I was
recently called in by a coach to address the problems on his basketball team.
Once again, the team, the sport, the organization are unimportant. If our
paradigm is true, and it is, then it should be applicable to sports,
activities, business and life.
He was having problems with one of
his players. The player in question was a good kid but was not performing to the
coaches expectations. He could see the frustration on his players face in
practice and scrimmage.
I attended one game and one
scrimmage and the answer to his problem
was quite simple, however, by no means, was it going to be easy.
Here was the real problem. The
player in question, arguably the best player on the team, was kept in games no
matter what he did. Even when he made a mistake, he was not pulled out of the
game. (Now I am not saying he should be pulled out always after every mistake,
or any player should be pulled out for a mistake, but there should be
consequences, and they should be immediate) Instead the coach would turn to players
on the bench and lecture them about the mistakes on the court. You should have
seen the look on the players sitting on the bench after the coach turned
around. They could not have cared less!!.
So after the game I take the coach out
to a diner and we sit down and chat. I did not want anyone to hear our
conversation, or have the coach feel nervous around his people. I stayed in the
background the whole time.
I wish I would have recorded this
conversation, but as soon as I left I wrote this all down. I am trying to get
this as close as possible to the actual conversation, but I’m old, my hand
writing is awful, and I keep getting distracted thinking about more things to
talk about.
I asked the coach why he didn’t pull
the player put of the game. He said he did not want his player to feel his
starting position was in jeopardy. I said no one has a starting position locked;
only the spots themselves are assured because someone has to start. Starting
positions are fluid. I then asked him if he thought that you ran fastest when
you were being chased. He smiled, he got it!
He then told me about having another
player talk to this player to assure him about his importance to the team. I
explained to him that if that player needed reinforcement by another player to
play well there was no way he was the team’s best player. Besides it is the
coaches’ job not another player’s job to talk to the player.
The next question really floored me.
He said that he had players on his team that couldn’t start and that they
really didn’t have the talent to push the starter. He had told these players
their roles at the beginning of the season. WHAT? I said why don’t you ask one
of those players who you think can’t play if they want a chance to start? Tell
them they are going to get a chance to start the next game if they give their
all in practice. Now he was STUNNED!
The only real tool a coach has is
playing time. Everything else is subjective. Inter team competition is the best
way to bring that out in all your players.
Next week,
what happened when the F.S.T. M. was implemented.
Frozen
Short’s contact information:
You can
follow VJ on twitter @VJJStanley, go to his website frozenshorts.com to read
other blogs and see video interviews of Doctors, Athletes, coaches, and more.
You can follow him on face book, or contact him at vj@frozenshorts.com. His
book: Stop the Tsunami in Youth Sports I available in E reader and paperback
through his website frozenshorts.com
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