Yes, there are 50 inches of snow on the ground and sub-artic temperatures. That means one thing… that Spring sports are set to begin in the next few days. Now the first few days/weeks are all spent indoor and as a coach, you’re happy if no one gets hurt. When you have 20 kids in a confined area with objects flying all over, the chances for a bloody nose go up astronomically. Eventually we do make it outdoors and begin to play games in the warm sunshine of 50 degree days. Try to keep that in mind as we shovel out the driveways.

With the beginnings of a new season, coaches are presented with the opportunity to positively influence another group of players.  As mentioned in previous posts, I’d highly recommend that coaches get the books by Jeff Janssen on coaching leadership. While you come to Kudda to help you become a more Competent coach, and you read Janssen books to help you develop leaders, there is still one major area that can make or break your season that you do have some influence on and that is Team Chemistry. There has been a lot of debate on Team Chemistry; can it be made or is it dependent on an act of nature? We all know that teams that have that tight chemistry, overachieve and tend to be much more successful than teams that are much more talented. So what can coaches do to help promote Team Chemistry?

Note that are various types of Team Chemistry. In the military, it’s called, “Pain-Retain”. Think back to all of the classic war movies where a group of soldiers go through basic training with the Drill Instructor. (I’m thinking Full Metal Jacket!!) At the end, that group becomes a cohesive unit. (minus Private Pyle) Well, that style probably no longer works in coaching as it may have 30-40 years ago. The successful coaches today are all about “relationship coaching”, creating a family type atmosphere. Here are some of the techniques and strategies that those coaches utilize to help promote and foster team unity and chemistry.

It all  starts with the coach clearly communicating their philosophy to the team. As discussed in an earlier post, the philosophy has to be something that the team can control while focused on the journey. Coaches also do a great job of letting their players know that they care about them. It could be the result of lots of sidebar conversations or scheduled weekly meetings. Coach John Wooden hand wrote notes and letters to each of his players.

Coaches are also all about keeping traditions. These traditions help to foster chemistry as players share some common experiences. For the UNC basketball teams under Dean Smith, traditions emerged that are now part of most programs. Simply standing for players as they come off the court or huddling up before free throws help build this sense of tradition.

My thoughts are that while the team chemistry really has to come from within the team, the coach can certainly create the structure and platform to promote this. It takes a conscientious effort on the coach, but when you realize the return on this additional investment in your team, it’s well worth taking time to help foster.

As many of you are starting a new season with a new group of players, please take a step back and think about what you want to accomplish with your team? Is it about winning the championship? Is it about helping them improve as players? Is it about increasing their enjoyment of playing sports? Take a moment and reflect on why you are out there and what you hope to provide for your players.
Having a solid coaching philosophy will really help your players, and their ever-encroaching parents, understand what to expect from you, the coach. When you develop your philosophy, here are a couple of pointers to help you along.

• First, focus on what you can control. You can control the work ethic and pace of practice. You can control how hard your players play. You CAN control how prepared they are to play. You CAN’T control bad calls, bad weather and bad luck. You CAN’T control if you win a game. Yet, too many coaches have a philosophy that is focused on winning the championship. What happens if you lose the championship due to windy conditions and some unlucky calls? Is your season a failure?
• Focus on what you can control and develop part of your philosophy around it. Part of Coach Dean Smith’s Philosophy was “Play Hard”. Something that they could control.
• Focus on the journey, not the outcome. Coaches get so focused on winning and being in first place that they miss the opportunity to have a positive impact on their players. They miss the opportunity to develop some close personal relationships with their players. Isn’t that why we’re out there? We love being around kids. When a coach focuses on the journey, their teams play a lot more unselfishly and with more unity and chemistry. Another part of Dean Smith’s philosophy was “Play Together”. Of course this had far reaching implications off the court. Players couldn’t be late to practice, games or classes as this would hurt the team. They couldn’t make bad decisions that might costs the team. By focusing on the journey, think about how your actions and body language might change during tight games? Will you still get visibly upset when a player misses a shot or makes an error? You may if you’re worried about the outcome. Hopefully you won’t if you think about how you can do a better job of handling your players during games.

I’m aware that there are many other concepts and qualities that you may want to share and emphasis with your players. Good citizenship, good sportsmanship, respect and many others are great qualities to include/be part of your philosophy. Try to not include everything as then this sounds artificial… unless you’re John Wooden. His Pyramid of Success is both visual and powerful!!

Think about the 2-3 most important qualities. Build your philosophy around these. Chances are some of the others are underlying layers and cousins of the 2-3 that you pick. The key is to focus on what you control and focus on the journey.

Dean Smith’s book, “The Carolina Way” is not a typical “How to coach” book. Rather the book is divided into three parts for each topic.

1. First is Smith explaining a key concept or theme that made his team successful.
2. His former players then add their views as to why that concept or theme was so important to them as players and as people.
3. The last part of each chapter has a business guru explain how to apply that concept to the business setting.

My sense is that the last section, business, was the part that made this book so different and valuable. Many other coaching books make reference to a business setting with a few quick sentences. “The Carolina Way” focuses specific sections to concrete examples of how to apply these themes.

The setup of the book also allows for pleasant change of pacing while you read. Too many coaching books just keep coming at you and telling you more and more strategies until you get overwhelmed. Or they keep repeating the same concept and stories over and over. Smith’s book has a few pages of Smith explaining the theme, several pages of his players discussing that theme and then several pages of the business application of that theme. It’s very enjoyable.

Many of the coaches emphasis Unselfish play. That seems to be a common theme in most successful programs. Here Smith gives lots of concrete examples of how to coach an unselfish team.

A few themes jumped out at me. There’s a chapter on Routines and how routines help build team chemistry. Smith shares several examples of Carolina routines that are part of their tradition and how the players value those routines. One of them is that Carolina players always point to the passer after they score. This helps to reinforce the unselfish style of play. It’s a Carolina tradition to have all bench players stand and cheer for players coming off the court. Another routine that Carolina players had was the “Tired” signal. Coach Smith understood that playing his fast paced, (except for that Four Corners thing) high pressured defensive style of basketball was exhausting and he didn’t want tired players out there hurting his team. He devised a signal for tired players to come out and then be able to go back in when they were ready. This gave the players the right to re-enter when they were ready, rather than waiting for the coach to decide. The last area was on senior leadership. I liked that the seniors reinforced the standards of the team that Smith put into place. I did have mixed feelings about the treatment of the Freshmen which I’m sure is the case in most teams. Seems like there may have been too much senior privilege; first in line to get water, on the bus, on the plane etc. Why do teams dump everything on the freshmen, making them do all of the grunt work? It’s the senior’s team!! Take charge and set the example!

Another theme that I appreciated as a coach hearing from one of the greats is the respect Smith showed every person connected with the team. He treated starters, bench and role players and managers with the same amount of dignity and respect. Too often, coaches focus on the just the starters or the high profiled players. With Smith, that wasn’t the case.

The last them was how during the recruiting of players, Smith never promised playing time. Many other coaches would guarantee and promise the world to recruits. Smith would only promise them that they would be on the team if they worked hard and kept their grades up. My sense is that Smith truly cared about the individual rather than just the basketball player.