I chose Coach Del Hessel from the University of New Mexico for my report. His look is entitled, Spirit of Champions and Why Athletes Succeed. In his look he discusses seven key elements as to why his athletes succeeded.
             The first key to being a successful athlete is attitude. Coach Hessel emphasizes that you cannot be successful in athletics with a bad or negative attitude. When an athlete begins to develop a poor attitude he becomes discouraged and, as a result, begins to perform at less than one hundred percent. Also, athletes tend to develop negative attitudes after a loss. Coach Hessel says, to keep this attitude for developing, that you should focus more on playing your best instead of winning and losing. Force yourself to remain positive and give one hundred percent, and your results will improve.
             The second key element to being successful is vision and believing. If you don't believe you can do something, you won't do it. Coach Hessel said that his most successful athletes were the ones who visualized themselves winning and really believed that they could win. As coaches, it is very important that you believe in your players. Believing in them helps them to believe in themselves.
             Perseverance is the third element for success. Coach Hessel gives many examples of players he coached who have persevered through injuries as well as many other things. He said that nothing could discourage or stop his top athletes. The athletes who start asking themselves if it is worth all the pain and sacrifice it takes to be an athlete were never going to be successful to begin with. You have to be willing to pay the price over and over again to be a successful athlete.
             Coach Hessel's fourth element is character. According to Coach Hessel, it is important to have character rather than to be a character. Athletes with character know when to joke around and when to be serious. Those who are characters tend to always be jok...