Winning means different things to different people but how you describe it using only one word can tell us a tremendous amount of information about you and how you chase goals and opportunity.

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[00:05] Ryan: Welcome to shift happens where we talk everything, mindset, development, taking lessons from the college and pro athletes, coaches and teams we work alongside. I'm Ryan Schachner. This is Cheney Robinson. And today we're talking about what winning means to you in 

[00:51] Cheney: Again, having a little bit of background in it. The, I'm going to answer that. But then there's a second answer also. First, without any background of this, I would have said everything. Winning is everything. 

[01:34] Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. My immediate answer was everything.

[01:37] Speaker C: Right.

[01:39] Ryan: And then when I was listening to it and they were talking about some of the people, there were two people that this trainer had worked with that said the same thing.

[01:51] Speaker C: Right.

[01:52] Ryan: And this is probably as close as you and I will ever get to being in the sphere of these two gentlemen. Jordan and Kobe.

[02:03] Speaker C: Right.

[02:04] Ryan: MJ and Kobe Bryant. They said everything.

[02:07] Speaker C: Right.

[02:08] Ryan: And the psychological breakdown of. All right, well, why do we ask this question? What does it tell us? What does that one word tell us?

[02:20] Speaker C: Right.

[02:20] Ryan: Because how much could you learn from one word? Most people would say not a lot.

[02:25] Speaker C: Right.

[02:26] Ryan: You need the context and all that kind of stuff. Well, it breaks down kind of the three types of people.

[02:35] Speaker C: Right.

[02:35] Ryan: And you could classify those three types of people. Cooler, closer and cleaner.

[02:41] Speaker C: Right.

[02:44] Ryan: Good. Great. Unstoppable.

[02:46] Speaker C: Right.

[02:47] Ryan: Cooler, good. Clothes are great. Cleaner, unstoppable coolers, which are good.

[02:54] Speaker C: Right.

[02:54] Ryan: They're good is kind of the adjective that they go along with. They allow life to happen.

[02:59] Speaker C: Right.

[03:00] Ryan: They'll make the best out of what happens to them. Great.

[03:04] Speaker C: Right.

[03:05] Ryan: The clothes are great. They decide what they want, and then they're going to say when they get it, they're going to say, hey, that's great. Good enough. I achieved what my goal was. I'm good enough cleaner, which is that unstoppable. They don't necessarily, they can't define success.

[03:24] Speaker C: Right.

[03:25] Ryan: Because that bar, it keeps on moving for them. So it's that and a lot of times that it torments them.

[03:33] Speaker C: Right, right.

[03:34] Ryan: Because the bar keeps moving because they keep seeing how it can get bigger, how they can get better, and it's something that they're never going to be able to achieve yet. They're going to continue to try. And so, you know, identifying these people. Right, the cooler, again, none of these are bad.

[03:55] Speaker C: Right.

[03:56] Ryan: The world takes all the people. Your team has, you know, if you're lucky, has, has the cleaner on it, but is probably made up of coolers and closers.

[04:07] Speaker C: Right.

[04:08] Ryan: But it's a person that if you give a job to, you're going to get the desired result.

[04:15] Speaker C: Right.

[04:16] Ryan: You're going to get what, what you expect out of them. You're not going to get anything above and beyond. It's not going to be that extraordinary. The desired result will be satisfactory to them.

[04:28] Speaker C: Right.

[04:29] Ryan: And it, and it's basically, it borders on what you asked for. So they're gonna, they're gonna be coachable. They're gonna do what you ask them to do. They're gonna give what you ask them to give.

[04:37] Speaker C: Right.

[04:39] Ryan: A closer, which is the level above cooler closers are people that can, you can give a task and they're going to, they're gonna deliver results, great results.

[04:52] Speaker C: Right.

[04:53] Ryan: So you're going to say, hey, you know, this is what my expectation is and they're going to deliver above that expectation. They're going to do that the majority of the time as long as there's not too many hurdles or variables that get in the way.

[05:09] Speaker C: Right.

[05:09] Ryan: So if a job gets too complicated or if, you know, they're going to perform well through the season, but if there's too many bad games or too many bad calls, that's going to impact how the result that you're going to get.

[05:24] Cheney: Yeah.

[05:26] Ryan: And then you have the cleaners.

[05:30] Speaker C: Right.

[05:30] Ryan: So they're so well prepared. They don't think, they just do. And they're able to do that because of the preparation that they put in.

[05:39] Speaker C: Right.

[05:39] Ryan: They've gamed every scenario in their head and they're able to react very quickly with high level results. They spend hours and hours and a lot of times, years and years getting prepared. Right. They know where they're trying to get to and they knew that early on and they put in that time, no matter what's thrown at them, they're going to deliver results all the time. At all times, they're going to deliver over and over and over and over again. It's a repeat. You can expect the results at a high, high level. Their instincts are dead on. And I would say that instincts are probably the result of really good preparation. And so again, the preparation aspect comes in so they know how to react in situations. They've seen it before. They've watched the film over and over again.

[06:38] Speaker C: Right.

[06:39] Ryan: So they're not caught off guard. No matter what the variable, what the problem is that's thrown at them. They, again, they have the ability to adjust and they're able to get in that zone.

[06:51] Speaker C: Right.

[06:52] Ryan: So like I mentioned, most, most people, the majority of people are coolers, right. A small percentage are cleaners. And if you're lucky, sorry. Most are coolers, a small percentage are closers. And if you're lucky, you have at least one cleaner on your team.

[07:16] Cheney: Yeah.

[07:16] Ryan: And so think back because I'm curious, the teams that you were a part of, right. The good ones, the bad ones, are you. How many, how many cleaners do you think you played with?

[07:32] Cheney: Well, high school basketball, we had a, we had a cleaner. I mean, the guy could score. He was averaging 30 a gain. So, so basically it was, and it was necessarily a, hey, give him the ball, get out of the way. He got other, the rest of us involved in it, too. But if it, if it was a close game, then we knew, hey, ball needs to be in, hit in this guy's hands. Right. Um, because he can, he, he can shoot it, but he also can get to the basket, too, and create. Right. So, definitely had a cleaner there at our little, at our little high school level that I played at in south Georgia. You know, baseball, we were, we had a couple guys that I guess could be considered cleaners, and not that I would have put myself in that, in that role, but I will put my brother in there, who as a freshman, again, small high school, but hit over 500 as a freshman. Right. He goes to another boarding school in Florida and hits almost 500 there his junior year, which. It's baseball. Well, all recruits, we know the junior year is a big, big year for recruiting. So he hit 475, nine homers, a bunch of RBI's. You know, he ends up going to Florida. But you see, and he's playing against some elite competition. I mean, he's playing against those pitchers that, you know, these guys are going and playing d one, too. So I've, I've seen it. And he played with. Well, his senior year. He didn't play football that, that year. He played his junior year but didn't play a senior year, all for that football team, which at the beginning of the season was USA Today number one. They were number one team in the country the entire year. Right. Nine. Nine guys went inside, signed division one football scholarships.

[09:35] Ryan: Wow. Wow.

[09:36] Cheney: So there's, you know, we've been around it. Now, did I play with anybody that got to the next level? Not. I didn't play with. I played against. I hit against John Rocker once, got hit, so I was. Yeah, we'll leave that at that. But that was the only major league picture that I ever faced. So again, my baseball was not as, the level of competition was not like what, what you probably played against and what my brother played against in regards to, you know, they're being cleaners.

[10:14] Ryan: Yeah.

[10:15] Speaker C: Yeah.

[10:15] Ryan: I think. I think a really good example of a cleaner. This year's College World Series with University of Tennessee Christian Moore.

[10:27] Cheney: Yeah.

[10:28] Ryan: I think if you want to see what that looks like expressed in physical performance, it was him.

[10:37] Speaker C: Right.

[10:37] Ryan: I mean, he stepped it up to a next level where when downing games or tied in games and he got up to bat, you knew he was about to do something.

[10:50] Speaker C: Right.

[10:51] Ryan: It didn't matter the situation. It didn't matter who he was facing. He delivered.

[10:56] Speaker C: Right.

[10:56] Ryan: It's. It's someone that can. And he did that throughout the year.

[11:00] Speaker C: Right.

[11:00] Ryan: And so it didn't matter the situation. What events were, you know, thrown at him, the variables that came into play, he delivered.

[11:09] Speaker C: Right.

[11:10] Ryan: And time in, time out. I think that's a really good recent, really good example. I mean, you look at, again, a Tom Brady and some of the legends. Right. That we talk about, but, you know, if you give them the ball, that something good is going to happen.

[11:29] Cheney: Yeah.

[11:30] Speaker C: Right.

[11:30] Ryan: And it didn't matter what the situation was. You know, the Super bowl come back against the Falcons.

[11:35] Speaker C: Right.

[11:36] Ryan: You know, having the, having the, you know, the, you know, fourth quarter game winning drives, you know, you think of Peyton Manning, all those types of, you know, when, when they had the ball in that situation, you just knew they were going to deliver as, as the opponent. You were almost discouraged because you're like, oh, man, you know, they're, I know they're on their five yard line and they only have a, you know, 90 seconds left in the game, but this thing's over. They're going to win. And it was that mindset that they, that they drove into you.

[12:09] Speaker C: Right.

[12:11] Ryan: So can you do. Good question here. Can you develop, in your opinion, a cooler into a closer? Closer into a cleaner? Do you think you can, can develop that?

[12:28] Cheney: Yes and no. And I think it goes back to beliefs. If the cooler or the closer believes that they can be better, then. Yeah, absolutely. You can, you can come alongside them and help get them to be like, get them to that cleaner level. But they've got to believe it first because if they, if they don't, then obviously. Yeah, there's that. They're there. Their peak there. They've hit their ceiling. Yeah, I think you definitely can. I'll come back to Christian Moore, too, and it was funny watching their Tennessee season this past year. As, as Christian went, the team went, if he had a good game, then more times than not at a very high clip, they won ball game. But if he was over three, over four, then it was a close ball game and, you know, there was a chance that they may not pull it out. I mean, look at the, you know, game two, if I remember correctly. I don't think he had a, he didn't have very good game at the plate.

[13:29] Ryan: Right.

[13:29] Cheney: And he ended up, ended up losing that game. Now you come back for the rubber match and, you know, Christian Moore shows up, Tennessee ends up winning the ball game.

[13:42] Speaker C: Yeah.

[13:42] Ryan: They go down. It was the first game of the a and M series.

[13:45] Speaker C: Right.

[13:45] Ryan: For the national championship where he did so a and m one. And then the second game aethereze up to bat first gets, gets a, gets a run. Home run.

[13:58] Speaker C: Right.

[13:58] Ryan: So now it's one nothing. He shows up his first at bat and hits one. I think it went completely out of the stadium and from it on, it flipped.

[14:10] Speaker C: Right.

[14:11] Ryan: So he inspired confidence.

[14:13] Cheney: Yeah. So they meant they lost the first game, not the, not the second. Yeah.

[14:18] Ryan: So I would say, I think youre born in one of those categories. Whether, you know, where you are is a different thing. And if you're, if 

[14:48] Cheney: Right.

[14:49] Ryan: You can get developed in those areas. But to me, there's something that, you know, there's a switch in there that you either have or you don't. And whether that you're born with it or it was nurtured or driven into you early on in life, I think by the time you get to the high school, college and pro level, you either have it or you don't. And so I would say born with it or very early on developed. But you can develop, once you're in those categories into stronger, and that can be worked on.

[15:30] Cheney: And I think the big ticket here is just having awareness of it. Because if I'm aware of it now, I know what I need to do. If I've got 

[16:18] Ryan: That one word, that one word can deliver so much information and understanding as a coach, as a GM, what that word, you know, what the response is and what that actually says about the organization. If you have the right people in the right places, it's amazing how one word can do that. So, hey, thanks everybody for joining us. Another episode of Shift happens, helping athletes with their mindset hacks.