Total Game Plan

Your Team Captain

Coach Tully — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:08:45 +0000

What do you look for in a captain?

At the school where I coach, The Montclair Kimberley Academy in Montclair, NJ, you never have to wonder. Each season the athletic department spells it out with the “Captains Award.”

It’s given out each fall, winter and spring season to “that male or female captain who has exhibited the qualities of leadership, dedication, respect, work ethic, and being a role model both on and off the field to his or her teammates and peers.”

Coaches are invited to make nominations. At Montclair Kimberley, choices in the winter sports are swimming, ice hockey, basketball, and wrestling.

This season’s award went to the basketball captain, whose qualities were beautifully summed up by Coach Tony Jones:

“He was always one of the first to arrive and the last to leave practice and would always stay if his peers wanted to work on aspects of their game or get in some extra shooting. As if this wasn’t enough, he raised the bar every single practice during the season, challenging his teammates to expect more from each other. To paraphrase his last comments to the team, this young man told his teammates that they were friends off the court, but adversaries between the lines. Whether friend or foe, he brought out the very best from everyone around him all of the time and accepts nothing but the best from himself and his teammates.”

Through this entire process — laying out the desired qualities, asking coaches to explain exactly how the athletes meet these qualities, and finally rewarding the athletes with public acknowledgement — the school hopes to develop leaders.

If you’ve been coaching any length of time, you’ve probably had mixed success with captains. Some want the title only for a college or professional resume. Some get elected as a popularity contest. Others simply don’t want any part of confronting teammates when things get lazy or unfocused. This is why at least one coach I know does not even have permanent captains on her team. She picks a captain for each game, depending on their performance in practice.

Giving a captains award reminds everyone that being a captain is more than just a title. It is a vital part of any team’s success.

Could This Man Be You?

Coach Tully — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:00:53 +0000

Yesterday’s New York Times ran an extraordinary piece on Seton Hall University Basketball Coach Bobby Gonzalez.
Written by Kevin Armstrong and Pete Thamel, the article makes several points:
– Gonzalez is the only coach in the history of the Big East Conference to be suspended for sideline behavior.
– A longtime acquaintance says of Gonzalez, “He has a tremendous skill for being able to alienate himself from everyone.”
– “None of the three players who have committed to play for Seton Hall next year have qualified academically.”
The article goes on with several other observations and allegations, few of them flattering.
So here’s an exercise if you’re a coach or an athletic director. How would feel if this article were written about you or your athletic program? Going further, if someone were to write a profile of you, what would the theme be?
Finally, what would you like the theme to be? You have now identified the vision for your program.

Are You Great?

Coach Tully — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:01:39 +0000

Spring has brought the usual array of new baseball books, and one of them should catch the eye of coaches everywhere.

It’s called “The Genius in All of Us: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About Genetics, Talent and IQ is Wrong,” by David Shenk.

The content shouldn’t come as any surprise if you’ve read books like “The Talent Code,” “Outliers” and “Talent Is Overrated.” However, it does contain this one gem of a sentence: “Greatness was not a thing to Ted Williams; it was a process.”

Ted Williams truly was a great among greats. He was a Hall of Fame baseball player who aspired to be the greatest hitter who ever lived, and some people believe he achieved that goal. But this book is not about Williams. You can substitute any name for his, and the meaning remains.

“Greatness was not a thing to Thomas Edison; it was a process.”
“Greatness was not a thing to the Wright brothers; it was a process.”
“Greatness was not a thing to Abraham Lincoln; it was a process.”

You get the idea. Shenk’s point is that greatness is not something that people either do or don’t have. It’s something that they can develop. And that means that anyone can achieve greatness.

Greatness doesn’t come from natural talent; it comes from unnatural focus and effort. Shenk, for instance, says Williams would practice until his hands bled.

Same way with the great shooters you will see in this month’s NCAA Tournament. That skill didn’t come from innate talent; it came from hours in the gym.

Not everyone will practice the way Williams did. But, as Shenk says, everyone can.

The Agony of Defeat

Coach Tully — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:01:00 +0000

ABC’s Wide World of Spots had it right years ago when it opened the show with the phrase “The Thrill of Victory, and the Agony of Defeat.”
You see it all through March Madness as one team advances and the other goes home. It’s sad but true: the more time, effort and passion you invest in the process, the more it hurts if you fall short.
Last second-shots, whether they go in or not, leave one side overjoyed and the other one crushed. It really hurts.
But, as Tom Hanks says in “A League of Their Own,” “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.”
Yes, the hard is what makes it great, whether it’s an overtime hockey game in the Winter Olympics or the road to an NCAA title.
Winners embrace the hard. They don’t try to avoid it or work around it. They confront the hard every day in practice.
They live their lives preparing for the hard. They eat, sleep and think the way they must. What is your attitude toward the hard?

Another Blot on Women’s Sports

Coach Tully — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:50:21 +0000

Female athletes are acting more and more like their male counterparts. And that’s not good.
Wednesday night provided the latest example, when Baylor’s Brittney Griner punched Texas Tech’s Jordan Barncastle in the face.
Griner will be sitting out two games. Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said in a statement issued late Thursday that Griner will be suspended for one game in addition to a one-game suspension mandated by NCAA rules.
“I am very disappointed in the incident,” Mulkey said.
This incident follows other examples of women behaving in ways that are all too familiar in the men’s arena.
In November, New Mexico soccer player Elizabeth Lambert received a suspension and wide criticism for rough play that included yanking an opponent to the ground by her hair.
Tennis star Serena Williams received a fine and probation for threatening an official in last year’s U.S. Open. And Rutgers Coach Vivian Stringer drew a one-game ban for a violation of an NCAA bylaw involving the eligibility of male practice players.
Now, as with the other incidents, a debate grows over an possible double-standard. Do we want the women’s game to be a little kinder and gentler? If that’s a diouble-standard, I plead guilty. I don’t want women — or ANYONE — doing some of the things we hear about from male athletes.
That includes carrying and brandishing guns, breaking and entering, assault, academic cheating, recruiting violations, etc.
This is probably naive, and growing more naive by the day, but women’s athletic can be an oasis in the athletic arena.
From what I’ve observed, women have a healthier view on sports than men do. They compete hard, but are able to put it in perspective when the game is over. They don’t get haunted by losses (though I know a lot of coaches who wish the sting of defeat would linger a little while longer on women’s teams).
I have no data on this. Maybe someone out there does. But for right now, the anecdotal information we’re getting from women’s sports is not good.

Being the Best

Coach Tully — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:24:00 +0000

We just finished two weeks of watching athletes who fought to be the best. Now March Madness gives us another example.
Tina Charles recently became UConn’s career leader in scoring and rebounds and stands as quite possibly the best player in the country entering the tournament season.
“She told me when she came to Connecticut, that she wanted to be the best player in the country, and I would feel bad if she left and that hadn’t happened,” said UConn Coach Geno Auriemma.
It hasn’t. Charles and Auriemma have worked hard to help her reach that goal. And their example — a coach and athlete working together to accomplish the extraordinary — can help lead others to greatness.
For instance, how many players set goals? How many players share these goals with the coach? How many coaches encourage their players to form and then express their goals?
“In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia,” according to an anonymous author.
You can bet that there was very little trivia going on in the UConn gym. Auriemma took Charles at her word that she wanted to be the best, and he pushed her. By definition, becoming the best means being uncomfortable a lot of the time. You can never decide that you have arrived.
Of course, Charles’ stature will mean little unless UConn finishes the season the way it wants to, namely, with another national championship. Remember, as other stories unfold — spring training, the NHL and NBA playoffs, the endless steroid saga, this time with a human growth hormone advocate named Dr. Anthony Galea — UConn’s winning streak continues. It now stands at 69.
This weekend the Huskies can tie the national record of 70. If Charles is indeed the best player in the country, this is the time to show it.

Problems and Possibilities

Coach Tully — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:54:44 +0000

Every problem disguises a possibility.
And so it is with all the snowstorms, which, among other things, have complicated life for baseball and softball coaches around large parts of the United States.
Fields are covered with snow. One coach in Virginia told me he doesn’t expect to even see green until April.
Even so, the schedule will not wait, and somehow these coaches must find a way to get their teams ready to compete.
And the challenge will be the same as it always is: Get as many meaningful repetitions as possible in the available time. This can test the planning skills of any coach even when conditions are perfect. But with limited space, the task grows ever more complex.
“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination,” Albert Einstein said.
Some coaches will respond to the snow on the fields. Others will complain about it. That’s just the way it is. However, the coach who confronts this challenge with imagination will be doing exactly what we tell our athletes to do: make the best of every situation.
Here’s what’s important to know about practice planning under tough conditions.
First, it’s possible. I recently attended a clinic given by the New Hampshire Baseball Coaches Association. Steve Trimper, baseball coach at the University of Maine, spoke about practice efficiency. He emphasized that he has spent many practice hours in small gyms in the Northeast. He knows how to get the most out of limited facilities. It can be done.
Second, it takes work. You will make mistakes, and things will go wrong. But that is not excuse not to plan. The secret is to get the athletes interested in the process. Can they get their work done even when you’re occupied with someone else? One softball coach recently told me that she offers two challenges to her players: Can you make yourself better today? And can you make a teammate better today?
Third, think of weather problems as adversity training. Adversity — whether in the Winter Olympics, in March Madness or in the NHL and NBA playoffs — is a given. You’re going to face adversity during games, so why not deal with it in practice? There’s no greater gift we can give our athletes than to point out chances for them to grow. And this adversity training is not just for the athletes; it’s for you as a coach, too.
In short, these piles of snow are a problem. But they are also a possibility — a chance for you to grow in your practice planning skills.

Canada’s New Hero

Coach Tully — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:15:45 +0000

I first heard of Sidney Crosby years ago when a sports writer friend mentioned a young man who was supposed to be the next Wayne Gretzky. Hockey insiders had even anointed him “The Next One.”
Now, of course, this young man no longer has to be the next Gretzky. It’s quite enough for him to be Sidney Crosby. Yesterday he scored the goal heard around the world, giving Canada a 3-2 overtime victory over the United States for the Olympic gold medal.
At age of 22, Crosby has won the Stanley Cup and an Olympic gold medal. That makes him one of the most important figures in his country. Tens of thousands of boys ages seven through 14 are now dreaming of being just like Crosby, many more than who dream of becoming the next prime minister.
Should a 22-year-old hockey player even be a role model? Some people would say that it’s silly, that there’s nothing to admire about someone who hits a piece of rubber with a stick. Others would argue — correctly in my opinion — that hockey is just like any other area of life. It can be done either well or poorly, and that there are responsibilities and moments where you must either meet those responsibilities or fall short.
Crosby, even at his young age, has shown that he can accept responsibility and perform his best when it means the most. He’s come a long way since last year, when a poll said 52% of people thought Crosby was the biggest crybaby in the National Hockey League.
Now he’s the biggest role model in his country.

How Did America Get So Good?

Coach Tully — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 05:17:38 +0000

Today the United States sets the record for most medals ever won at a Winter Olympics. Whether the men’s hockey team captures the gold or the silver against Canada, America will own 37 medals.
By contrast, 30 years ago, when the 1980 U.S. hockey team pulled off the Miracle on Ice, the entire American squad won only 12 medals.
So the question is: How did the Americans get so good?
It turns out that the answer comes down to one word: Focus. A generation ago, with the 2002 Winter Olympics scheduled to take place in Utah, the United States simply decided to focus more on the Winter Games than it had.
That’s according to a Saturday story in the New York Times. It quotes Steve Roush, a former U.S. Olympic Committee chief of sport performance, who discussed America’s dramatic rise in the Winter Games.
“There was this feeling that it was the Forgotten Games,” the paper quoted Roush. “I think the desire by the U.S.O.C. to perform well as the host kind of changed that whole mind-set.”
So the reason behind the America’s success is not complicated: It was simply focus. It’s not the whole answer, of course, but that’s where the success begins. Once there is focus, then things like time, resources and energy follow.
For now, the United States is the greatest Winter Olympic power in history. That raises two questions: Can the US sustain that kind of focus? And what will this result do to the focus of other nations — nations that used to dominate in winter?

No-Cut Policy

Coach Tully — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:52:06 +0000

Before you ever cut a player, take this quiz. I found it on John Kessel’s excellent blog for USA Volleyball.
Making cuts always involves pain — both for the coach and the players. That alone should be incentive to cut as few kids as possible.

But there’s a better reason not to cut than that it’s a painful process. It’s good not to cut because we just never know who will emerge as a star. Sometimes the most unlikely candidate will do it. Who knows? You maybe be cutting the next Olympian?
I know one thing for sure — In my 20 years of coaching, almost every cut I’ve made has been wrong. I’ve kept kids who wound up not developing, and I’ve cut people who could have helped the team on attitude alone.
OK, maybe you can say I’ve got a lousy eye in tryouts. But if that’s true, then professional coaches have that same lousy eye. Every year, no matter what the sport, a highly drafted player will flop. And a player drafted near the end of the day will become a sensation.
In some cases, you can’t avoid cuts. There might be a certain number of uniforms. Or a limited amount of space and coaches. But whenever possible, keep as many kids as you can. Go with a no-cut policy. You will be amazed by who will amaze you.