News Article

In celebration of PCA National Advisory Board Member Shane Battier becoming a newly crowned NBA Champion, here is his foreword to Jim Thompson's Elevating Your Game: Becoming a Triple-Impact Competitor^®, written for teen athletes to help them improve themselves, their teammates and the game as a whole. (Purchase copies of Elevating Your Game here.)  

I’m excited about Jim Thompson’s Elevating Your Game because the athletes I most admire, like Grant Hill, are Triple-Impact Competitors.

Grant took a moderately talented Duke basketball team to within one three-pointer of winning the national championship against Arkansas in 1994. No matter who was on the floor with Grant, you had a shot to win, and that’s who I wanted to be — a guy who made the team better.

I had great coaches growing up, most of all, my dad. He taught me to help teammates be successful, because when you have success as a team, it’s much sweeter than when you just have personal success. And I learned that when my team had success, I had personal success as well.

He taught me the importance of the next play. If you make an unbelievable move, you cross the guy over and make him fall, and dunk the basketball and get fouled and the crowd’s going crazy, what do you do? Do you beat your chest and point to your girlfriend in the crowd and make a scene? No. You make the free throw, get back on defense, and try to do it again.

If you fall down and your guy scores and the crowd is laughing at you, do you sit there and pout? No. You pick yourself back up, dust off your shorts, and say, “That’s not going to happen again. I’m going to stop him next time.”

If you can live in the moment and go on to the next play, you’re going to be successful no matter what you do in life.

Every coach and athlete is a steward of the game. I want every athlete to learn the game the way it’s supposed to be played — not just wins and losses or X’s and O’s — but teamwork, work ethic, dedication, consistency.

I got involved with the Positive Coaching Alliance movement because I want every high school athlete to have the kind of experience I’ve had with sports. Elevating Your Game has great ideas and exercises to help you become a better player — but more important, a better person who will help make this society better. Our country needs Triple-Impact Competitors who make themselves, their teammates, and the game better, now more than ever. That’s why Elevating Your Game is such an important book.
— Shane Battier