Sports Esteem

Things happen too fast during a game for one player to keep it all straight without the help of teammates. Good player-to-player communication is a key requirement for a winning team.

Good times for players to communicate are when they are:

• Able to help a teammate make a play
• Open for a pass
• Going to a new location
• Being crowded by a teammate
• Need help from teammates.

Good communications help other players know what to expect and allow the team to work together. Good communications are always spoken with words to prevent confusion with players on opposing teams.

Physical conditioning away from sports is an important part of skills development. Without physical conditioning, the body lacks the ability to make challenging plays. To get in shape for sports requires a variety of exercises to improve these areas:

• Stamina - The body’s ability to work hard over time. Exercises such as jogging and sprinting help build stamina.
• Strength - The body’s ability to exert effort. Exercises such as push-ups, chin-ups and leg lifts help build strength.
• Quickness - The ability of the body to move rapidly. Jumping, bounding and skipping rope help build quickness.
• Agility - The ability to start, stop and change direction quickly. Running obstacle courses and zig-zag running help build agility.

There is not a single exercise that covers all these needs. Athletes need to do a variety of exercises throughout the week to give their bodies the ability to perform better at practices and games.

Both in professional and youth games, some players are simply not playing their best. Not every player gives his/her best performance in every game or in every moment of a game. For those players trying their hardest, watching other players not making the same effort can be extremely frustrating. When this occurs, these players can respond by:

• Slowing down to match lessor efforts
• Playing at the same intensity
• Playing at a higher level to try to compensate

Players can always find an excuse to work less hard. However, players who can continue to play their best or raise their level of play, even when others are not, are learning how to become champions.

Courage: A state of mind that enables one to face fear with confidence and resolution.

Whenever an airline pilot saves a plane load of passengers or a firefighter rescues a child from a burning building, people talk about the courage these people showed during the emergency. But, what is often overlooked is the training and practice that went into preparing for those emergencies. Both pilots and firefighters spend a tremendous amount of time in training and drills to prepare for challenging situations. When these situations arise, this training lets them stay focused on solving the crisis.

While sports do not involve life or death decisions, players are still called upon in many situations to display courage in the face of their own challenging situations. These situations can include:

• An opposing team gets ahead with time running out.
• A series of bad calls, which makes it difficult to score.
• Playing against a team or another player who is known to be much better.
• Playing when special guests or family members are watching.
• Playing in a televised or well-attended game.

Like pilots and firefighters, players can show courage in challenging situations by preparing and then relying on this preparation to provide confidence. Fortunately, most players won’t be called upon in life and death situations. But, that doesn’t mean that players can’t show courage when faced with their own challenges.

Going for a win is the focus of most games. Yet, in one of the more confusing aspects of sports, the more players think about winning the more likely they are to lose. For players to be successful, they have to stay focused on the immediate situation. Any thoughts of how something may affect a win are thoughts that are not available for making a play.

Games test players’ ability to stay in the present. A bad call, a quick score or an increasing gap in scoring all provide things to think about that have nothing to do with making the next play. The more players think about the past or the future, the less time they have to think about the present.

A quick way for players to stay focused is to remember that the current time in any game is always “now”. Whether a team is ahead, behind or tied, players should play smart and with intensity. When players start thinking about anything outside the “now”, they open themselves up to mistakes. Good things and bad things happen in every game. However, until the game is over, time spent celebrating, grieving or complaining is just time that would be better spent thinking about “now”.

Players don’t just get better. They get better at many small things that add up to an overall better player. For example, passing requires getting better at things like vision, timing, balance, speed and decision making. If players improve in all of these areas, then they become better passers.

For players, it is important to understand how very basic things contribute to their performance in a game. From this understanding, players can start working backward to identify and correct the details that lead to overall improvement. Coaches often ask players to do drills or exercises that may seem irrelevant but may be one of the many details players need for improvement.

John Wooden, a former NCAA college coach who won 10 championships in 12 years, put it best in his book “When you see a successful individual, a champion, a ‘winner,’ you can be sure that you are looking at an individual who pays great attention to the perfection of minor details.”

Most everyone knows the story of Michael Jordan, the all-star basketball player who led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships. But, his path to the championships wasn’t so certain during his sophomore year in high school. That was the year Michael Jordan failed to make his high school team.

When something doesn’t work out as planned, there are always three courses of action any player can take. The first course is to do nothing and just hope that things will be different the next time. The second course is to quit and find other things to spend time on. The third course, and the one that Michael Jordan took, is to use the situation as a challenge and work harder.

Each challenge a player faces can only be answered from within. Coaches and parents can give advice, but only the player can determine the course taken. Not everyone who is challenged grows up to be Michael Jordan. And, not all challenges a player faces are in sports. However, every time a player quits when faced with a challenge, there is little hope of future success.

Because most coaches don’t assign “homework” after practices, players may come to believe that attending and working hard at practices are all it takes to become a great player.  At younger ages, this might be true, but as age increases so does the need for players to take an active interest in their own training and development.

Self-imposed homework tasks can include activities to improve skills, as well as activities to improve knowledge.  Players should consider the following activities for their personal practice time:

• Watching players at older age levels (not just professionals) and learning from their play.
• Discussing the sport with players who have been playing longer or at more advanced levels.
• Running and other exercises that help stamina.
• Doing push-ups and other exercises that improve strength.
• Sprinting and other exercises that improve speed.
• Practicing specific skills repetitively to achieve higher performance and consistency.
• Reading books and other materials to increase game understanding.
• Using older players, private instructors or camps to assist with skill building.
• Working with friends to develop skills such as passing.

There are many things players can do to improve themselves and players cannot rely on coaches to give them a precise roadmap for success.

Whenever a coach points out a mistake to a player, the player always has the opportunity to try and shift the blame somewhere else.  Not wanting the blame for a mistake is a natural human reaction.  Unlike in school, where homework eating dogs run wild, sports often leave a player or his teammates as the only possible sources for mistakes.

Trying to assign blame to a teammate is sure way for a player to become unpopular on the team.  However, players need to think through why they are trying to avoid blame in the first place.  Mistakes are a normal part of any activity and this includes sports.  When coaches point out mistakes, they are not looking for excuses, they are looking to try and prevent the problem in the future.

Players should consider limiting their answers to coaches to one of two possible answers.  These are:

1. I don’t understand.
2. No excuses - I’ll try harder.

The first answer lets coaches know that a player doesn’t understand how the mistake happened and needs additional instruction.  Coaches are there to teach and most coaches welcome player questions.The second answer lets coaches know that a player knows how the mistake happened and what to do to correct it.  The coach can then expect the player to act differently at the next opportunity.

Accepting blame for mistakes is essential for learning how to correct them.  When players blame others or make excuses, they often guarantee that the coach will be pointing out their same mistake in the future.

From childhood through adulthood, everyone always seems to ask “Are you listening?”  In life, as well as in sports, listening skills are at least as important, if not more so, as communicating skills.  In sports, player listening starts with an attitude and ends with an action.

Before players can listen, they must be first be ready to listen.  No player is good enough or smart enough to have it all figured out.  If this were the case, then professional sports teams wouldn’t require coaches.  Players must have an attitude that allows them to hear how to do things better or differently, no matter what level their skill or experience.

With a good attitude as a start, the next step is for players to listen and analyze comments.  An instruction from a coach that a player hasn’t thought about is fairly easy to process.  However, if a player is hearing something that the player thinks is already being done, it may be time for a talk with the coach.  There may be a miscommunication between coach and player that requires more discussion.

With a good attitude and clear guidance, the last step in sports listening is doing.  Putting into practice the things a player hears is the only way for coaches to determine if players listen and the message is understood.