Maximize Our Team's Ability and the 95%

Doing what it takes to achieve sustained excellence in sports and in life is not normal.  By human nature, we are lazy, self-centered, and seek instant gratification.  We want the cookie, we don't want to do the extra sprint or touch the line, we want to take a break, we want to watch that extra episode on Netflix.

But to be great, we have to fight the urge of human nature.  To be great, we have to wake up every morning knowing that greatness is often a battle between who we want to be and our human nature, and to be great coaches, we have to know that our athletes are battling the same issues.

When I was playing in college, we had to do times miles.  One run, I had to run the mile under 5:50. I crossed the line right at 5:50. The whole next week, I had to do morning work because I didn't make it in UNDER 5:50.  

My coach taught me a very valuable lesson that day.  He taught me that good wasn't good enough.  I wasn't happy about it, but I knew the standard and I knew the consequence, and now everybody in the team knew that coach would follow through on even the smallest things.

It's one thing to communicate high expectations with our teams.  It's another thing to follow through every time.  Billy Donovan gave us a quote from Florida tennis coach Roland Thornqqvist where he said, 

"Your goal as a coach is to try to get your team to maximize its ability."  

It's easy to be complacent when things are going good. But if you know that your team can be better, you have the obligation to push those buttons to get them to maximize their ability and be great.  It might do some short term damage to relationships because being all that you can be really goes against human nature.  It is human nature to be lazy and self-centered and to cut corners.  But if our goal is to maximize our team's ability, it is our job as coaches to keep pushing.  It is our job to make sure that they touch every line, that they make every time, that they are on time and prepared for practice, that they do every cut the right way, and that they compete in every drill.

When we let things slip, we are letting our potential slip with it.  We have to be on a quest to expose our athletes to the truth about their performance and their potential and the reality of the situation.  We have to confront and address things when they come up.  

What we do as coaches is not normal, and what we ask our players to do is not normal.  If we aren't doing something normal, then we have to act abnormally.  It's abnormal to have the habits that it takes to have sustained success in sports.  By human nature, we are lazy, selfish, and do things that benefit us first.  But we have to wake up every morning understanding that we are in a battle with the human nature thay is within ourselves and that is within our athletes.  We have to wake up every morning with the mentality to battle human nature because if we aren't prepared to do so, we won't reach our full potential.

Donovan says that there is often a big, pink elephant in the room that everybody sees that a lot of times goes unaddressed, and when issues don't get addressed, they end up flowering into bigger problems.  So it's important to confront any issues that are there.  

When you see something wrong, ask them.  Ask your athletes, 'Are you okay?  Is there a problem?"  They might tell you the truth, and you might have something new to handle, but it's better to take the challenge on as it comes and not let the problem get bigger than it needs to be.

The best-case scenario is to confront the problem in a creative way that grabs and uplifts their spirit, but if the goal is to maximize our potential, we have to find ways to be truth-tellers.

95%

In most sports, athletes only have the ball in their hands for about 5% of the game, but that 5% carries so much emotional weight.  When we score, we celebrate and we get celebrated and praised.  When we make mistakes with the ball, we get down and we get criticized.  

But what about the other 95%?  What are you doing during the 95% of the game when you don't have the ball?  How are you helping your team?  

The 5% is important.  The best players make plays when they have the ball in their hands or at their feet. Practice, practice, practice to maximize that 5% and to make plays to help your team.

But also try to find a way to make the biggest impact possible the other 95% of the time.  The real value in playing is not just how well you play with the ball.  

Encourage your teammates.

Be in the right spot.
Get back on defense.
Box out.
Help your teammates.
Talk.
Take a charge.
Set screens.
Offensive rebound.

There are so many things that go into impacting the outcome of the game.  Don't be so consumed with the 5% of the time that you do have the ball that you don't focus on the 95% of the time that you don't have it.

It's important to see the big picture in the game.  Making shots will come and go, but the things that you can actually have control over are the things that you have to do 95% of the time.  Why not focus on being great at those things?