"Talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence wins championship"
Michael Jordan
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
This is a 3-part series on how to build championship culture from a psychological perspective. This series is on how to build that culture from the ground up because to win on the court, coaches have to win over the MINDS of their athletes first. These posts will help coaches understand the psychology of their athletes!
The core purpose of this series is to assist coaches in:
Winning
Enjoying their time as coaches
Doing the things in coaching you love doing (instead of dealing with bad attitudes and inner turmoil)
Gaining the respect of players
Having players rave about your coaching
and help them not have to deal with:
Egos
Selfishness
Laziness and unmotivated athletes
Bad actors
Instead, you will be focused on strategy, tactics and skill development to be championship contenders and have the best chance of winning it all every season!
Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
Looking at interviews of the top coaches in the world, like Gregg Popovich, Phil Jackson, Bill Billichick and many others, I saw a common theme of the qualities coaches look for in an ideal prospect. In order, they require:
Buy-in: players who believe in the coaches philosophy/system
Character: players who work hard, team player and sacrific etc.
Physical skills: players with high talent level
(AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)
The list of issues for teams are infinite. But, a lack in any of those 3 qualities will always be at the heart of most issues and they prevent coaches from creating a winning program. This is why I believe these are the 3 CORE ELEMENTS of winning teams!
Unfortunately, though, for high school coaches, they can't recruit and have a small pool of talent so these coaches will most likely have to take players missing 1 or 2 of these qualities. Even for schools who can recruit, it's still challenging to find players with all three.
So, how do you make the player you have buy-in, develop character and be motivated to work on their skills?
As a coach, you have to fulfil the PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS of each individual athlete which are(2017, Mulcahy):
1. Competence: being able to compete at a high level
2. Autonomy: having a sense of control of their situation
3. Relatedness: bonding with the teammates and coaching staff
In Part 2 you will learn how to tend to these psychological needs to be more effective as a coach and win more games!
Read Part 2 Now!
References
Mulcahy, G. Why Sport Participation in Canada is Declining. (2017, June 8). Paradigm Sports.
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