While starring as an undersized defensive back at Washington, Nigel Burton envisioned a life as an accountant.

At 5 feet 9 and 180 pounds, he never seriously entertained playing beyond college and prepared to leave football behind after graduating with a business degree.

But those around him believed Burton could have a long career as a coach because the two-time captain and academic standout had unique leadership skills and understood UWs complex defensive schemes like few others.

"After his first year in the program, I would have guessed he would make a fine coach someday," former UW coach Jim Lambright said. "It was always the matter of does he have bigger and better plans."

Burton earned an MBA and dabbled briefly in the private sector before returning to football. After 12 years in coaching and now three as head coach at Portland State the former UW standout dubbed "Mighty Mouse" leads the Vikings against his alma mater at 1 p.m. Saturday at CenturyLink Field.

"Its not about me in any way, shape or form," Burton said. "Im not planning on suiting up on Saturday.

"If I do, I told (Portland State players) I could give them about one good play. That would be about it. Id probably blow a hamstring. Its always great being in Seattle, but this isnt at all about me."

In some ways, hes right.

This game is about the battered Huskies (1-1) rebounding from a 41-3 defeat last week at Louisiana State and looking to rebound impressively against a FCS opponent.

Its about the Vikings (1-1), who fired defensive coordinator Eric Jackson on Wednesday following a performance in which the defense surrendered 401 yards.

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Mighty Mouse ready for a tall task: facing the Huskies

Ellie Kemper is ready to share her words of wisdom with the world!

The hilarious star of The Office and Bridesmaids, 32, recently filmed a series of videos where she plays a "certified life coach" on behalf of Nescafe Memento. "I've just completed my online life coaching course at lifecoachforlife.org.com.biz," Kemper says in the first clip (above). "They even gave me this amazing new certificate! Ahh! Cool, right?"

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Kemper -- who wed comedy writer Michael Koman in July -- will gather information using a questionnaire via Nescafe Memento's Facebook page. She will then respond to a select number of fans with personalized messages.

Actress Ellie Kemper arrives at the DoSomething.org And VH1's 2012 Do Something Awards at the Barker Hangar on August 19, 2012 in Santa Monica, California. Credit: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

"We're doing is this Facebook app where I play a life coach and I am coaching the users through their answers," Kemper told Us Weekly while shooting the campaign in June. "They're given a questionnaire and I coach them and help them improve their lives by remarking on their answers. It's a very fun character to play, actually!"

"It's kind of like Choose Your Own Adventure -- once you answer, I am there to give advice to you," Kemper added, laughing. "Only coffee advice! No, I'm just kidding."

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Ellie Kemper Becomes a "Life Coach" in Hilarious Nescafe Memento Campaign

China's status as a sporting superpower was achieved on the back of punishing state-led training in schools, but a softer approach has enabled today's students to seek a life beyond the gym, they say.

China's Soviet-style sports system has been criticised in the past for its methods in grooming children for sporting success from an early age at the expense of basic education and the conventional comforts of childhood -- simply because they have been identified as having future potential.

But sporting authorities in China have embarked on a period of soul-searching in recent years, which has led to a more relaxed training environment for the country's next generation of sports stars.

Eight-year-old Yu Zhengyang is one of thousands of youngsters in China who is motivated by his own sporting dreams rather than the demands of the state.

He said the decision to leave his family home in northern China to devote five hours a day to table tennis training at a school hundreds of miles away was an easy one.

"I want to go to the Olympics. I can play table tennis well so this is my dream. I can win the gold medal," Yu, now ten years old and two years into his training at Shichahai Sports School in Beijing, told AFP.

"I believe in myself that I can play well. I came here to practise more," adds the recently crowned champion of a major under-12s tournament in China, with one eye on the 2020 Olympics.

Yu's first year at Shichahai was spent in a school dormitory. But he left the school grounds when his mother and father arrived in Beijing from Shaanxi last year.

"I like it more now, living with my parents," he said.

"And at the weekends when I have finished my homework, I have time to relax and watch television."

Continue reading here:
China eases pressure on its future sports stars

Jim Calhoun has spent more than half his life as a head basketball coach, never venturing far from the New England area where he was born.

Between coaching stints at Northeastern and Connecticut, he racked up 873 wins 625 of them coming at his beloved UConn, where he ran the mens program for 26 years and won three national titles.

Recently, though, the 70-year-old Hall of Famer has struggled with health problems, including a fractured hip last month that put him on crutches. On Thursday, he planned to announce his retirement, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because Calhouns move had not yet been made public. WVIT-TV in Hartford first reported the expected announcement.

Assistant coach Kevin Ollie was expected to replace Calhoun, the person who spoke to the AP said. The school scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference to address the future of the mens basketball program.

Ollie will take over a Huskies team that is ineligible for the 2013 NCAA tournament because of its failure to meet national academic standards, one of several off-court problems that hit UConn late in Calhouns tenure.

The Huskies will open this year with just five players who saw significant playing time last season.

Before fracturing his hip, Calhoun fought off cancer three times and missed eight games last season while suffering from a painful spinal condition. He returned just four days after having back surgery to coach the Huskies in their regular-season finale and the postseason.

UConn finished the year 20-14, losing to Iowa State in the first-round of the NCAA tournament.

In addition to his medical leave, Calhoun served a three-game suspension at the start of the Big East season last winter for failing to maintain an atmosphere of compliance in his program with NCAA rules, an issue that dated back to recruiting violations in 2008.

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Source: UConn coach retiring

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jim Calhoun has spent more than half his life as a head basketball coach, never venturing far from the New England area where he was born.

Between coaching stints at Northeastern and Connecticut, he racked up 873 wins - 625 of them coming at his beloved UConn, where he ran the men's program for 26 years and won three national titles.

Recently, though, the 70-year-old Hall of Famer has struggled with health problems, including a fractured hip last month that put him on crutches. On Thursday, he planned to announce his retirement, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because Calhoun's move had not yet been made public. WVIT-TV in Hartford first reported the expected announcement.

Assistant coach Kevin Ollie was expected to replace Calhoun, the person who spoke to the AP said. The school scheduled a 2 p.m. news conference ''to address the future of the men's basketball program.''

Ollie will take over a Huskies team that is ineligible for the 2013 NCAA tournament because of its failure to meet national academic standards, one of several off-court problems that hit UConn late in Calhoun's tenure.

The Huskies will open this year with just five players who saw significant playing time last season.

Before fracturing his hip, Calhoun fought off cancer three times and missed eight games last season while suffering from a painful spinal condition. He returned just four days after having back surgery to coach the Huskies in their regular-season finale and the postseason.

UConn finished the year 20-14, losing to Iowa State in the first-round of the NCAA tournament.

In addition to his medical leave, Calhoun served a three-game suspension at the start of the Big East season last winter for failing to maintain an atmosphere of compliance in his program with NCAA rules, an issued that dated back to recruiting violations in 2008.

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AP Source: UConn coach Jim Calhoun retiring

Jim Calhoun led the Connecticut Huskies to three NCAA championships, four Final Four berths and seven Big East Tournament titles in his 25-year coaching career, but now the program must step into a new era.

Calhoun's announcement that he will retire on Thursday turns a new page in Storrs, Connecticut. Calhoun's former player and assistant coach Kevin Ollie will take over on the sidelines, but how do you replace someone with his success and experience?

You can't do it. Connecticut's program will take a step back, and it's not necessarily the university's fault. Calhoun was just that good.

This is a coach with 873 career wins. Granted, only 618 of those came as the Huskies coach, but that doesn't change his impact on the UConn program.

The Huskies haven't had a losing record since Calhoun's debut yearin 1986. They have been one of the country's most consistent programs, and they did it without blue-chip players the majority of the time.

Sure, they had their Rudy Gays and Richard Hamiltons, but Calhoun created a foundation based on blue-collar, hard-working talents. Those players seemed to identify with him, and they bought into his system.

He got every ounce out of every player, and he knew how to manage his team in big games.

Just look at the big games the Huskies managed to win. How about Tate George's famous buzzer-beater to beat Clemson in the 1990 NCAA Tournament? Or Hamilton's less famous, but no less miraculous, game-winner against Washington in the 1998 tournament?

Calhoun was instrumental in keeping his team focused during those critical moments. That doesn't even go into the Huskies' 2011 national championship. With or without Kemba Walker, that was Calhoun's most impressive effort.

The Huskies have played with a chip on their shoulders for years, just like their coach. Ollie comes from Calhoun's system, so you'd like to think that will stay the same, but his coaching philosophy could be completely different.

Read more here:
Jim Calhoun Retirement: How Will the Huskies Fare as Life after Calhoun Begins?

So apart from wanting to avoid the routine involved, and the indecision of wondering whether the rewards are worth the trouble, many tell me that fear is the other thing that stops them from doing what they need, to achieve what they want.

We could say that inertia (indecision/procrastination) and fear is directly proportional to our greatness. And dont we devote more time to our fears and excuses than to our greatness? You dont need to be a rocket scientist to know that these must be dealt with if you intend to raise your game.

What are our greatest fears? Fear of loss, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, fear of being found out for who we truly are some fears are really quite irrational, like fear of tight spaces, or crowds. Some fears are deeply haunting, like our fear of not being good enough.

Whatever our excuses are, they are personal; were attached to them because they hold meaning for us. To gain perspective and to overcome it is necessary to detach from them, and to make the effort to observe our situations objectively. In order to step outside of an event and observe it, we need to increase our self-awareness so that we can catch ourselves before we get swept up and obsessed by the drama of whats going on.

For example, if fear of rejection is your thing, what youre really afraid of is being alone. If people want to push your buttons they could leave you out on purpose or threaten you by making you feel different. See how vulnerable youd be? See how easily gettable youd be, your wellbeing in the hands of other people?

When we realise that people are not doing things to us but rather its our own insecurities holding us back, then we can get over ourselves and get a move on.

Our fears prevent us from living our essence. Let me explain. In my natural state, I am relaxed, playful, passionate, elegant, present and engaged. When I feel fear, when I am nervous, anxious, worried, frustrated or angry, suddenly I dont come across as masterful anymore. If at all, my competence could appear contrived, arrogant or forced.

Think of what you want. Whats holding you back from having all that? Is someone tying you down? Dont have the right skills? Not good enough? Cant get along with the right people? Something happened in your past thats keeping you small?

You know you can do anything you want, dont you? As soon as you change your interpretations! As soon as you change the way you think, the way you speak, the way you draw conclusions, and the way you see yourself. As soon as you remove whatever is blocking you from your greatness.

Want to feel reconnected to your strengths to know that all your resources are within reach? Want to feel what its like to know that you cant fail? Well, technically you can ... fail if you give up.

Link:
Get a life: What is holding you back?

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But the institution, now a landmark in Kota, a city in Rajasthan, is neither a school nor a college. It is the jewel in the crown of India's private coaching industry, a $6.4 billion business that exacerbates the social divide.

Cram schools have become a magnet for tens of thousands of mostly middle class families in a country where two decades of rapid economic growth have failed to improve a dysfunctional state education system and a shortage of good universities.

Such cram schools coach students for fiercely competitive entrance tests to a handful of premier technical and medical colleges. Their modus operandi is rote learning. At Bansal's, hundreds of teenagers are trained intensively to solve complex multiple-choice questions on physics, chemistry or mathematics.

Yash Raj Mishra, a Kota cram student, lives in a tiny room with no television or laptop and spends almost 16 hours a day attending classes, revising or tackling question papers.

"Physics is my first and last girlfriend," said Mishra, leaning against a wall plastered with notes on Kinematics.

"I feel bad and frustrated when my friends score even slightly better than I do," added the 17-year-old, who calls his friends only to ask about their academic progress.

Two-year coaching programmes in Kota cost $3,000-$4,000, in addition to which students have to pay for their regular schools and spend at least $2,000 a year on accommodation. That makes the total expenditure a small fortune for most in a nation where the annual per capita income is around $1,250.

"A child is a stack of thousand-rupee notes," said Manoj Chauhan, a mathematics tutor in his late 20s who could have joined a software company or multinational but chose instead to teach in Kota, where many teachers' salaries top $6,000 a month.

Original post:
How coaching classes are widening the class divide in India

A few months ago, as I drove my daughter to the airport on Interstate 240 for her summer internship in Boston, I read the overhead message sign: "TN ROADWAY FATALITIES 371 PLEASE DON'T BE NEXT" The same day, walking into my hospital's ICU, I saw a sign stating "104 Days Without a Fall"

Providing data is one way to change behavior. It can be used for the purpose of reducing roadway fatalities or decreasing medical injuries. But is it effective? I wasn't sure.

As we drove farther, I saw the speed monitor on the road to the airport terminal flashing my decelerating speed from 50 mph down to 25 mph, which is the speed limit on the terminal road. Providing data with individual feedback was effective in making me slow down, but I saw other cars overtaking me.

That is when I saw a police car with a radar gun pointed at oncoming traffic, and another officer giving a motorist a likely speeding ticket for not decelerating. It seems that where data and individual feedback failed, regulation and enforcement were effective.

As a doctor, I treat patients, and I also work as a public health educator, encouraging preventive practices among health care workers, such as washing hands, providing vaccinations and avoiding unnecessary urine or blood catheters. I encourage patients to eat less, exercise more and adhere to their medication regimen.

The more effective we are in changing health care worker behavior, which is a major cause of medical errors, the lower the rate of infections and adverse events, such as improper drug dosing.

The more effective we are in changing patients' health behavior, which is 30 percent of the cause of underlying illness, the lower the burden of heart disease, diabetes and strokes.

Yet behavior change is hard to accomplish. Even with data, feedback, regulation and enforcement. Sometimes, something more is needed like a coach.

QSource, Tennessee's Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, is providing quality improvement coaches to reduce hospital infections and readmissions. Also, Healthy Memphis Common Table, in its new initiative to improve the quality of care, is providing nurse coaches to im

prove office processes and patient care.

Read more from the original source:
Dr. Manoj Jain: Data, coaching important in changing behavior in health care and life

Click photo to enlarge

Jennifer Han.

Jennifer Han travels the way of the gentle warrior -- loving daughter and sister, mother hen to everyone she meets, a magnetic, pied-piper-of-a smiling personality.

But her passion bubbles constantly to the surface. Han, a six-time national amateur champion, is now 8-1-1 as a professional boxer. She loves the sport. She lives the sport.

Her smile, her infectious enthusiasm pulls you in ... whether she is talking about her recent trip to Russia as an assistant coach for the U.S. Junior Olympic boys team or her last fight, the one in Fort Worth where she had to gain 10 pounds in four days just so she could have a fight.

"I was so honored to be chosen as a coach for the boys team," said the 29-year-old Han, a graduate of

Han helped coach the 15-16 year-old boys through two-and-a-half weeks in Russia, fighting two teams from Russia, one from Germany and one from Ireland.

"It was a great experience," Han said. "Of course, I've already been through the whole, 'Why is a girl coaching boys' thing.' I've done that most of my life (at her father's martial arts studio). I've been through all that. And the boys were great."

One older assistant coach had a problem with a young woman coaching boys

Chuckling, Han said, "I think about half the boys had a crush on me. But they were nice and polite and they really responded to me as a coach."

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El Pasoan Jennifer Han's passion for boxing leads to wins, coaching