What players on a team think?

Yesterday, I had a great conversation with several of our coaches on Orange County Magic who are navigating their respective High school teams and their formation and organization challenges that are going to come up.  How many players to keep on a team?

Now each coach has their own perspectives on their formation of their teams and why they do what they do.  I personally didn't want to carry more than 12 players.  I wanted the team to have enough to count on each other, keep rooming lists even, and to make sure that I had the 12 that were committed to the team.  But there are some interesting ideas as it relates to this as I posed with my experience in High School and then going to the PAC-10 conference where I heard this term, minutes.

Before I go into that, I want to share with you what I shared with Coach Sean and Coach Ron.  Some questions that I asked them to ask of their players.  I did this when I was a high school coach and also with my individual meetings with players in the PAC 10 and my professional teams abroad to get my own perspective so that I could get to the heart of things as we entered into the season.

Teams are fragile.  If for example you carried 12 players as was usual with my team, here is what I discovered, see if this is true with your own experiences?

Players 9-12 want to play.  Players 6-8 want to start.  Players 4-5 want more shots.  Players 2-3 want to be the best player.  And the best player wants to play at the next level.  This was true of my high school teams, NCAA Division 1 and 2 and of course, even my professional teams abroad.

There is nothing wrong with this as you have been teaching your players all along to want more, to strive.  It becomes a problem when it outweighs the teams needs.  You know everyone needs to sacrifice for your team to be successful.  Your players need to see this and feel that they are part of the solution.

Here is how I got to the heart of the matter.  Try this.  Ask your players these questions and see what you discover.

1.  How many minutes will you average this year?
So of course, this varies if you are a high school coach because the maximum amount of minutes that you can hand out is 160 minutes (5 players x 32 minute game), if you are a college or overseas coach the maximum you can hand out is 200 minutes ( 5 players x 40 minute game).  Ask your players this question, how many minutes will you average this year and then add up all those minutes.  I usually discovered about 300 minutes was the norm.  OK,  that was impossible.

2.  Next question that I would ask.  Will you start?
In basketball you can only start 5 players, but the responses were usually around 9 players who believed they should or would start.  Again impossible.

3.  How many points are you going to average?
When I added this up, we were always going to be the highest scoring team in the country, :).  I tell you.  Usually added up to nearly 160 points per game.  Again not impossible, but you know.

What this proved to me and my coaching staff was that we needed to really address the players that sacrifices were going to have to be made by all, roles were going to have to be embraced and rewarded, recognized by the coaching staff.

This type of early discussion allowed everyone to feel that they had a role and an important part that was going to be rewarded and recognized.  These were daily efforts on our behalf to make sure we paid attention to all these little details in terms of player relations on and off the court to make sure we were centered and ready to drive toward our goals together as a team.

Before the other distractions come, you know outside expectations :)

Here is Coach Bill Parcells, I know it's a football hall of fame speech, but the message is clear about the locker room, the sacrifices that a team makes, why it is special and how winners and losers handle things.  Enjoy.

Bill Parcells What Makes a Team Great

Let me know your thoughts.  I love hearing from you.

Coach John Email

Pursue your Passion!

Coach John Saintignon
John Saintignon
Orange County Magic Basketball

There is always a solution

I begin this post with the notion that there is always a solution.  It is too easy for many to just say no.  Ideas get shot down by people who just don't want to think outside the box, so they say no.  But the true discovery comes when you are open to finding a solution, to be curious, to not settle, to find a way.  This weekend, I was at my son's Karate tournament and I am going to share a story about being resilient and helping others find a solution.

As tournaments go in the world of sports they are difficult to put on and conduct regardless of whatever sport it is.  Karate tournaments require a coach, require focus with all the distractions of music, performances, and generally people in the stands or walking around, excitement, cheering, you name it, it's all there.  These tournaments last the better part of the day so there has to be a preparation beyond the physical as there is a mental component attached as well.

Here is the story that I want to share with this weekend with my youngest son, Sebastian.  In this tournament my son was scheduled to compete in a kata and also sparring for his age group and black belt division.  No problem, there is a lot of competitors, there is musical form katas that are being performed, weapons, artistic, traditional, sparring, team, you name it.  There are also many rings in which to have these competitors perform, not to mention having to have usually 3 volunteer judges per ring.  Now there are also people that are on a microphone saying what ring for competitors to be at, each age division, each belt rank, there is also the music being played for those performing their routines with music, the people in the stands, cheering or watching, there are the other competitors so it can be easy to not hear all the time what is being said via loud speaker or via a judge who perhaps just saying something with his or her voice as to who should be at the next ring.  You get my point, there is a lot going on, many distractions.

Now at these events the members usually are represented by their coaches.  Which is a tremendous help as the role of a coach as I define it is to provide structure, guidance, encouragement but also to protect the athletes and be their voice especially in situations like this where there is a nervousness and anxiety with each and every athlete, regardless of the status of their belt.  In essence their leader.  This has always been the case with my son and his dojo.  However, not always the case in large tournaments like this can you pay attention to all the competitors as you are split between going to support one individual while maybe another is competing in another part of the arena.

Here is the teaching moment that presented itself to me this weekend with my son at this tournament and what I know we all want our children to be able to do.  My son was waiting 5 hours and had not been called up for one of his events, we sat near the ring where we thought that he would be performing along with entire team and never heard anything, so something must have gone wrong.  Did he miss the event and not hear it?  Did we all miss it and not hear it?  This is our responsibility, not anyone else. But here is the situation that is in front of us.  I am agitated that this has occurred as this is not the only time that this has happened at one of these tournaments, keep in mind that we have been doing these for years and this happens frequently to many competitors.  With so much going on, you can see how things like this can and do happen often.

I want my son to learn to be responsible and to discover for himself what happened. He is young, scared and not really sure what to do, but I want him to go and explore nonetheless.  I sent him to talk to someone at the desk, the announcer who can perhaps give him an answer.  Sebastian, tells him the situation and the response was that it was called, you missed it.

OK, I then tell him to go and find the Shihan that is in charge of the event, he goes to locate and doesn't find.  Next solution is to find his coach and have him go with you to discover what happened and again told that it was called and missed.

Now, I am deciding how can I provide a teaching moment for my son.  I take him with me, we both walk to the gentleman that was at the desk, I tell him that I wasn't looking for a refund, that I just wanted to find a solution and that one was to locate an empty ring, find 3 of the volunteers to sit there and judge the young man on his kata which is what he came to do.  No awarding of a trophy, none of that matters.  I just wanted to help find a solution other than leaving the site with a refund and a waste of time and a bad taste.  This was done.  My son was nervous as he could tell again that I was agitated but what I don't like are when adults are not always willing to find a solution.  It's too easy to just say no, there was no added time, pressure or responsibility that was to be put on any of the judges or the Shihan of the event as I did not want to get the refund as was suggested, all I wanted was to have Sebastian perform and get his opportunity to do that.

The teaching point that I wanted to impart was to show my son that there is always a solution, sometimes you have to help guide others by providing them with the option so that they can realize that it's not going to inflict any additional time, commitment, or pressure on them.  We then had to turn into a very diligent athlete, I had him ask question after question as to where is the next event that he is to perform, what ring is that going to be in,  to then go to the table, turn in his competitor card, and ask again and again is this where it is going to be at.  Now, how to provide the next teaching moment?

re·sil·ient

rəˈzilyənt/

adjective

1. (of a substance or object) able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed.

   synonyms:

   flexible, pliable, supple; More

   • (of a person or animal) able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.

   
   

The next event was sparring and Sebastian had to change his focus ASAP to able to get over what he just went through and stay in the moment, to recover quickly and bounce back.  This requires a bounce back mentality, next play, internal talking.  I wanted him to now focus on what was in front of him, big, quick, athletes who were taller.  A strategy that his coaches have provided him for years was now going to be needed to be heard.  He was going to have to rely on self talk to achieve the result of scoring points.  He did, he had a great event, finishing 2nd place in the sparring competition and left the building, satisfied that he was able to overcome and bounce back.  He was very pleased with his performance as was I.  

As a parent and as a coach that is what we are all looking for, teaching moments.  Pay attention to the teaching moments that present themselves and be prepared to teach on the spot so that your athlete can perform, feeling that encouragement, support, and guidance so that they can learn from you.  As a coach, as well as a parent, you are a role model.  We are here to help those who are under our supervision to help them perform and learn life lessons and to discover that there is always a solution.

Pursue your Passion! 

Coach John Saintignon

OC Magic

Coach John Saintignon