I suppose that many values in sports may be applied to other aspects of life. In athletics, themes that can be applied to any activity are utilized to fabricate a successful team.
In this post, I’ll discuss five notions or principles that are critical in athletic team formation. I’d like it if the reader thinks about how each principle may be applied to their role as a leader in the development of a team. Here are five fundamental team-building principles.
Table of Contents
1. Self-importance of Team
Bill Russell, a legendary Boston Celtics player, said this of his colleagues, who won eleven NBA championships during his thirteen years in the city. They left their egos outside the door and brought in their Team self-importance when they entered a building for practice or a game.
When an opponent was going to beat the Celtics, they had better bring a superb game because they knew they would. They were well aware that they would not be victorious in all of their games. They weren’t overconfident, but they knew they’d work hard, think strategically, and play together.
When his players join Team Ego, a coach can tell. In our Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference, I coached a player who was the leading scorer. To lead such a prestigious conference in scoring at the end of the season would be a tremendous accomplishment.
We were scheduled to face the conference’s weakest team. This may have been a game where he could have significantly improved his scoring average and put more distance between himself and the player in second place.
Just the team was important to our athletes. He proved it by just taking one shot during the game. He passed the ball to his teammates for scoring instead of inflating his scoring average.
It’s a lovely experience for matchmaking when the team is so pleased with their collective accomplishments that individual accomplishments are sacrificed in favor of team recognition. This is crucial to understanding how to form a group.
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2. Compassion
Coaches in sports must expect their athletes to put in consistent hard work every night throughout rehearsal.
“There is no alternative to hard work,” the legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden emphasized. The fact that his players bought into his philosophy is evidenced by the fact that they won seven NCAA basketball titles in a row and ten in the last twelve years he was in charge.
Why are players and teams willing to work so difficult for their coaches? There could be a variety of reasons for this, but I feel the most essential is that they know their coaches care about them outside of the limits of the fact that it is based.
Rick Majerus, the legendary basketball coach at the University of Utah and St. Louis University, would often cite John Maxwell to his colleagues: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Rick’s players’ work ethic was excellent because they understood how much he cared for them, and I visited many of his sessions. Andre Miller, one of Rick’s Utah teammates, had a successful NBA career.
Rick had an early trip the next morning to Salt Lake City, so we were together in Chicago one night. He told Miller and his mother that he would be at Andre’s graduation when he lured him out of South-Central Los Angeles.
We used to have to reprimand one of our players and determine how many suicides he would have to complete—a difficult running practice that no athlete enjoys. Because I had an appointment, the hour-long punishment was administered by our assistant coach, Jack Hermanski.
Decades previously, the athlete would phone Jack and criticize him for having to do so much jogging. “I love you, Coach,” he said at the end of each of these calls. Despite the running, he was aware of and appreciative of Jack’s concern for him.
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3. Credit
Credit is addressed by two exceptional coaches. “Give all the credit,” John Wooden advised. “It’s not about you,” my college coach, Gordie Gillespie, would tell coaches at clinics.
Gordie Gillespie’s teams won 2,402 games in football, basketball, and baseball and were honored into eighteen Halls of Fame during his remarkable career.
I had the privilege of working with Coach Gillespie for twenty-five years and was lucky enough to meet Coach Wooden on several occasions.
I never heard any of them mention their remarkable coaching careers. It has nothing to do with them at all. It all came down to their respective teams and players.
Accolades may come your way if you are the team’s leader. At the same time, you’re well aware that you couldn’t have done it on your own. You required the people with whom you formed the team, therefore give them the credit they are due.
In college basketball, there was a coach who was known for claiming credit for his team’s success. At coaching clinics, his ego was apparent. Following their speeches, the renowned coaches remained available to speak with their peers.
The top coach spoke as if he made the rules, and he had no time to speak with the lower-level coaches when he completed speaking.
He built some good teams, but he lacked respect from his coaching peers, and I’m sure his teammates grew sick of his arrogance.
Coaches that are successful and well-liked give credit to their players, emphasizing those on the squad who are underappreciated. Because the players who score in basketball get the most of the glory, these coaches offer credit to the players who passed them the ball and allowed them to score. They honor players who are underappreciated by the media and the public.
To be successful in coaching or any business, leaders must surround themselves with talented people. It’s crucial for leaders to acknowledge and credit their own achievements and attempts.
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4. Hearing
The skill of listening is highly valued by successful team builders, and understanding how to listen effectively is a key element in team building.
“That is why God gave us one tongue and two ears,” is a well-known proverb emphasizing the importance of listening. “I never got in problems with my ears,” Frank Tyger wrote.
Young people can learn the value of listening through athletics. Coaches in all sports teach the fundamentals of their sport before teaching a play system or strategy. For the audience to absorb, this is a sophisticated or advanced manner of teaching.
The teacher introduces the topic matter in the classroom. When the time comes for the test, the pupils must demonstrate that they have retained the information that the teacher has imparted to them. If athletes are to be successful in athletics, they must master both the fundamentals and the system.
It is the game that is being put to the test. Throughout this test, the players are up against an opponent who is attempting to prevent them from performing their fundamentals and system.
As a result, the players must first understand the fundamentals of the sport and the game system, before putting their newfound knowledge to the test. It’s like having someone else move their hand up and down in front of your eyes while you’re taking an exam.
The second distinction between sports and classroom listening is that each participant is responsible for studying alongside his or her teammates. As a result, I must pay attention to two sources of information: myself and the other team members. In contrast, I only learn for myself in the classroom.
If one player does not listen in the athletic arena, the entire action can be ruined. The difference between success and failure in games typically comes down to the last possession of the game.
Coaches should also be role models for their athletes when it comes to listening. To help our volleyball players jump higher and faster, our volleyball coach persuaded me to employ plyometrics. I made the error of putting them in at the end of our sessions.
After a week of this training, our two captains approached me and expressed concern about injury during the drills we did at the end of practices. We had to pay attention to them since they were our two best employees.
They were correct in their assessments. Our practices were really strenuous, and our guys were exhausted by the end of them. Plyometrics are extremely difficult exercises that might lead to injury if done too often. We paid attention and changed our conditioning drills to include them.
Fantastic team architects have engaged listeners who create environments in which listening is valued above all else.
