The Lawyer’s Well-Being Brief

The Duke Blue Devil’s Path to March Madness Success: Embracing Mental Skills

“Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads you to wisdom.”-Buddha

Welcome (back) to the Lawyer’s Well-Being Brief! Each week, I share insights and practical strategies to help us cultivate well-being and thrive — both personally and professionally. This week, we are looking at how the Duke Blue Devils prepared for their season and March Madness with mental skills.

In the pressure packed arena of NCAA basketball and March Madness, mental fortitude can often be the difference between victory and defeat. For Duke University, this season has been marked not just by their stellar gameplay on the court, but by a strategic approach to nurturing their players’ mental well-being.

Enter Russ Rausch

Russ Rausch is Duke’s newly appointed mental skills coach. He has been instrumental in preparing them for their journey through the regular season and March Madness. His unconventional method of addressing players’ individual motivations rather than conforming to a one-size-fits-all approach has proven pivotal. When Rausch posed probing questions to the team, eliciting varied responses, he wasn’t seeking uniformity but authenticity. He…