You know that we all have fear and failure.
Sometimes we get fixated on just winning championships and while we are very proud of that, sometimes those wins are empty. As I suggested in the earlier blog, what do we become as a result of the chase? How did you get there? How did you treat your players during that time?
Here's some of the best advise that I can share with you that was shared with me a long time ago. Know that there is a 1/3 of the people that you meet that will be trying to drag/bring you down. They will be trying to take the life out of you. Selfish people, trying to only look out for themselves.
There is also the middle 1/3. These are the ones who just go with the flow. At the beginning of the season for example they are at the top 1/3. When you are undefeated, when everyone is starting the game, going to be all league performer, they love the coach, the team, the school, the whole world!
But during the middle part of the season it isn't going so well. That middle 1/3 now go to the bottom 1/3. A person not starting anymore, goes to the bottom 1/3. Your at the bottom of the conference race, they go to bottom 1/3.
Then you have the top 1/3. These are the players that go out and give you all they have each day, they give you energy every day.
You must learn to build armor. Protect yourself from the bottom 1/3, the people that talk negative, the school administration, maybe even your own team. Don't bring that bottom 1/3 home with you. Everything that you have done that day is going to be second guessed by the bottom 1/3 that day.
Key to remember to enjoy your coaching:
A. Don't let the bottom 1/3 drain the life out of you.
B. The middle 1/3 are interchangeable, they will go with the flow.
C. The top 1/3 will always give you the energy on good and bad days.
Ask yourself who are you going to protect yourself from personally and professionally?
How are you going to do that?
Each of us have a strong voice and weak voice. I was thankful that early in my life I was surrounded by people who taught me to believe in myself. You have to master this ability to have a strong voice to stay at the top of any profession. But each of us has a dark side that we have, that weak voice. Things like I want to quit, I am horrible, I don't look good, we can't win, etc.
Ask yourself are you contributing to your players weak voice?
How can you help them build that strong voice?
So here is the trick, to know when this is happening to the player and give them a solution on the spot so that they can correct during each of their moments in their lives. For example, I provide each of my players during a workout for example, when things are tough, I want them to ask themselves a better question. I want them to listen to the weak voice, I don't want them to ask themselves bad questions, like why am I missing the shot? Their weak mind will tell them dark things, like you are too slow, not quick enough, you don't want to be here, why are you here? Instead, I want them to ask themselves a better question. Such as, what can I do to make this basket? Now their mind will listen to the strong voice, the one that is providing solution, it will come up with solutions, like shoot the ball higher, snap the wrist, quicker.
Our real goal is to provide our players with a belief in themselves. We have to create conditions for them to do that. We have to give them a blue print to follow. We must convince them when they can't see yet.
I know each of us have done this in some form or fashion, you probably didn't realize it, but you were giving your players a blue print for how to handle things, like the creating of belief in the pressure moments: Something like this has gone on in each of your locker rooms.
We have been here before. This helps your players reflect on the past and to know what each of them do well.
You are here again. Reminding them of their good , why they have earned the right to be proud of where they are at.
Now let's go out there and show them. Let's have some fun. Giving your players the right to belief, and know that everyone will celebrate on the other side of reaching this success.
I also spoke in one of the earlier blogs as well about failure and how much of a role I believe it played into each of my practices, learning from it daily. We as coaches get comfortable talking about winning no problem, but we can't really talk about the failures with such ease.
I wanted to make sure that each day in practice there was a built in disadvantage in practice where we were going to have to focus on failure recovery. We had to learn how to handle it, not only by being placed in difficult situations but to each other, by saying my bad, next play, and perhaps a fist pump to signify that we are moving on, teammates saying, we got you.
I used a 2 minute drill in practice where there was going to be a clear failure recovery system in place and the pace would just dictate day to day who was feeling better, who shot better, attrition was in place, you name it.
If you want more details just email me and I will send to you: Coach Saintignon email
The last thing I want to leave you with is the notion of leaving a lasting legacy. We all hear of this? What is it? You know that we each get a sentence out of our life that will be summed up by our players. Think about someone who has died, and you walk up to them and ask them who was it, they will give you and entire life of that person who lived, summed up into one sentence. Coach Bob, he was a great coach. So you get the idea, we only get one sentence.
I have been on the journey. You will be remembered by how you treat those players that were under your supervision. How you think, act, speak, that is your pattern of behavior. That becomes your character and thus your legacy.
What's your sentence going to be?