How’s your season looking? Are you excited about the possibilities? Well, keep your eye out for these four characteristics that could derail a successful season if left unchecked.
If your players do these things, they need to stop now!
- Unreliable. Years ago, I had an athlete who was tremendously talented. Athletic, skilled, and dynamic…when she felt like it. Other times she would go halfway in practice and intimidate her teammates with her silence. Am I saying that everyone should come to practice with pom poms? Certainly not, but a player’s teammates and coaches should be able to reasonably guess which person will enter the gym each day. If you’ve got a player who is outgoing and engaging one day and sullen and silent the next…she can really wreak havoc on your team’s chemistry.
- “It’s not my job”. Do you have any of those players that are happy even when your team loses, because their personal stats line looked good? Yeah…that’s annoying. Or those young ladies who are quick to point out that they performed their responsibilities properly, so Susie was actually the reason your team lost the point? In team sports, there is never a time to draw lines in the sand. Of course each team member has in-game responsibilities, but things happen and I’d hope that our teams would be willing to exhaust their abilities to help the team win.
- Resistant to change. Was there ever a phrase more likely to send steam shooting from a coach’s ears than, “But another coach told me to do it this way”? I never argue with players when they say that, I just tell them that I’d love for them to try it my way. If you’ve got a player who doesn’t immediately alter their behavior when you give a correction, then you’ve got a resister. In my opinion, that means they’re not a team player. I need to see an effort at behavior change. If not, it’s beyond annoying and we’ll have to sit down and have a chat.
- Negative attitude. We’ve all heard it before from our players: I’ll never be as good as Becky, I’m the best player on this team…I don’t have to work that hard, this team is undefeated…we can’t beat them. Ugh, Negative Nellies and Nelsons are energy sucks. All of us experience the occasional negative thought…that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean those athletes who you dread correcting because you know that something self-defeating will exit their mouths. Everyone needs the occasional pick up from the folks around them, but when you feel your second job is making that player happy…you’re in trouble.
These intangibles could take your team from contender to pretender very quickly. Keep an eye out for these four annoying habits and stop them before they take hold.
