In this session, Coach Jackson discusses his background with visualization and how he used it with his teams over the years. Visualization is a powerful tool in sports, backed by extensive research on its neurological, psychological, and performance benefits. By incorporating vivid, goal-oriented, and emotionally engaging imagery into their routines, athletes can enhance their physical and mental preparation, ultimately improving performance. Its effectiveness is maximized when combined with physical practice, tailored guidance, and consistent repetition.

1.        Coach Jackson’s first experiences with visualization. His mom took a friend into his room: “Watch this child, I don’t know what this child does as a three year old”…She said, ‘it looked like you were catching balls, going through those motions.’ Probably there was something to that. There was some imagery going on in my brain as a child.”

2.        “One of our issues as human beings is that we’re moving on to next instead of living with now. So, living in the now is really the ideal…However, visualization has a purpose when goals are to be attained and things have to be planned, visualization becomes practical at that point.”

3.        Using visualization as a fifth grader in Great Falls, Montana. And later as a pitcher in baseball. “You imagine what it’s going to be like…It became part of my prep.”

4.        Using downtime for visualization.

5.        Coach Jackson’s brother using hypnosis on him to get him ready for pitching in high school after an injury. “I went out and had a two hitter…It was another event that led into the idea that the mind is a big participant in the athletic experience.”

6.        Tex Winter using visualization. What did he visualize? “How I would approach coaching opponents. The other team and what they liked to do. And were we prepared? And what were the necessary actions or reactions we had to have to their strengths.” 

7.        Pairing video with visualization. Show video and then tell the team: “This is the thing that we bring you as preparation for this game. Here’s their attitude. This is what they do. These are the four things that they hang their hat on. After this film session, I want you to repeat what you see in visualization. Take it back to your room and when you lay down or are getting ready for the game, or whatever your process is, bring this back and think about the images that we showed you in the video and use it as an illustration of what we’re trying to do.”

8.        The learning curve. Developing muscle memory – neurons and synapses in the brain. 

9.        A game against San Antonio in the playoffs, when things were tough. “I kept saying, ‘We’re going to win this game. You just have to imagine that we’re going to win. How we’re going to do it, we don’t know yet. But you have to hold onto that’…(Derek Fischer hit a winning shot at the buzzer)… It was more than anything, the belief and the imagination that we were going to do this regardless. And it kind of all just fell into place. I think that’s sometimes the image that you need to put into an athlete or a team’s head. ‘We’re going to find a way to win this, regardless.’ You have to see beyond whatever the plan is to make it happen. You have to have a flexible mind…It’s something beyond imagination.”

10.  Bringing other senses into practice. Touch. Sioux and the “counting coup.” Example with Pat Riley. “That feeling or touch or using physical presence is beyond the mental.”

11.  Visualizing both success and failure. Gaining perspective and context.

12.  Visualizing what is about to happen. Bulls vs. Jazz in game 6. Talking to MJ. “You know exactly what their go-to play is ... (we will get the steal vs Malone)…”

13.  “We all knew in our mind’s eye what it looked like for our opponent to do what they do.”

14.  “What you’ve been doing is dropping your hand because you’re tired.” On the winning shot, MJ held his hand high. “That was something that was just already an image.”

15.  Visualizing individually. Having a conversation with a competitive skier. 

16.  Is visualizing still a part of Coach’s routine? Yes. “One of our problems as human beings is that we’re not involved in the current moment of totally doing the task that we’re doing. And, so, as a consequence, we’re moving on to the next task…And that’s part of human nature. I think one of the things that meditation does is it puts you in the moment doing the task you’re doing fully. So, next has to take a backseat until it’s useful. Until you need to actually be prepping or planning for what your activity is going to be…To always be moving on to the next task means you don’t complete the task you’re doing. And that’s the thing that’s really important, is that you fully engage in the task that you’re doing. So that you’re completing it with nothing left undone…You need to complete the task that you’re doing fully.”

17.  Visualizing the drive from Montana to California. “Anticipating what it will be like even though I’m not there. Anticipating, What’s the situation going to be like? What’s the traffic going to be like? How am I going to get through the day?”

18.  Metacognition and visualization – how do they interact?

19.  Differences in visualizing as a player and a coach. As a coach, “It’s all about them…it’s a broader reach than just the individual…The team has to have confidence that you are looking after their whole as a coach. Your visualization of the opponent is their eyes…And then I think they become trusting and you become trustworthy.”

20.  How far ahead to you visualize? “I used to do two weeks…There’s a goal and there’s a timeframe.”

21.  Differences in visualizing between individual and team sports. Uncontrollables in team sports. When a teammate doesn’t hold up their end. “There’s always going to be people who really care and others who are just participating…If you can bring them in, great. But if they choose to stay outside the group or without commitment – and commitment’s a big thing – then you’ve got to allow them to be who they want to be. Maybe they have to go. That’s one of the keys as a coach, you have to get them involved. And if they can’t quite commit all the way, they can be forgiven. That’s their nature.”

22.  “Really good player, great players, think that they can do it alone. Their star is the brightest. And to have them share the limelight or burden of winning is sometimes harder than you think. Because they’re so used to doing it on their own or by themselves…To be able to give up some of that for the group…I think it’s really important for exceptional players to have the common touch. To be able to understand that, ‘This guy doesn’t have the same amount of talent. This person doesn’t have the same gifts that I’ve been given. I’m going to share. I’m going to share it with them. I’m going to encourage them to step up.’ One of the things that my coach always said was, ‘A star always makes his teammates better.’” (Telling MJ this.) “That really kind of struck home and it set up a relationship that I had with Michael that ended up being a really positive thing…He was willing to allow his teammates…to be behind his effort, his leadership.”

Making wise decisions is at the heart of leadership. Coaches are faced with a constant barrage of decisions to be made, from the small ones of little consequence to the foundational decisions that shape our futures. Consider just a small sample of the many decisions we must make: Should I be a coach? Which job should I take? Who can I trust? What system should I run? Which players should I select? What play should we run? How can I solve this conflict? How long should we practice? What should I say to the team? How can we respond? This week we examine how we can become wise decision makers. 

1.     Research on decisiveness. Decisiveness is tied to: 

We’ve studied many aspects of coaching including having a system, running practice, and forming team identity. Much of what we’ve learned addresses the broad notion of preparing teams to compete. Today’s topic will build upon these and other topics we’ve discussed to engage several specific aspects of “leading on game day.”

1.        Coach Jackson’s favorite routes in driving thought the Midwest and western US states.

2.        Organizing game day so that the players would have mornings of instruction and activity.

3.        Game day meetings with coaching staff. Identifying priorities and roles for coaches in communicating the plan with the team.

4.        Shootarounds. Basic drills. Activating the body.

5.        Mike D’Antonio focusing on offense. 

6.        Coaching in the CBA: “We had no scouting system. We had no film… It was pretty sight unseen. Most of it was just reaction.”

7.        The heartbeat: “I would send a rookie out with a drum…’Get them in here with a beat.’” 

8.        Gameday meditation. From five to ten minutes. Changes throughout the season. “If it was early season, it might be that guys were new to this process so we might be talking about the body, relaxing from your breath down through the feet. A talking meditation. Or it might be in the playoffs or later in the depth of the season, we would just sit. We would just have meditation space. I called it breathing together. One breath, one mind. That was how we tried to sync guys up together.”

9.        “At some point in that team meeting, I would ask a player, what do you think is important in this game? ‘What do you think the focus should be?’ And sometimes it would be a reserve player so it wasn’t a hierarchy. Someone who was observant.”

10.  “’Let’s talk about your perspective, how you feel about how they guarded you the last time. Or what your force is going to be this time around. What are your thoughts?’ So we would be in synch.”

11.   Working on specials in the last minutes of the shootaround.

12.   Pregame speeches. Limited effects. Focuses: information and emotion.

13.  “It’s overrated, the ‘Gipper’ speech…There are times when you need to pull something special out, but for the most part it’s just telling them to get into the game fully.”

14.  Dennis Rodman’s pregame routines. Arriving an hour before the game. Video, weights, shower. Not on the court until that final moments before the game.

15.  Sending assistant coaches out in pregame to make sure everything was going right in warmups.

16.  Albert Mehrabian rule: “7% words, 38% tone of voice, 55% body language” 

17.  Why Coach developed his whistling skills and used hand signals. “You really have to be able to communicate with your team when you’re coaching.”

18.  Codes for communication.

19.  “I think the voice is resilient and authoritative. I think it’s really important for the coach to have a strong voice.”

20.  “There’s a locker room voice that is commanding, yet assuring. It’s instructive.”

21.  The Horace Grant example – and how the move toward positive coaching is more effective in today’s game. Positive Coaching Alliance.

22.  Timeouts. Getting players composed. “I want you to find the rooted nature. Something that you know that gives you solace. And you can go to the bench and think of that space for ten seconds.”

23.  Examples of the rooted nature. Where you were nurtured.

24.  Others who were not in the game could encourage teammates while planning was going on. Then the coaches would come back in with the plan.

25.  Sitting vs. standing in timeouts. “They relax too much sometimes when sitting.”

26.  Communicating with the team during crunch time of a game: Research on best strategies for leading during critical/high pressure times include:

-use brief, clear commands

-control body language and tone (players look to coach as model in these times)

-activate leadership within the team (tie into a player-leader during time-out, etc)

-emphasize the next play and focus on the process

-encourage deep breaths

-reinforce trust and confidence in the team and system

-acknowledge the pressure …and frame it as a challenge that we’re ready for

27. Red Holzman during crunch time. Defensive berating… then, “What do you guys what to run? What do you think will work?” “He left it entirely up to us…That was a real eye opener for me. I enjoyed that a lot.”

28. “Michael Jordan was such a great finisher and so was Kobe Bryant. A lot of that was part of the success I had as a coach.”

29. “I think the breath is really important. Take a deep breath and relax. We’re going to go into this. We’re going to be successful. Just be alert and react.”

30. After the game in the locker room. “Temperament is one of the things you have to watch for… Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. You need to find that balance.”

31. The Lord’s Prayer after the game for calming down.

32. After leaving the arena on game day. “I used to take a few minutes by myself.”

33. Coach Jackson and Coach Winter continuing to focus on their video analysis even as the plane seemed to be going down. 

34. Communicating during the flow of the game with players, including a player who repeatedly made mistakes and was berated by others: “I’ll be looking at you. And you look at me. And then we won’t have to communicate about it anymore. Just know that ‘I made a mistake and that’s something we talked about. And we will move on from there.’”

35. “Sometimes stopping the activity and getting your players to reset is important. And you have to think of creative ways to do that.”

36. Accounting for different players’ pregame rituals. “It’s great to let them have that.”

37. Ensuring that your teams don’t start slow. “Something physical is good to do…Something that gets them back into their body. Because sometimes we get too into our heads. We’ve got a lot of information and we’re up here thinking about disseminating it and trying to get it all together, but you need to get back into your body.”

Dennis Scanlon is a Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Administration and a Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) at Penn State University. In addition to his renowned career as a researcher and teacher, he’s served in a critical leadership capacity at conference and campus levels as the Big Ten leads the way in a new era of college athletics.

1.        Dennis’ experience as a student-athlete at Villanova. I looked at the professors and thought, ‘this could be a cool job!’”

2.        What is a Faculty Athletics Representative? How did Dennis become one?

3.        Dennis’ regular FAR routines at Penn State. Active engagement in most dimensions of athletics endeavors, including academic eligibility, health and wellbeing, and admissions.

4.        How Dennis’ research and teaching agenda provides interesting perspectives into college athletics in the modern era. Legal issues, policy issues, economics issues.  

5.        Some areas of uncertainty currently in college sports: Title IX, Labor law, collective bargaining.

6.        The importance of higher education leadership. Keeping the primary mission of the university centered.

7.        Challenges presented by frequent turnover in leadership positions on campuses. Institutional history. The “tragedy of the commons.”

8.        How his experiences as an athlete, coach, and parent of Division 1 athletes have contributed to his perspectives on college sports. “What we’re doing at the Division 1 level trickles down to these other levels.”

Omar Brown is the Senior Vice President of Community and Impact at the Big Ten Conference. He has a rich history of leadership with and beyond the conference. In his current role, Omar leads the way with student-athlete experiences and with community engagement.

1.        Two big parts of Omar’s job: 1) Student-athlete experience. 2) Community work.

2.        Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Two SAAC meetings per year.

3.        CBS Championship games initiative.

4.        Big Life Series to Selma and a farm in Iowa.

5.        Reading week.

6.        Community work. In conjunction with big events. Renovating rec centers. Tours of campuses. Supporting teachers in Indianapolis. Renovating school in Indy.

7.        Adopted local school as “junior journalists.”

8.        What is the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) on each campus. Each team has one or two reps. Each campus has a small executive committee to lead their campus. Two of these individuals are chosen to represent their school at the Big Ten.

9.        Why are there typically not as many football or basketball players on SAAC?

10.  SAAC at Big Ten talks about college sports issues and brings it back to their own campuses.

11.  Variance in SAAC across the conference.

12.  The richness of student-athlete resources provided by Big Ten athletic departments.

13.  Why making campus visits is important to Omar. 

14.  Big Life Series. How and why did it come about?

15.  The Selma Big Life experience. Badgers in Selma. 

16.  The Iowa Big Life experience. 

17.  Marcus Carpenter.

18.  Future Big Life Series experience possibilities.

19.  Why community engagement around big events? “How can we make their community better?” Focus on local community residents.

20.  Omar’s regular routines. Why we wanted to get on campuses. “You really build the relationships there.”

21.  A job in Omar’s past: Organizational Transformation Consultant at Deloitte. Figuring our influential and impactful stakeholders.

22.  Leaders that Omar admired and why. Kevin Warren (preparation, presentation, perception, calmness). Tony Petitti (getting things done, avoiding “scope creep,” authenticity).

23.   “Anyone can work in sports.” Interconnectivity in college sports.

Katie Ahrens Smith is the Vice President of Policy and Compliance at the Big Ten Conference. She’s got a rich history of campus level leadership and offers a unique perspective on different leadership roles and on the interaction between institutions and the conference office. 

1.        Why Katie entered athletic administration.

2.        What is the Senior Woman Administrator in an athletic department? Variance by institution.

3.        What does a campus-level sport administrator do?

4.        How does a campus-level sport administrator interact with the conference office? 

5.        Olympic sport oversight committee at the conference.

6.        Ways that Katie is growing in the conference office role. Situational leadership.

7.        Impacts of the growth of volleyball on the game, the experience of the student-athletes – and the leadership work surrounding it all.

8.        The impacts of the Big Ten Network on a new generation of athletes.

9.        What is the policy and compliance team at the conference doing amid an era of rapid change in the college sports world.

10.  Katie’s keys for communication. Be accurate. Prepare. Listen.

A key charge for coaches is bringing their teams together to form a collective identity. Team identity formation is a complex process that can shape the group’s journey in profound ways. In this session, Coach Jackson offers some insights on team identity formation.

1.        What is worth noting early in an NBA season.

2.        Setting the tone for a new season: Speaking with the team about pressure.

3.        Visualizing the new season ahead. What did Coach Jackson visualize? Pre-mortems. “How do we incorporate new people into the system? We start with their habits. How to build skill sets…Doing that goes through some basic drills to get your body in shape.”

4.        What intangibles do you look for in getting the individuals you want for your system? Looking at how individuals handle mistakes. “We used to watch players’ demeanors on the floor.”

5.        Dennis Rodman’s impact upon team identity: “He was going to extend the effort.”

6.        Off-seasons can create individuals who are isolated or even egotistical. “As a coach, you want to get that taken care of. To make them part of the group.”

7.        Functional diversity. Valuing different roles on the team.

8.        The “dark night of the soul.” Leading teams through difficult times.

9.        A team bonding through its punishment by the coach.

10.  Building incremental evidence of a team’s identity.

11.  Punctuated equilibrium. Rapid and radical identity change of a group.

12.  Group identity formation being impacted by the competition. “It’s a standard that your group has to live up to.”

13.  Responding to the Pistons’ intimidation attempts. “We’re standing our ground. We’re not going to be intimidated by you. But we’re not going to make a big issue out of it … We’re peaceful Warriors. We’re going to contest you and resist you. But we’re not going to stand up and get in a brawl. That’s not necessary… Those are little things that you see as a coach that you’ve got to have some resolve and some ideas about how you want to present yourself as a team.”

14.  Identifying the “essence” of our opponents and ourselves. Pressure as a key construct in one’s essence. Talking to players, “How do you feel about pressure?” The coach has to be able to discuss this. A team must be able to “join together to collaborate under duress to be successful.”

15.  Being able to sell what you’re going to teach.

16.  The coach as “horse rider” metaphor. Understanding the student and how they best learn.

17.  John Wooden: “My coaching was done in practice.” Players led the way during games because they’d been coached.

18.  What did Coach ask prospective players? “How do you see yourself fitting in with our group?” This question gets perspective on the player and how they understand the team.

19.  Meditation routine with teams. Body check. Breathing. “One breath, one mind.”

20.  Understanding teams deeply in order to get through difficult times.

A.J. Edds is the Vice President of Football Administration at the Big Ten Conference. He plays a central role in guiding the sport throughout the year – including communicating with internal conference colleagues as well as coaches and administrators at each institution.

1. Coaches who AJ admired over the years. Rick Wimmer (at Greenwood High School). Kirk Ferentz (at Iowa).

2. “We exist to serve our members.” Officiating, internal operations, scheduling, championship administration, media, fairness, etc.

3. A.J.’s roles in shepherding football in the conference. The importance of communication.

4. Communicating with football coaches and helping them work together productively. “Off-line consensus-building.”

5. Working with coaches: “I’m a better employee because of the expectations of the guys.”

6. Getting to know each of the coaches as people in order to best collaborate with them.

7. Technology changing the work. Replay center. IPads. Wireless coach-to-player communication.

8. How the central location of the conference’s replay center allows for greater consistency. How collaboration plays out on a given review.

9. Being both thorough and efficient in review process.

10. A.J.’s aspirations for the sport of football.

Becky Pany is the Senior Vice President of Sport Administration at the Big Ten Conference. She works closely with campus and conference partners to ensure that the conference offers a fair and robust sports experience. 

1.        Back injury that allowed Becky to serve as a student coach and ultimately an internship and role in the athletic department at IU.

2.        Being a utility player. Learning from a variety of roles.

3.        The work of a campus-level sport administrator. A “bridge” between the program and the department (and vice-versa). Note: this is a critical and increasingly challenging role in the era of resource reallocation in college athletics.

4.        Roles as conference VP of sport administration. “Arbitrator of fairness.”

5.        The dynamics of working with coaches. Competitors and collaborators. Annual business meeting for each set of coaches. “They come together and work through all operational aspects related to their sports.” Talking through and standardizing championship manuals.

6.        How the governance process plays out for policy and rules changes. Coaches provide recommendations and then the ideas move through the chain of governance.

7.        Collaborating on complex matters like scheduling and team travel amid conference expansion. Example: how does a school’s academic calendar shape their scheduling and travel possibilities?

8.        Technologies that assist with putting schedules together.

9.        Routines with the SWAs on each campus.

10.  Values that guide her work. Fairness.

11.  Continuing to learn through relationships. Listening.

Laura Anderson is the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at the Big Ten Conference. She draws from a rich diversity of professional and personal experiences to lead the conference through a period of rapid change.

1.        Leaders who Laura has learned from. Empathy and concern for the team. Trust.

2.        Her professional background. Accounting. “How to go into a place and learn everything you can about it.” 

3.        Working in a volatile industry. Drawing from a diverse set of career experiences.

4.        Main responsibilities as CFO. Overall financial operations.

5.        Big Ten’s non-profit status. 

6.        Big Ten as “central repository” and advocate for various services for the conference institutions.

7.        Money flows through Big Ten office and to the schools. Investing the money to maximize the money even for short time periods.

8.        Everyday routines. Talking “a hundred times a day” in the office with a colleague. Meetings with other senior leaders at the conference office. Conversations with campus contacts.

9.        Interactions with campus athletic department CFOs. Regular individual conversations and times when everyone comes together at the Big Ten office.

10.  Key phases of the year. Financial audit. 990 tax form. January budgeting and planning. March and April roll-out to governance structure.

11.  Technology and AI. Data protection.

12.  Communicating strategically with diverse constituents.

13.  “To be successful in a finance role, you need to be a people person.”

14.  Humility. Adaptability. Grit. Personality.