A few days ago, I wrote about the five traits of a champion. The first trait of a champion is that they realize the final score is not necessarily measured by the wins column. I want to spend some more time digging into this topic since most competitive coach almost exclusively measure success by wins and losses.
Champions know the final score does not necessarily measure winning.
The final score does not measure winning, what measures winning is individual and team improvement. As a team, are we better this game than the last game? Are the skills we developed in pre-season and in-season practices being used in the game? The final exam of skills development is shown during the adversity of the game.
During the next practice after every game, I give the team a fifteen minute opportunity to individually reflect on the performance. Fifteen minutes of practice time is expensive, but experience has shown these moments of reflection has done more to build a team’s character and mental winning approach than any other effort of skills development.
Time to reflect
The reflection time is orchestrated very carefully. After the team has done a few basic warm up drills and done their running, we tell the players to grab their water bottles and meet in the center (either center court for basketball or the pitchers mound for baseball and softball). There are only two rules that are strictly enforced during this time: 1) a player can not use the word “you”, 2) a player must start every discussion point with “I feel like ….” If any coach notices that either of these rules are violated, it is their responsibility to quickly jump in and gently remind the player of the two rules.
Mechanics of the reflection time
The team meeting starts out with the open-ended question: In the last game, what did we, as a team or individual, do correctly? This is an opportunity for the players to vocalize the positive aspects of the previous game. Coaches are quiet. The first couple of team meetings will meet with midnight silence after the question is asked. I always prep the coaches for this event and ask them not to jump in. This is the player’s time to reflect and replay the game’s events. After many (usually not all) players have spoken, then I ask each coach to give his perspective on the positive aspects of the game.
The lead question for the second phase of the team meeting is: what areas are opportunities for improvement? Likewise, this is an opportunity for the players to critically and honestly evaluate the performance of themselves and the team. Coaches are quiet to allow for player reflection and vocalization. After a few of the players have spoken, I then ask each coach for his or her perspective.
Implementation of reflection time – focus on the positive
Before the practice, the coaches meet to discuss the positive feedback portion of the team meeting. Many times a player or the team will be struggling with a particular skill development, and one coach has taken the lead in setting the performance expectation of the team in the development of a skill. If we notice the execution of this skill, we will assign the antagonist the responsibility to highlight the positive feedback. As the head coach, I take the role of putting the key events of the game into perspective from the game and, more importantly, the season perspective.
The player’s response is to the authority figures’ feedback. All eyes are glued on the coach speaking and the athlete’s are sponges absorbing whatever is being said (ever doubt that a coach is a role model, never again after this experience). Player’s faces are beaming and many jump in with a chorus of “Oh yeah, that was a great play”.
Implementation of reflection time – opportunities to improve
The key here is to be careful to not allow this to be a “you / we suck” or “you / we will never get it” moment. Every time someone fails to implement a play or skill, it’s an opportunity for the whole team to improve and redouble their efforts to encourage the player or team to not lose hope and continue putting forth 110% effort.
Like the “focus on the positive,” the coaches prep for this section. The coach’s words here are chosen carefully to mix positives with the negatives and focus on the team aspect and performance. We never highlight a specific individual (we will do that offline one-on-one with a player) but instead we discuss topics that multiple players need to develop. The coach’s comments are chosen based on what we want to focus on at this specific practice.
As the head coach, I use this opportunity to review the areas for improvements and talk about the drills we are going to do during this practice and articulate the relationship between the drills and the opportunities for improvement. The purpose here is to bring meaning and motivation to what we want to accomplish in the next 60 to 90 minutes.
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