🏈 ESPN's Alex Scarborough: Saban's 'Process' goes beyond the game

[TerryP]

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Trevor Moawad left his office on Tuesday afternoon and boarded a cross-country flight that would take him from the arid deserts of Phoenix to the soggy hills of the southeast where he'd visit the University of Alabama and its defending champion Crimson Tide. There, inside the newly renovated Mal Moore Athletic Facility, he'd work with football coaches and players in a manner befitting his peculiar title: President of Mindset Programs.

A news release from the company he works for, Athletes' Performance, calls Moawad a "leader in the mental conditioning field," which, as crazy as it sounds, is exactly what Nick Saban was looking for when he hired him to consult at Alabama in 2007. Moawad doesn't draw up Xs and Os, and he doesn't show players how to lift a single weight. His particular skill set doesn't apply directly to what happens between the lines, but rather what happens between the ears. For as long as he's worked with Saban, Moawad's primary focus has been creating a culture of success from the inside out.

And three national championships later, it's fair to call the union of coach and shrink successful. They may look like the odd couple from afar -- the screaming, headset-tossing autocrat and the soft-spoken, mild-mannered pragmatist -- but in reality the two are often on the same page when it comes to seeing athletes as more than a set of measurable statistics. Saban's way of running his program -- reverently referred to as "The Process" by many -- is an evolving blueprint that factors in emotion, intelligence and critical thinking as much as it does speed, strength and the ability to read a defense.

"It's a different type of deal, the understanding of all the different elements that go into being a great competitor and a great player," Moawad said, "and I just think there are so many things Coach Saban does that nobody even knows they're not doing. Many people don't even understand ... the different ways you can help develop athletes in all aspects."

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It's long, but a good read.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

Nice, thanks.

"It's a different type of deal, the understanding of all the different elements that go into being a great competitor and a great player," Moawad said, "and I just think there are so many things Coach Saban does that nobody even knows they're not doing. Many people don't even understand ... the different ways you can help develop athletes in all aspects."

Combination compliment and handing out his business card...

 

[Bamabww]

Interesting read Terry. Whatever makes it works is OK with me.

 

['65 Cobra]

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It's long, but a good read.

It's really not unlike a good quality management system such as ISO or TS that you find in much of manufacturing these days. Metrics, accountability, continual improvement, etc.