This Week’s Question- For decades, we may not have used the word culture but we had in mind how our teams would look, how they would practice, and how they would play. When you met with your teams either when you started practice or before you started practice- were there any specific things you made clear about your expectations? I believe the first week of practice is so important for setting the tone. To an outsider, were there some little things or big things that you did in practice that were designed to help establish your culture.
Kathy Bresnahan- Iowa City West
I feel this is really an important topic for new coaches. Setting expectations for your players, not only in the gym but also in school and their community, is absolutely imperative.
It’s hard to remember my first year at West High in Iowa City but I knew I was taking over a program that had never had a winning season. From the get go, that wasn’t going to be an option. I wanted my players to embrace a championship attitude and you can establish this in a myriad of ways.
Practices. Our players always had to have their shirts tucked in. Not a big thing but it’s about standards and expectations. Coaches might have practice jerseys or team apparel - it doesn’t matter - just so the players buy into the fact they are a team
I was big into how we were viewed by their classmates and teachers. You are representing West High volleyball every single day. That means you aren’t chronically tardy for class, you maintain good grades, you are respectful and courteous. The toughest season I ever coached was when our all-state setter died in a moped accident the first week of practice and her mother died of pancreatic cancer eleven days later. There are no road maps to dealing with that amount of tragedy and grief. We handled the players with kids gloves and understood we weren’t going to have a “normal” season and that grief manifests itself differently with every single person. All that being said, we still had to maintain some semblance of standards. My all-star libero was consistently arriving late to her first period class. Her teacher came and talked to me and I talked to my player and she said she just overslept and assured me it wouldn’t happen again. The third time she was late for class after we talked, I told her to sit on the side line and her teammates had to run wind sprints because of her tardiness. The message I wanted to impart was that all of their actions reflected on the entire program. Was that a tough call for me, absolutely, but it was the right call. If you want to know how our season ended, watch The Miracle Season!!
It’s important for players to understand it’s a privilege to play on a team and it’s important they give back to their community and school. Little things like going to the junior high and having a scrimmage for the young kids, free summer clinics for young kids or volunteering at a soup kitchen.
One of the most difficult areas for many teams involves parties and what is the team rule about attending parties where there might be alcohol. It’s important that your seniors or captains set the no tolerance rule. Once again the seniors need to remind their teammates that each player’s action reflects on the entire program…attending those parties is not in the best interest of the team and have potential serious consequences for team success
Your ideas of a winning culture will evolve and improve each year but it’s important to find ways for kids to feel honored to wear that uniform!
Mike Cooper- Ottawa
The culture of a team is without question one of the most important keys to success.
Keys to building a culture that your players buy into:
1. As the head coach you need to be the hardest worker and put in the most time. Don't ask your players to do something in or out of season that you are not willing to do. If you want them to come in for extra work make sure you are able to be there. If you ask them to do something in the community make sure you are there to support them. Players know if you are not 100% committed to the team.
2. Treat your players like family, take an interest in them both on and off the court. If they play another sport make sure you attend some games to show your support. I tried to attend at least one of their club team games. They will appreciate the fact that you took time out of your busy schedule to watch them play.
Ask them how their day was and strike up a conversation about something other than the sport they are playing.
3. I always expected my seniors to set the example for what was needed to have a successful program. This included helping me plan a Christmas party for the team usually at my house. They also helped with different gatherings we had during the season. Allowing them to have input gave them ownership in the program and they didn't want to be the group to allow the program to fall into mediocrity. The younger players looked up to the Seniors and wanted to follow their lead.
4. I always tried to make the team special in our own little way that was different than any other team at school. We would put a team picture with info in the trophy case if we won a regional or 20+ games (back when you only played 24 regular season games) Those pictures are still in the Trophy case and players come back to see their picture. It was a huge incentive to work hard in the off-season. We also gave out awards for everything except scoring (Assists, Rebounds, hustle awards) we also didn't give out a MVP award my last 15 years. I always stressed TEAM first and sometimes players think scoring is what makes you a great player which is far from the truth. We rewarded hard work and hustle.
5. Finally make things fun and treat the players with respect. Getting in a kids face to criticize them never does any good. You have to be able to reach a kid and still treat them with respect. It's important to establish a culture that the kids understand when it is time to work and focus and when it is time to relax and have fun!
6. Remind your assistants that they need to be positive role models and can be the good cop when you as the head coach have to get on the team!
Evan Massey- Galesburg
Early Season Practices- In the early season I wanted to create an expectation of how we would practice. I wanted to establish that we would go quickly from drill to drill, our drills would be quick with no “pacing ourselves.” The problem was that during the first couple weeks, I also felt pressure to get everything covered before the first game. So that meant some time spent going 5 on 0, explaining out of bounds plays, press break, fastbreak concepts, man to man sets, and zone ob’s.
Early in my career, I would talk to the team ahead of time how I wanted them to practice. We would go out in the first 20-30 minutes being crisp and moving from drill to drill, then we would reach a spot where we would start doing some 5-0 with lots of standing and lots of me talking. Either the practice was killed and we never got any momentum back, or it took a lot to get going again.
Later in my career, we basically held two separate practices. Sometimes it meant going twice, but usually it was one time. We would go 30-45 minutes to start by just doing 5 on 0 work. It was slow and involved a lot of explaining and stopping to break things down.
Then we would take a break for 3-4 minutes. They could get a drink and I would talk to them about what I wanted in that days practice. But I wanted the mindset to be that we were about to start practice.
Then we started our practice. We treated it like we were just coming on the floor. We did our pre-practice routine and everything. Now we could do practice without having a lot of standing around.
Being Verbal- I was not as good at this as I would have liked to have been, but I tried. I especially wanted them talking on defense and supporting each other in drills. As coaches, we would verbally remind them to talk, but I also would stop practice and have them simply do one down and back. It was not the length of the run that was demanding but the players recognized it was a reminder to talk. It did not involve yelling at them, just a message of, “We need to talk more.”
Compete as a Team- I liked to do a full court layup drill with the entire team competing to get a certain number made in 2 or 3 minutes. We had a set number to achieve and had three attempts or then run. 80% of the time they got the goal within 3 tries. I liked them competing together and having success as a team to finish practice.
Team Activities- In pre-season we did a team scavenger hunt, team dinners, and a team goal setting meeting. These were fun but they also helped develop a sense of team.
Different Partners- An assistant of mine, Jay Barshinger came up with a great idea. We always did partner work as part of pre-practice routine. I had always assigned two players that were partners, and usually kept those partners the entire year. Coach Barshinger came up with a plan where he posted a sheet with the partners for each day. He had a chart so everyday they rotated partners. About every 12-15 days, each players worked with every player on the team. It seems like a little thing but I really think it helped break up cliques within the team.
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