A Little Blip

Last week the Golden Eagles had a blip, a blot, an out-of-sorts kind of week. We were grouchy, slow to react, unwilling to listen to one another, full of excuses, blaming somebody else for our inadequacies and all around not playing together. It was rather nasty--not a week for singing positive praises about our team.

This lack of unity is not unusual. In fact, it is a normal phase of coming together. When a group comes together, there are times of laughter, fun and enjoyment and there are also times of jealousy, anger and blaming. What determines a team is not this time of "storming" but how we decide to deal with it. We could have chosen to leave it alone and pretend it wasn't there or we could have continued on the path of pointing fingers. What we chose instead was to find a way through our issues to gain the cohesiveness of a unit.

Saturday, rather than practicing on the court, we sat together in a circle with the instruction for each individual to write down three ways in which she contributed to our current state of affairs. We then went around the circle one at a time and shared our faults. No person was allowed to comment, judge or state anything after somebody had shared with the team.

Amazingly I found the players to be rather astute in their perceptions of what they needed to do in order to exert some control over what was occurring. One player said she needed to lead without fear of what her teammates would think about her. Another said she should voice her opinion when a teammate said something negative she didn't agree with rather than simply siding with her. One said she didn't need to bring her bad day with her on the court. Several of them stated they needed to be more vocal and show more enthusiasm when practicing.

When we had completed that exercise, we tore up our sheets of paper and threw them in the waste basket acknowledging we had dealt with our issues and they were no longer with us. Then we went around the group 10 times with each person stating something positive she did to help the team either on or off the court. No repeats of what another person had mentioned were allowed. At first, the Eagles were worried about the no repeat rule but they soon discovered how easy it was to find the positives. After 130 positive comments, we were well on our way to healing the experiences of our past week and moving toward the unity we needed to be successful.

When members of a team are willing to come together and share their faults, to admit their need for improvement, to take a part of the blame for what is occurring, then they can find the strength they need to defeat opponents.

To all the Golden Eagles for their willingness to work through our conflicts, I say: IHHOAGE!

The Cool Coach

I must be losing my touch--the coaching touch that is. A couple of weeks ago when we were doing a positive circle and each team member was instructed to say something positive about the person on her right, I was told by Julianne I was cool this year. I had to check her face to see if cool actually meant good or if it was some meaning I had not yet deciphered. Sometimes with younger people I get lost in the lingo. Words change meaning with them as they tend to use their own interpretation of definitions. So once I determined cool actually meant good, I wasn't certain how to react. I've been called many things in my 21 years of coaching but I sincerely doubt I've ever been called cool.

What does this mean--being a cool coach? Have I been too nice? Too easy? Is my intensity waning? Have I forgotten how to push? Am I getting soft? Are practices not challenging?

I've always known it should be more important to a coach to be respected than to be liked. Being liked in the coaching world almost has a nasty connotation associated with it. It means you are being friends with the players; you don't know how to discipline; you can't draw the line in tough scenarios; and of course, you don't have your players' respect.

So I had to take a deep breath on this "cool" factor. I had to examine who I had become and if it was okay to be known as cool. After several hours of reflecting upon it, I decided I was indeed a different individual than I was years ago or perhaps even last year. I believe there was a time when I confused fear with respect meaning I thought if players feared me, then I had their respect. I no longer believe that. Respect comes from being organized and prepared, knowing how to coach, showing respect for others, being able to accept criticism, and coaching from a center of compassion. Perhaps I am not as hard-nosed, but I am still demanding and intense focused on getting the best I can from players.

I'm not certain if I am truly qualified to be a cool coach, but I am okay with the players believing I am if it makes them play better. If it doesn't make them play better, then I guess I won't get to hold the cool status.

The First Scrimmage is Just The First

After our first scrimmage game, there were many comments from people who watched us play who were anxious about the upcoming year. They expressed their concerns about our lack of a cohesive offense. I agreed we did not play team offense; however, we never do this early.

The motion offense is an offense many coaches choose not to teach because it involves teaching multiple concepts. There is one famous coach who calls it the chaos offense because she assumes players are always confused and thus unable to play well. I agree that the motion offense can look chaotic, jumbled and messy. It can also look absolutely beautiful when all five players understand the principles of offense and buy into reading and reacting to the defense.

Unlike plays or continuity offenses, the motion offense requires teaching players to think while playing. They must not only understand spacing, headhunting on screens, reading their defender, choosing which cut or screen to make and the number of passes to make but they must intimately know the strengths and weaknesses of each of their teammates. It can be frustrating to teach and equally frustrating to learn.

The beauty of teaching players how to play the game and not just what "X spot" to run to on offense is that each of them evolve to a higher level of play. They eventually understand how a combination screen confuses the defense, how a back screen is more likely to get the screener open and how to create space by using different cuts. They will always be able to get open no matter what their defender does because they are watching and reacting to where she goes.

Not only does the motion offense create better offensive players; it creates better defensive players. Our defensive players become smarter because they understand what an offensive player is trying to do by cutting or screening. They get the game. When we face opponents who adjust a play from the coach on the sideline by how we defended the first time, we adjust with their adjustment. For example, a coach notices we are switching screens, so she chooses to call a "slip" screen. Because we work on slip screens daily in practice, we are prepared to defend it.

Our offense takes time. Every year there is a breaking point when I am prepared to ditch motion and go to some continuity offense. Just about the time I am ready to throw in the towel, the light bulb goes off and we begin to jell as a unit. It shouldn't take us as long this year to understand and grasp motion offense because we have several returners. So I must remind myself and others who witnessed our first scrimmage, it was just the first.

Watching the Wide-Eyed Freshmen

After 20 years of being a head coach, I know one thing is a certainty: the freshmen are going to get overwhelmed, their brains exhausted from information overload. As I watch our newcomers this season, Chrissy, Tianni and Emma, try to keep up with our incessant teaching, I can't help but laugh at their wide-eyed stares. Their brains are cooked, drained and completely fried from our first eight practices.

When Tianni feels as if her I.Q. has dropped below double digits, Lindsey Kentner will say, "I've been there. It will get better." When Emma will look at me as if I'm speaking Russian, Katy Arick will interpret my words. When I yell at Chrissy for not remembering to hedge the screen, Lisanne will say, "Hang tough! We've all been through it." When I expect the seemingly impossible, loading another play upon them or worse, a new defensive rule, and all the fresh faces cannot believe there is more to learn, Tarenna or Ali will knowingly pat them on the back.

I know it is a difficult transition coming into the Golden Eagle program, because it is my philosophy to teach. I have rules for everything from offensive spacing to using screens to transitioning to defense to coming off the court to sitting on the bench. With initial entry into the Eagle program, players become confused, their feet stuck on a message that is trying to get from their brain down their legs. They become paralyzed from being analyzed. I understand their pain and would love to simplify the teaching but I also know the teaching is what will eventually make them better than they ever could have conceived.

With each practice, their feet will become more automatic, moving on muscle memory rather than brain focus. Their understanding of the game will make them smarter and this game intelligence will create confidence. I know this to be true because I have seen players evolve from their first year through their senior year. Each year they become better as their skills have improved. I see them adopt an attitude of belief in self and team. They become not only good but great.

So for Chrissy, Tianni and Emma, they will have to believe what the upper class players tell them. If they can live through this year, this self doubt, they will become phenomenal players. This I have witnessed year after year after year.

The First Day of Practice

Official practices begin on Thursday which means that all players and coaches can be on the court at the same time with a basketball. Although basketball instruction has been taking place in small four-player groups throughout the past 6 1/2 weeks, we have not yet been able to put any of our offensive or defensive systems into place. We have focused on the principles or fundamentals of play.

When we begin on Thursday, the returners will know what to expect: more of the same emphasis on principles. The newcomers will undoubtedly want us to play more five-on-five. They will expect more focus on the systems. What they don't know is that 80% of our practices are spent in breakdown drills. It is my philosophy that the system isn't as important as the knowledge of how to use it.
In other words, I am more concerned about teaching athletes how to become better basketball players than executing a particular play or set.

For example, we spend hours upon hours teaching players how to set up their defender, go shoulder to shoulder off screeners and to read and react to where their defender goes. We might do this as footwork only or in 2-on-1 scenario or advance to 3-on-2 or 4-on-3. We move the players through drills adding speed and defenders until we get to 5-on-5. Then we break it down and build it up again. We do this from day one until the last day of practice and we do it for everything we teach.

We do the same thing with defense building on what we think are the essential pieces of defense: ball pressure, denial, help side, talking, boxing out, help-recover and closeouts. We use these principles on our half court defenses as well as our full court defenses. Whatever defense we play, we always go back to our defensive principles.

Everything is connected to how we teach our principles: how we defend screens, how we run plays, how we prepare for opponents, how we set up our scouting reports.

Inevitably, our newcomers don't understand the importance of our principles and they yearn for more scrimmages. Our returners know the benefits of the emphasis on fundamentals and they settle into practices knowing they will reap the benefits of becoming solid players.

Devolping Strength Within

Yesterday a former player of mine emailed to ask me how to develop mental toughness. She felt her team members were not displaying the attributes they should in terms of being mentally tough. I believe I know what many coaches might say. They would lean toward the physical part of practice to create the mental part.

In other words, many coaches believe the way to mental toughness is to put athletes in positions where they have to physically push through their self-imposed limits. For example, we make our players run 15 suicides in a row with only a thirty four second rest between each suicide. It is tough. It hurts. They gasp for breath but in the end most of them make their times. They see a result they didn't believe they could accomplish. This gives them confidence which produces mental toughness.

Confidence is really what mental toughness is. It is the belief system developed by players they can do and achieve what they desire. The problem is most players doubt. It is this doubt which doesn't allow them to achieve. It is not their abilities which hold them back; it is their belief system. When a desire is matched by a belief, then a player becomes mentally tough and all types of wonderful achievements occur.

While the physical part of practice is critical to success, the greater part of achieving goals is the mental part. No action in the world can overcome the inner belief system of not being good enough. Success has to start within the player.

We try to approach mental toughness training in a variety of ways. We have chalk talks every Thursday where we talk about the aspects of mental preparedness: how to respond to pressure; how to improve self talk; how to use rituals to get mentally prepared for games; how to play in the now.

We address self-awareness through the use of a journal. We ask them to answer questions about themselves where they have to think about their inner most thoughts. We might address their biggest strengths or weaknesses. We might ask them their state of mind before the best game they ever played. They might be asked to define the characteristics which prevent them from being a great player. It is through self-awareness they can create changes. If they don't know what they are thinking, they cannot change their thoughts.

In order for team members to become aware of what are the desirable traits, we have them fill out a questionnaire after each practice and game. By filling out the short questionnaires, they become more in tune with how they are developing their mental abilities.

We develop a great learning environment where we constructively criticize and provide positive feedback. We spend more time telling players what they can do versus telling them what they cannot do. We place more emphasis on recovering from a mistake than the mistake itself. We hold positive circles where each team member shares a positive trait. We emphasize the good about the team and team members.

Mental toughness is a difficult skill to teach, yet is it by far the most essential trait an athlete can develop. When a player learns to change her belief system to match her desires, she will not only become an elite athlete; she will experience success in all life endeavors.

Recovering From Recovery Week

When I was an athlete training with the national team handball team, we trained twice a day year around. It was our life. We got up in the morning, ate, went to the sports medicine center, practiced, went back to the trainers to pack ourselves in ice, ate, slept, then completed the entire morning scenario a second time. It was what I did for over five years.

So when I try to sneak a recovery week into our training schedule for the purpose of our athletes getting a little rest, I may not achieve all the recovery the players wanted. I think I am going easy on them when they think I have swapped one kind of running for another.

This past week instead of running timed sprints on Monday, we played ultimate frisbee and keep away. I believed these were rather innocuous games involving a little running, a little movement here and there, so I couldn't understand why they were out of breath and sweating when we were done. I mean 35 minutes of running should be relaxing. Right?

When Wednesday came around, I had another set of fun games for them to play. One was called Hungarian Dodge Ball and the other was titled Czechoslovakian Dodge Ball. Both of them involve sprinting full court while dodging balls. Again they were putting their hands on top of their heads, leaning over in taking huge gulps of air and perspiring. These were simple, fun games. Why were they acting as if they had just worked out?

By Thursday they were as fatigued as if we had completed a week of our usual conditioning. When I asked Lindsey Kentner, our extreme cardio woman who never gets tired, if she was feeling recovered, I was surprised when she told me that she wasn't. Using my astute deductive reasoning, I deduced if Lindsey was not fully recovered at the end of the week, then the other players would not have found fresh legs either.

Since the purpose of recovery week was for the athletes to refresh both minds and bodies, I had to convince myself on Friday to allow them to simply have fun without any running. I had to talk myself into the belief that we don't want to work harder than every other team in the nation, we want to work smarter. We desire to work smart hard, an endearing term which means we use the muscles of our brain as well as those of our bodies.

I would say when I was an athlete, we didn't use our brains which resulted in many overuse injuries and several losses along the way. Now I know the power of using our brains and hopefully, I am sharing that power with my players which meant that on Friday they were able to laugh and have fun fully recovering mind, body and spirit.