Building people to win a championship

Winning Championships is going to take a dedication to building people along the way.

Start with a theme.  Do you have one?  I have used many:  One year I wanted us to be a unit, playing the same type of music, so I used one sound, one beat.  I went off of what an orchestra sounds like, so we kept trying to keep with that theme.  Another was coming to work every day.  So I had to figure out ways to get that done.

Punch in and punch out, time card, blue collar worker, hard hats, lunch pail, a stone cutter mentality.  You get the point.  This is what I talked about daily, but I also had to show our players the same.  I did this with companies as well, when I would walk in and show their employees how to get everyone to buy into what you are trying to establish.

I hear of every business, team, saying that we are building a culture?  We are changing the culture?  What does that mean?  How?  By making them work harder?  There has to be more to it?  For example we clocked in every day, even brought a hard hat to symbolize as well as having a rock at practice to show the process over and over again, to reinforce what the message was to be.  We even had our players clock in, with time cards, to let them know that we wanted no distractions upon entering the gym floor, prepare for what we were going to do for the day.

What's your theme for your team?

When I was recently in China speaking, I told the audience of coaches about the lunch pail and what it symbolized and why we chose to use it.  In the box, I know my own boys, like it when I write something in there from time to time or put a nice treat for them.  But I also know when you see the people with a lunch pail in their hand, they are going to work, blue collar, usually outside, tough conditions.

For my players, I would put things in their lunch pail to help them remember and feel good and reflect upon things that will help them during the season.  Like a bouncing rubber ball, to symbolize what I have been trying to promote to them all along, being resilient, having a next play mentality, bounce back!

We would as a staff, put in definitions so that our players would know what it meant, like Resilient:  Bounce back from Adversity, move to the next play.  And then images, of our own players if we had it, or others that we could find that would capture the moments.

You think you could use this with your team?  Your company and employees?

One of the best exercises that was ever given to me was by one of my college coaches during my senior season at UCSD.  I was struggling, trying to help others, to fit in, to not shoot too much, to get everyone else involved.  My coaching staff wanted me to shoot the ball more and score more points so that there would be a triple threat on the team and make us a difficult team to play against.  I was not sure how I was fitting in.  My coach told me to go back to my house during the break that was offered for 2 days and go back to the place where I fell in love with the game.  To remember the smell, the sights, the inner self talk, and it was just remarkable for me to do that.  It brought me a smile, it reminded me of why I loved the game, why I played it.  Needless to say, I returned for our December Tournament and was selected MVP of the tournament and helped our team to win the championship.

I tell my athletes and others when they struggling to put that in the lunch pail to remember what that is like, even though physically don't have to travel there, mentally can be done.

In closing, just ask your players/employees what they want to be remembered for?  Remember earlier I talked about in a previous post about the performance skills and moral skills that are necessary.  Have them decide which ones they would like to have, now you do the same.  What would you like to be remembered for as a coach?

See if you can begin at this moment before the season begins to write your own awards banquet speech using those character skills you chose.

Thank you all for the continued feedback.  Stay tuned more information coming by way of a video channel and podcasts, so much to look forward to!

Pursue your Passion.

Coach John Saintignon
Coach Saintignon
OC Magic Basketball Club
@stignon

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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