Growth Experiment: Energy

This post is definitely one that I'm writing to remind myself to continue to improve on.  So, before we get all crazy and talk about being hypocritical - I am putting it out there that I definitely need to improve this area of my coaching.

A while back I wrote about how important communication is between parents, coaches, and players.  There's the obvious method of communication - verbal - which is always what people always focus on when the word communicate is mentioned.  That is not where this post is going. Instead, we are going to focus on the less obvious, and more often forgotten, method.  The words you never actually say, but vocalize with your eyes, arms, posture, and gestures.

This season especially, has made me take a step back and really look at my approach to preparation and games. With all the progress that we've made, albeit inconsistent, one thing I've noticed that really made a difference is the energy of the team. I've spent more time in practices and pregame meetings discussing what the team has done well, how much they have improved over the season, and emphasizing my belief in them while encouraging them to continue working hard.  It has definitely made a difference as the first quarters of games have been engaging and entertaining.  For many coaches, myself included, this is easy.  You believe in the guys you've chosen to go into battle with, so it's easy to see the glass as half full at this point.

Then comes the part that I am going to strive to improve.  As coaches we all look to keep our teams playing at a high level through the game.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees a significant drop off in some games as the game progresses. One of the things I noticed while watching some of the less entertaining games (you know the ones where we lost by 20+) is that generally the drop off started when my energy dropped.  I noticed that it was happening before recently, but thought it was my energy that followed the level of play, not the other way around.  It's tough to watch your team make silly mistakes - the same mistakes you just spent a week drilling - and keep the energy and hope. I think that maybe, just maybe, if I find a way to keep my energy up, the team will find a way to right the ship and recover a lot faster.  If I can keep the energy up, then maybe the boys will feed off of that, realize that I do really understand that they are going to make mistakes from time to time, and won't beat themselves or their teammates down when they fail to execute successfully.

Like I said, it's something I am going to work on.  I don't like losing but, based on the game a few hours ago (where I really forced myself to stay positive and energized as much as possible), I may be able to do this and get the results I'm looking for.  Even though we lost, the team and I made an effort to stand together, supporting and cheering from start to finish, and it felt pretty good.  I've got a couple of games left in the season and am really going to remind myself to put this theory to work.

After all, this blog is about me learning and growing and I have to be able to admit my mistakes.  There will be an update in a few weeks on how I think this little experiment is going.