Good Chemistry

The greater the team chemistry- the greater the joy from victory!

Basketball practices start next week. At the start of the season, there seems to be so many things to try to “get in” before the first game. As a coach, I think there are three obvious area to focus on during the first two weeks:

1)    Reviewing basic fundaments and cleaning up some of the individual skills.

2)    Putting in team offense and defense. This can mean putting in plays on offense, and developing particular defenses.

3)    Working to try to get into playing shape without creating injuries in players who may not be in the best of shape.

But the most important area of focus in the first two weeks is establishing your team culture. It doesn’t matter if you return many of the players from the year before. It doesn’t matter if you have practiced and played games in the summer. It is always a NEW team and it is a fresh start. In the first two weeks as coaches and as players, you establish what your culture as a team.

·      How will you practice?

·      How do you compete?

·      How do you treat each other?

·      How do you respond to coaching?

Every first-year classroom teacher was told not to smile until Halloween. The point was that it would always easy to go from having a tough environment to an easy environment, but not the other way around. This was old-school advice to establish an environment of discipline and maybe respect for the teacher.

When I first started coaching, the excitement of starting the season was to teach the basketball X/O things. As time has gone on, I get more excited to see what kind of culture we can create. It is very hard to change the culture in January- you build it at the beginning of the season.

“Culture” is one of the words we use over and over, and really don’t stop to analyze what we mean. In some ways, we know what it is, but we really don’t know what it is. Interrelated to the word culture is the word chemistry. Does a team have good chemistry or bad chemistry? As we head into the start of our season, I decided to ask 9 former players and managers about culture, chemistry, and “attitude.”

Sara Wood ’96, Molly Watson Fourdyce ’97, Kennedy Meinert ’16, Megan Young ’11, Jessica Howard ’11, Rainee Sibley ’13, Casey Williams ’15, Lexi Daniels ’16, Andie Allison Leibach ’04- we all asked to give me four adjectives to describe the following:

·      What is good chemistry?

·      What is bad chemistry?

·      What is a good attitude?

·      What is a bad attitude?

As one would guess, while their answers were different, there were some recurring themes.

Good Chemistry

·      Share Relationships- Cohesive, Bonded, Trust, Respect, Together, Unselfish, Loyal, United

·      Share Commitment- Hard Working, Disciplined, Whole Hearted, Resilient

·      Share Motivation- Hungry, Focused, Goal Oriented, Tenacious, Determined, Driven

·      Work Together- Communicate, Teamwork

·      Exhibit Humility- Accountable, Coachable

·      Positive- Enthusiastic, Compassionate, Enjoyable

Bad Chemistry

The most common adjectives used were:

·      Selfish

·      Cliquish

·      Ego Driven

·      Negative

·      Pessimist

·      Irresponsible

·      Drama

·      Disrespectful

Good “Attitude”

The most common adjectives used were:

·      Committed

·      Selfless

·      Humble

·      Reliable

·      Optimist

·      Accountable

·      Hard Working

Bad Attitude

The most common adjectives used were:

·      Selfish

·      Lazy

·      Unreliable

·      Negative

I really appreciate that these nine took the time to do this. The following became clear to me as I read their answers:

·      Each of them clearly new what a good culture involved. It was something they had thought about before.

·      It was obvious being part of a good team culture was something important to them. They knew the value of a good team culture.

After reading their responses, I felt like there were several themes that were recurring. My conclusion is that positive culture and good team chemistry involve the following things:

1-    The group sharing a vision of what they can be.

2-    The group sharing a commitment and willingness to work toward their goal.

3-    Through communication and actions, developing a sense of reliability and trust in the group.

4-    Each player being a leader by being positive, enthusiastic, and giving energy.

5-    Players willing to be accountable.

6-    Most importantly- individuals willing to sacrifice for the group.

It will be exciting to start fresh on Monday. Positive team culture just doesn’t happen. It is something that has to be worked on. It is exciting to see teams who are willing to go from being individuals to become a cohesive team. It isn't easy- some team succeed in building good chemistry and others aren't quite able to. 

This editorial written in GHS Budget clearly is describing a team which established
good team chemistry.