Hi guys,
I wrote about Revolver Sunday and posted it to FB, and I
want to bring a few concerns to you both.
Against Michigan last year at Regionals, these things which
are present for Revolver were missing for us:
“The leadership meticulously maintains the core values of
Intensity, Humility, and Discipline, and as a result, in big games, you can see
how much more possibility there is than pressure. How much more joy there is
than anger. How much more connectedness there is than separation.”
We were under a lot of pressure, and it was visible. We were
upset instead of joyous to play. And our team had expectations of performance
which made it seem like a goal was just something that was supposed to happen
instead of something worthy of celebration. We were fragmented. We were
individuals.
I want us to:
-Be invested in the man, not the player.
-Be committed to the process, not the outcome (i.e.,
"it's unacceptable to get beat or lose" is the wrong message).
-Recommit to the H in IHD. When we started with these values
in 2012 we needed to shift away from H and focus on confidence/swagger. Now we
have achieved some good momentum and success as a program, and I think we need
to come back to Humility.
Right now, there are some damaging beliefs that have crept
into our minds. I’ll use last year as an example:
1. We believe we "should" win some games (e.g.,
Michigan).
2. We believe that Champe needed to play great for us to win
big games (e.g., replace Champe with Spielman/BK)
3. We believe that only Nationals or winning (or no
turnovers or getting a block) is acceptable.
These ideas exist on many teams, even high-caliber teams.
All of those ideas contradict Humility. Let me explain for each.
1. We don’t deserve any wins, and we’re not focused on wins.
We have the opportunity to earn it every time we step on the field. That’s it.
We come to each game humble, and we respect our opponents and always believe in
our teammates. ALWAYS BELIEVE, NEVER TURN AGAINST. ESPECIALLY WHEN OUR BROTHERS
MAKE MISTAKES.
2. No individual is needed on the team. No specific
performance by an individual is needed either. On a healthy version of NUT, no
one needs to do anything in particular for us to win. The wins will come to us
when we stick with our values and stay committed to each other. Last year,
Champe was under a ton of pressure because the team believed he needed to play great. This can’t work for us. We will always lose big games with that
belief because the pressure will simply keep growing until we break.
3. It is none of our business what the results of our
efforts are. We are committed to each other, and we are committed to the
process. We get better every time we are together, we give honest and clear
feedback, and we stay committed to each other. Captains/coaches need to keep
the tone positive no matter what because being negative IS ARROGANT. We don’t
know what is supposed to happen, so when we get upset with what’s happening, we
are essentially saying that we DO know what’s supposed to happen and that this
isn’t it. We don’t play God. We don’t commit to a result. We commit to each
other and the process. That’s it.
I’m hammering this because I see these thoughts poisoning
our team, and these are the exact same thoughts that were here in 2012 when I
started coaching NUT. We worked hard to get rid of them, and I think we should
work hard to keep them gone.
Revolver has won the biggest tournament of the year
(Nationals/Worlds) each of the last 6 years using this philosophy. It is a good
one.
You are the leadership of the team, so I want to get your
buy-in or hear your thoughts. I defer to you on the direction for the team and
am available to work on this if you want.
Love,
Chuck
I am not apart of your team. But I've been following this blog for the past summer and a lot of the posts have spoke to me and have helped me in preparation for my college teams own college season. This post specifically really was eye opening and I'd love to get the opportunity to talk to writer about some of things, especially to elaborate on some of the points that you mentioned. Please let me know if this is possible
ReplyDeleteI feel a lot of what Chuck is saying, and this should certainly be part of what a coach tells their players to shape their mentality. But these are a lot of idealistic goals, and I think it serves the team for the coach to take on some of the team’s challenges more practically.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's important that the team be focused on the the process and progress and execution, the coach should constantly be asking themselves if their current gameplan puts the team in the best position to succeed. While the win-loss column may not be all that helpful, the actual outcome of game situations should inform your practice plan. You can’t just move forward blindly, you need to constantly adapt. If the team is asked to ignore the results then it is on the coach to process all that for them. Perhaps instead of trying to ignore results, they should instead be put into perspective.
Along those lines, a team’s best chance to succeed may be putting a lot of responsibility on a few players, as teams aren’t all blessed to have depth on every line. In that case, it is in the coach’s and team’s interest to figure out how to bring the best performance out of their best players and in the highest pressure situations. Maybe that does mean taking pressure off them, maybe it doesn’t.
As far as chuck’s second point goes, I would say the opposite - every individual is needed. The team’s execution relies on each individual’s execution. Every team needs it’s risk takers and every team needs it’s rocks. Can you coax the performance you need from individuals? It’s easy to ask every individual to put their ego aside and put the team first, but when you coach you are trying to put individual performances together to create a team performance. You can’t do it without knowing each player's strengths and weaknesses and accounting for them.