Every coach wants to get the most out of his or her
players in an effort to give his or her team the best opportunity for success
on the field of play. And every coach
knows that consistent performance is absolutely necessary for a player and team
to win, particularly in the close games against the best competition. These points are a given.
So here are a couple of questions for you, “What
makes the most successful teams successful?
What is their secret ingredient for consistent performance and
execution?” Here are two more critical
questions for you…”Do you ever get frustrated when your player(s) or team fails
to execute during a game? And what is the root cause of the breakdown in
execution?”
The answers to these questions are all
inter-related in a crystal clear cause and effect relationship and will
be covered in detail in this article so read on.
To get the most out of your players and to build a
confident, competent and happy group of players requires that you as coach
become an excellent communicator. Your
players look to you for direction as to how to play the game mechanically
as well as how to play the game mentally; which includes the why
of the game; why the game works the way it does and why you
want them to do the things you ask them to do.
As a coach when you combine the elements of how and why into
your teachings you begin to build a solid foundation of competence and
confidence.
The question that I posed earlier as to “what makes
the most successful teams successful?” is certainly a combination of factors:
talent, coaching, team chemistry, luck and more. However at the root of any team’s success is
confidence and the ability to play with 100% effort and 100% focus all of the
time. I firmly believe that champions are made, not born and I have
personally experienced that on my teams in the most amazing ways! But, again, in order to get your players to
perform their best game in and game out you, as coach, must instill within each
of your players the mental “trigger” of belief and confidence.
It is widely believed in sports psychology circles
that confidence is the essential foundation for any athlete to possess in order
to perform to his or her optimal level.
Without a solid base of confidence a player’s performance is likely to
be inconsistent; a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. This is particularly true with youth athletes
where high levels of expectations can make a young athlete’s confidence fleeting
and fragile. As a coach it is your
responsibility to understand the dynamics between the physical and
mental/emotional aspects of the game and how they affect each of your players
specifically in the following areas:
- How they
deal with perceived failure
- Their
individual level of expectation for performance
- Their
overall enjoyment of the game
- Team
morale and relationships between players and coaches
- Each
player’s mental preparation for each game or at bat
- How you
as a coach react to their mistakes and “failures”
- How your players’ parents react to their child’s performance
- The expectation level you set for the team and each player for their performance and,
- Your response to the mistakes and failures of your players during the game.
On my teams I have developed a coaching philosophy
that has done wonders to keep my players confident and happy, as well as
minimize the individual and collective downtime experienced after a “mistake”
or “failure.” On my teams we never
stress the importance of any single mistake or failure. We don’t even really focus on the score. It’s what I call Effort Over Outcome
coaching. You see if you as a coach or
parent micro-manage every mistake your child makes during a game you are going
to live in a world of constant frustration.
And, believe me; your frustration makes the game a whole lot less fun
for you and your child.
The last thing your child needs to hear from the stands or right after the game is their parent’s critique of their performance; it’s just totally counter productive because your child will shut down to it, or worse, it will act to affect their game negatively. Children have an innate desire to please their parents, particularly daughters and their fathers, so be very careful as parent and coach to monitor excessive intrusion by parents, especially during the game.
The last thing your child needs to hear from the stands or right after the game is their parent’s critique of their performance; it’s just totally counter productive because your child will shut down to it, or worse, it will act to affect their game negatively. Children have an innate desire to please their parents, particularly daughters and their fathers, so be very careful as parent and coach to monitor excessive intrusion by parents, especially during the game.
So, more to the point,
what specifically is my Effort Over Outcome coaching
philosophy? Well I cover that and 21
Mental Performance Killers in my book, HowShe Thinks is How She Plays, but I’ll share the foundation of the
philosophy here and why it is so vital in producing the confident and competent
athletes you so desire.
We live in a society
obsessed with results and outcome and judgment over such. Nowhere is that more empirically present than
in the sports of baseball and softball where statistics and one-on-one battles
are interwoven into the fabric of an otherwise team game. Early in my coaching career I can admit to
being a coach that put far more emphasis on outcome. I wanted to win and that is how I kept
score. I would critique every mistake
and would become visibly frustrated often.
As you can imagine my players quickly picked up on my energy and began
to play tight after a mistake (either in the field or a less than stellar at
bat), and it only led to the dreaded snowball effect when one error
would lead to four or five and one strikeout would lead to a half dozen.
The sad thing was I had some pretty talented teams that never won consistently. Why? I believe it was because I, as a coach, and we, as a team, were far too focused on outcome. We rarely came back once we were behind and we lost countless games in which we led. The worst effect of this style of coaching was a lot of tears from my players.
The sad thing was I had some pretty talented teams that never won consistently. Why? I believe it was because I, as a coach, and we, as a team, were far too focused on outcome. We rarely came back once we were behind and we lost countless games in which we led. The worst effect of this style of coaching was a lot of tears from my players.
Fortunately I had an
epiphany and discovered a different coaching path that has made all the
difference in the world to my players and my teams! About two years ago we started letting go of
mistakes and scores and outcomes in general. I know that may sound crazy in a game that is
built around stats and scores, but keep reading! Instead we focused on each girl’s and the
team’s effort. We only had three
goals: give 100% physical effort on each play, give 100% mental focus on each
play, and most importantly have fun playing the game. We told the girls that if you do these three
things during each game the results (outcome) would take care of themselves.
Think of it like cause
and effect. If the cause is effort
and focus and fun the effect will likely be a good one. And even the close losses are easier bounce
back from because we gave our all and had fun.
The end result was far fewer physical and mental errors, higher quality
at bats, much quicker bounce back from mistakes (so no snowball effect)
and…many more wins; now imagine that.
And the really cool thing is that my players began to play with soaring
confidence because they weren’t afraid of being scolded for every mistake and
we truly started playing in the moment instead of fearing a future
failure or lamenting a past failure. And
their mental focus enabled them to become more competent players.
Finally, all the tears I used to get during
and after the games turned in to smiles. So you too can build a
team of confident and competent athletes ready to win and have a whole lot of
fun doing it!
Thanks for reading! --John Michael Kelly
Check out my latest book, Loving the Game, here!
Follow @KellyEdge
