How to deal with expectations.

What do the best teams have?

First you have to help your players learn how to separate what they do from who they are.  They have this idea that if they perform well then they are loved and if they don't perform well, then they are unloved.

I was asked this question the other day, what are the best teams that I have been around and what are the characteristics of those teams?  They have Love, Care and Acceptance.

This takes you as the coach to show your vulnerability.  What do I mean by that?  How do we get our players to open up and talk and share their feelings with each other, to get to the truth?  Teams that have problems are going to have a lot of judgement going around.  I make it a point to learn the story of our players.  To try to know where they come from.  You will discover things you never knew, internal pain perhaps.  We ask our players as coaches in general to trust and invest in a team, but to many of them, this trust is the major issue.  They might not know how to become a good teammate, how to trust and open up.  I learned that I needed to have weekly meetings to help facilitate this. The most important thing I ever did was show them how vulnerable I was in the discussions as well.  I spoke about the challenges and things in my life that have held me back as well.

Having empathy is a huge component.  There are going to be many of your players who will be holding themselves to a high standard, being compared to others.  Empathy is huge, especially when your team begins to open up.  That love, care and acceptance will help those players feel accepted by their teammates even if they don't live up to the expectations others place on them.

There is going to be a daily battle with human nature.  You see human nature is being lazy, selfish and self centered.  That is the battle each day.  How do we fight that battle versus human nature.  You must lay out a plan that demonstrates to the players that human nature vs championship nature.  by that i mean playing Xbox v. studying for a test.  Eating fast food v. eating healthy.

Are you prepared to lose big and win big?  Sometimes as a coach you have this goal to maximize your teams ability.  So during a game you think all is going well, "we are OK, , don't change."  But you know that your team can be better if you just one player to do this or that, or if you can change something.  Then that thought enters your mind, "what if it doesn't work, are we going to take a step backwards?" Last night the Cubs manager, took that risk, it was hard to argue what he was doing with his pitchers, but he was believing that he had to leave it all on the line and stick to what he knew, by either losing big or winning big.  He had to take the risk to get his team there.  If you want to win at the highest level you have got to be prepared to make those decisions.  I believe that you have to be a risk taker to get your team to maximize it's fullest ability.

I am a huge believer in confronting the truth with my players.  Not in the scream, yell in your face type.  Mainly by addressing the elephant that is in the room.  Addressing it before it grows into something more.  For example, with my team this weekend in Phoenix at a showcase, I addressed their lack of effort in the first game, not whether the ball went into the basket, more to come on that later.  However, it was my way of adding to them that I valued the effort we would give more than the ball going through the basket, because I know this is what we can control.

All my teams, I provide immediate feedback from the goals that I have, wanting to know their player performance rating, to see how efficient they are during the course of the game, so that I can talk to them individually about it.  Example going to a stat line and seeing a player down and disappointed by going 2 for 11 from the field in 38 minutes played during a 40 minute game.  I would try to put this into perspective by asking questions," how many shots did you miss? " "How long does it take for you to shoot the ball?"  "How many seconds did you play?"  So taking the answers the player gave me, I try to put back to them in a way they can relate what is really at stake.  They missed 9 shots, taking 1 second to shoot, and that 9 seconds affects the rest of the 37 minutes, 51 seconds that they played?  This is truth I put in front of them.  They must understand that they will have the ball less than 5% of the time that they play in a game.  The game of basketball, 95% of the time is played without the ball in your hands.  Yet the newspaper will focus on who the leading scorer was, how many points, the 5%.

This weekend I asked one of our players who maybe played 25 minutes how long did he think he had the ball in his hands?  He responded 15 minutes.  I was loud by saying, no one has the ball for 15 minutes~!  All players get caught up in that 5%.  And that 5% takes them on emotional highs and lows based on whether the ball goes in the basket.  You see a player who makes a shot, will scream yes, but when they miss, you don't see that same reaction?

Making shots will come and go.  The things you actually have control over is the things you do, 95% of the time.  Focus on being great at that.  That is the purpose of me showing them how efficient they are during the game so that they realize that they can control the outcome of the game by focusing on things that are within their control.

I leave you with this final thought.  What's your legacy?  What do you become as a result of the chase?  When you are going through this chase, are you bitter, do you have resentment, frustration, are you not a good person?  You hear coaches say all the time, that they tunnel vision, that they are sacrificing their family for the team.

There are many things that get exposed as result of pressure.  I believe that through this chase you get a chance to become a better version of yourself.  It's a way of finding out about yourself.  I challenge coaches to answer what is their purpose in coaching?  It can't be about material things, or about winning, having money, or earning trophies, It has to be what do they do each day, the value that are they bringing each day.

So what is your calling?  What is your mission in coaching?  There is an enormous amount of freedom that comes with being who you want to be as a coach without worrying about the results.  We don't control the results.  We do have control over the process.  And we do control who we become as a result of the chase.  Our legacy won't be about how many championships we won or titles.  Our legacy is always going to be measured by how our players talk about us after we are gone.

When your players have their own children and their children ask them:  Who did you play for?  What was he like?  I watched recently on HBO a documentary about Dean Smith that illustrates this point.  Coach Dean Smith Legacy and I also read this morning about the legacy of Coach John Wooden:  Coach John Wooden Legacy.

When your former players talk about you, that's your legacy!

Pursue your Passion!
Coach John Saintignon
Orange County Magic Basketball

We all have fear and failure

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?

Coach Saintignon
OC Magic Basketball

What is the purpose of sport?

Give this one some thought?

What's your focus?  The higher the competition, the more moral ground you lose.  The pressure to win becomes greater and greater.  I know.  I have been a High School coach, then to NCAA Division 1 and then to Professional Head Coach in various countries.

If you want sports to build character, then you have to make it your priority in order for that to happen.  You are going to have to be different.

AD's say I don't care what your philosophy is, you better win, or your fired.  Just look at this past season with former coaches of the year award winners, fired.  It never used to happen in college athletics, but that is the case, just this week with a couple losses, LSU fired their head coach.  High School's are now doing this as well.

You have to reshape your focus so that you can stay with this teaching point of character development.

Character drives performance.

The better you are with your character the better you are going to perform because you understand what life is all about and you'll be able to understand failure better, because it comes for everyone.

So what if you were paid to build the character of your players, what would you do?  Things would change, because I hear coaches say that they are paid to win.  Look the other way when things go wrong, just deal with the task at hand which is win only.

Ask yourself this question.

Why did you get into coaching?

Was it to win titles, to win championships?

Many say that is the only reason, but I don't think so.  I believe you probably had a coach in your life at one point who made a difference in your life.  I know I did.  Coach Fimbres in Tucson, Arizona where I grew up, took an interest in me as a person and developed my character which then led to me becoming a better player because I was taught and developed about what things meant and to keep them in perspective.  In essence, to have priorities.

You held those coaches in such high regard because of the impact that they had on your life that you would love to leave a similar legacy to others.

This is why you were drawn into the profession.  To make a real difference in the lives of other people.

Many coaches along my journey have said which coach do you want to be?  What do you want written on your tombstone?  One that says how many wins you had?  Or the other than said the impact you left with those that you coached?

Which one would you choose?

Think about who are you becoming?  Are you putting the person first, athlete second.  The real story that is going to matter is what you become as a coach as a result of being under all that pressure.

Who have you become as a coach?

Who have you become as a result of the chase?

Are you more humble or a bigger ego?  More open or more defensive?  More stable or more fragile? Happier or less happy?

Who have your players become as a result of the chase in their experience with the sport?

Are they more respectful or less respectful?  More grateful or less grateful?  More confident or less confident?  More open or more defensive?

You have to make sure that your players experience great things along this chase.  That's what you are chasing first and foremost.  You make this the game.  This is how you hold yourself and your players accountable.  Wins and losses, come and go, who you become stays with you.

You need to know where are you going?  Why are you a coach?  That's your purpose?  But then you need to know, who are you becoming?  That's the real truth.

Help your players find their purpose, help them face the truth, help them do things that get them closer to seeing who they are now and who they want to become ultimately as a human being.

That's the role of you as the coach.

Coach John Saintignon
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