out sprint intervals, for instance—people who are physically fit recover from one interval to the next faster than those who are not physically fit.

“So then, what is mental fitness?” the mental performance coach Greg Harden likes to ask. “Mental fitness is about recovery time,” Harden says.

It's about, as Coach Wright said, where your mindset is after something bad happens to you.

After something bad happens, people who are mentally fit recover faster than those who are not.

Takeaway 2:

Just after Kris Jenkins hit the buzzer-beater, Coach Wright famously barely reacted.

Before his guys went back on the court, he explained, “I processed all the potential scenarios.” Most likely, the game was going to go to overtime where UNC would ride their wave of momentum and win the game.

“No matter the outcome,” Wright continued, “because of the way our players responded after UNC tied the game ["Attitude. Attitude. This is what we do."]—I felt like they had the greatest lesson in life. I felt like that was an accomplishment that would follow them through their lives.”

Ryan Holiday once told me, “You have to get to a place where doing the work is the win and everything else is extra.”

Wright got to that place. He had done the work to instill in his players a mindset, he said, “that they would carry with them for the remainder of their days on earth.”

“In that sense, I knew we had already won.” Everything else was extra.

- - -

“The fact is, none of us control what happens to us in life—but we do control our responses to those circumstances...no matter how tough it gets or how much of a challenge you face in the final 4.7 seconds of a game.” — Jay Wright

Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!

[Ryan Maksymchuk @biggmaxx]

@PTFFC @DaveZ_uk What am I looking at? Thinking the 's' word might be key to my inclusion

[Michael Cennamo @mcennamo]

My daily #SearchForBeauty-10/14/2023
@OddlySatisfyimg
#MC_SearchForBeauty

[Jared Penner @Penner_93]

Beau wanted to write his name in the field, we better use autosteer next time!

[George Stroumboulopoulos 🐺 @strombo]

Cat name: Missus Snitches

[Tansu Yegen @TansuYegen]

In Finland, the "Hobbyhorsing" championship was held – riding an imaginary horse🐴🏇

[The Modest Teacher @ModestTeacher]

Teachers, please remember that while you’re enjoying some downtime this summer, your school custodial staff is working their tails off. Shoutout to all the awesome custodial staff out there!

[Ryan Maksymchuk @biggmaxx]

Just. Like. That. Go Jets Go! #WhiteOut

[The Watchmen @Watchmenmusic]

We’ve lost our #BlueCheckMark, but you’ve come the right place.

[World of Engineering @engineers_feed]

If you folded a piece of paper in half 42 times, it would reach the moon.

If you folded it 103 times, it would be thicker than the observable Universe.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

What if great scientists had logos

[credits: Kapil Bhagat & Prateek Lala: https://t.co/jqwnX92hqQ]

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

This is the 1992 cassette collection of a guy who graduated high school in 1989 and peaked in 1987.

[Ryan Maksymchuk @biggmaxx]

@hockey_samurai Dr. Morris Mott was my 'Canada Since 1534' professor at Brandon University of the fall term in 1989. Likely not the answer, though.

[Ryan Maksymchuk @biggmaxx]

@zku65 I had three rules for when I coached 4-year old soccer...1. Listen to the grown-ups 2. No one goes on any of the nearby streets 3. Try to have fun In hindsight, no real way to address dandelion-picking or random crying. #goodtimes

[CIHR @CIHR_IRSC]

Previously unseen footage of antibodies on their way to fight an infection

[Fixing Education @FixingEducation]

Proof that if you want to remember something, writing it down helps.

[Chris Fore @chriscfore]

Heard a great quote today from an Administrator I work with: “Culture is defined by the worst behavior we tolerate.” I really like that.

[Peter Welle @PeterWelle]

Being a teacher means you sometimes pour your heart and soul into a lesson and later realize you had your fly down all afternoon.

[MB Senior Boys Basketball @MBSeniorBoysBB]

Pizza Place Tournament @basketballmb

Round Robin
Dauphin (4-1) 72, R.D. Parker (Thompson) (1-3) 52

[MB Senior Boys Basketball @MBSeniorBoysBB]

Pizza Place Tournament @basketballmb

Round Robin
Swan Valley (4-3) 62, Hapnot (Flin Flon) (4-4) 55

Westpark Tournament

Round Robin - Round 1
#4-AA Westpark (Portage) (6-1) 79, Dufferin Christian (Carman) (0-2) 64