Chuck Coast

Shortly after interacting with Luke Johnson I met Chuck.  I think Luke primed me well for Chuck and when I heard Chuck’s philosophy’s I was eager to embrace them.  Chuck told me that everyone coaches the body, lots of people coach the mind, but no one coaches the spirit.  I was eating it up.

1.       IHD:

An alternative title for this section would be “Have a touchstone”.  Teams need something to fall back on.  When the going gets tough or when the challenges seem unsurmountable, a team needs something to check in with and fall back on in order to ground themselves for the next push.  When a season starts to stretch long and patience begins to wear thin, a touchstone can you bring to what matters and what you’re actually trying to accomplish.

For Chuck IHD is the touchstone.  Intensity, Humility, and Discipline are three words that bring him into the moment and remind him what matters and where he is going.  IHD is the answer to every question, it is the guiding light showing you where to go.

2.       Belief is a muscle:

Belief is a muscle that needs to be exercised.  Belief can be your biggest and strongest muscle if nurtured properly. 

Chuck’s idea behind belief is not just “I believe I can win” it was more along the lines of “I believe in what we are doing”.  As I’ve written earlier winning is hard and is often a product of variables that you can’t control.  So when Chuck talked about belief, he was trying to get us to focus on what we could control and to believe that that would be enough to get us to where we wanted to be.

Belief creates buy in, it makes it easy to support a struggling teammate, and it makes it easier to work through personal struggles.  If you’ve got 24 guys who believe in the way you play ultimate, if you and 24 friends are picking up someone in a slump, if you have 24 guys encouraging you to keep working then it’s easier to actually accomplish those things. 

If I believe that my team is getting better every single time they step on the field then stomaching, growing, and learning from a 1-8 record at Warm-Up is easy.  If I believe in Champe and Yiding to work through setbacks and become even better players from it, then watching them blow a 4 break lead against Notre Dame is easy.  If I know that the team believes in me then it is easy for me to give them everything I have, it’s easy for me to make time for them in my schedule.

The thing about belief is it’s always rewarded.  Always.

3.       Touch:

Alright I will admit that I first learned that great teams touch from Kevin Garnett.  The second time I saw Chuck he gave me a big ole bear hug.  Chuck was all about making a connection with a hug or as simple as a hand on a shoulder.  Touching creates a connection, regardless of how manufactured that connection may be it is powerful.

The next time you have a bummed out teammate try putting on hand on them and saying something from the heart.  It’s uncomfortable for about a second, but as they drop their defenses and allow you in the power of your words get magnified.  Touch them, watch them be uncomfortable and shift around for a second, watch them relax, pull them close and tell them you believe in them, then you will see who they truly are.  Some will shyly smile, others will nod, others will say thanks, and Adam Wright will start punching you while trying to hide his face so that you don’t know how much he appreciated you reaching out to him.