Winning Culture: #2 Commitment

The first step of developing team culture is about developing vision. But for the vision to be reached, a player needs commitment. All of us have heard the phrase, “talk is cheap.” Vision can be the “talk part”, while commitment is the “action part.” Coaches often say, “Don’t tell me, show me.”

The first season I was coaching girls basketball, in the fall I chaperoned a fan bus to Danville. We stopped in Champaign (where the girls tourney was at that time) to eat. One of the future players said to me, “We’re going to be playing in Champaign this year.” Obviously the player had a vision, but I had no confidence in the vision because they really had not at that point had an off-season commitment.

Stephen Covey in his book “First Things First,” deals with this idea. His message is:

1-   Determine your priorities.

2-   Let your priorities determine your actions.

3-   Your actions should be showing your priorities.

While this seems so simple, often we fail to show our priorities in our daily lives. Covey would say that we don’t “find time” for the important things in life, we “make time” for the important things in life. He says, “Things that matter the most must never be at mercy of things that matter the least.”

Kevin Eastman in his book, “Why The Best Are The Best” breaks commitment down into four types of commitment a player makes:

1-   Spare Time- “I’ll do it when I get to it.”

2-   Part Time- “I’ll do it every now and then.”

3-   Full Time- “I’ll do it when and only when it’s required, but I will do it.”

4-   All The Time- “I will do what it takes, and more, every time you need me regardless of the circumstances.”

According to Eastman, teams have no chance if they are Spare Time and Part Time players. Championships are won with All the Time players. There is no such thing as being committed on certain days- it is all in or not in.

The biggest concept Eastman discusses in relation to commitment is “unrequired work.” “Champion workers are the ones who are consistently willing to do that unrequired work. They put in the extra reps, study the scouting report one more time, help a struggling teammate after practice. They define commitment.”

As I look back at Galesburg teams, our championship teams were filled with players did “unrequired work.”

·      Shanell Jackson quietly going to the YMCA night after night to work on her shot whether in the fall during her volleyball season or in the winter during her basketball season.

·      Andie Allison and Jenna Bicego who played softball but since softball didn’t start practice until 3:30, they came into lift on their own after school.

·      Molly Watson being told by a college coach that the college players shot 100 threes per day, so Molly shot 200 threes per day.

·      Amanda Gunther developing her own shooting routine to do after tennis practice each day.

·      Sara Wood staying after practice every night for 30-45 minutes working on ball handling. And doing this every practice of her soph, junior and senior seasons.  

·      Brenna Saline in the spring before her senior year, never shooting a three because she wanted to clean up her form.

·      Jessica Howard shooting 10,000 threes in the off-season, shooting so much that she developed tennis elbow.