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Legendary coaches Geno Auriemma and Anson Dorrance talk about two of the most competitive and complete players that they have coached and some of the secret sauce that made them great. Both athletes could be pushed as hard as they need to be pushed and they both wanted to be told 'there is another level.'
Not everybody can be pushed as hard as Diana Taurasi and Michelle Akers; not everybody wants to be 'that' great. But as coaches and as leaders, it is our job to find that line for each team and each individual and push our athletes past that line. As Anson Dorrance said in closing, 'Usually if they don't achieve their potential, you were too soft on them.'
There's
a big price to be paid if you want to play with the best
Playing
at Connecticut is nice, but there's a lot more that goes into it than just showing up in Storrs,
putting your uniform on, and then running out of the tunnel in front of 16,000
people. There is a big price to be paid for that and not every kid
that watches on television understands what that price is until they get
there. And some kids are prepared to pay it, and some kids are not.
You
have to know each kid and know how far you can push a kid, and it's not
necessarily how far that they say that they can go. Sometimes athletes think they want to be the best or they say that they want to be the best, but they might not really want to do all that it takes to be the best.
Some
People (or Horses) Don't Know How to Train Slow
When
the racehorse Secretariat was training between the Preakness and the Belmont,
common training wisdom said to rest and pace the horse during this stretch
of training so that they don't get too tired. But Secretariat only knew one way to train - fast.
Secretariat didn't run slow and didn't jog. He only knew how to sprint and
to work hard. Everyone thought they were crazy for pushing the horse so
hard, but Secretariat ended up winning the Belmont by 31 lengths.
You
have to know who you are dealing with and how far you can push the team and
each individual player. Some teams you are unfair to because you are
trying to get something (more) out of them that they can't give you. Part of a coach's job is to find out how far they can push an athlete and push them a little farther.
You
Have to Be There to Keep Them Encouraged
Some
kids you can ask to do anything and none of it will be too much. That is how
they become the best at something. No matter how hard their coach pushes
them when an athlete knows in their heart that they have what it takes to be the best,
they will never be discouraged [to the point of quitting] - they will only take it as a challenge.
But
even the best get discouraged sometimes because even as great as they are or
as great they think they are, there is going to come to a point in time where
they will need you to reinforce in them that what they are doing is the right thing and that they are on the right track. That is what they need
from you. They can probably be great without you, but they need you
when they start to get discouraged because they want to be great so bad that
when they are not there they get discouraged and you have to remind them.
When Anson Dorrance was coaching soccer great Michelle Akers, they would have player conferences before international matches to try to build a players confidence. Michelle never wanted nor needed her confidence built. All that she would want pre-game was constructive criticism of areas of her game that she could improve in. There weren't any weaknesses in her game, so Dorrance would invent and create flaws in her game. He loved coaching her because she got better, and better, and better because she was always looking for ways to improve her game. She corrected every aspect of her game that had any sign of weakness and became the most complete player that he had ever seen. All she wanted was information on things to work on to get better.
The best ones to coach are the ones who want to be told that there is another level, and the challenge as a coach is, 'Can you take this kid to his or her potential?' 'Where is that line going to be drawn? 'Where are you going to draw it?' 'Where are you going to take this kid' is the question that you have to ask yourself. Usually, if they don't achieve their potential, you were too soft on them. You have to challenge them enough. The amazing thing about the human spirit is the heights that it can sore too. There are going to be periods when they are going to lack confidence, but the critical elements to the great ones are that they are never going to lack self-belief. So you ride that self-belief as long as you can.
