Sara Wood- Leadership

 Sara Wood was a great player and great leader at GHS. She has applied her work ethic and leadership skills in her career as a Marine. She shares her thoughts on leadership, which apply to any field we are in. What she has to say is MUST READING for anyone who is serious about basketball. The following are Sara's thoughts on leadership...

“How can a player be an effective leader on their team?”

Not everyone can be the best player of her team but everyone has the opportunity to be a leader.  



Leadership involves putting in time to learn not only about your strengths and weaknesses as an individual player but those of your teammates.  Once you do that, you can put yourself in a position to promote strengths and hide or correct weaknesses.  When I played (a hundred years ago!), I knew I was never going to be the best player on the team.  I had the fortunate experience of playing with great players like Molly Watson, Bonny Apsey, Steph Mitchell, and Ami Pendry who were all better players and athletes than I was during high school.  But I think what allowed me to play and compete with them was my ability to both lead by example and recognizing my place on the team.  Arriving early before practice and establishing a pre-practice routine and staying after practice to work and shooting, ball-handling and conditioning let my teammates know I was serious about not only getting better but that the team was important and that putting in extra-work was something we all could do. 

Something that I have learned both through playing basketball for Coach Massey and in the military is the concept of “not going internal.”  What I mean by that is when things get hard and you are exhausted it is both easy and natural to turn inward and start feeling sorry for yourself.  If you can instead look outward at what the goal is (winning the game, getting through a tough training session) and focus on how you can be a helper rather than an inhibitor the tiredness and pain become more acceptable.  “Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”  In that vein, leaders accept responsibility.  It’s easy when things are going your way and you are winning to feel good and even entitled to praise, but real leaders are made when things are tough and not going the way you want.  Leaders will accept responsibility and look for ways that they can change to make the situation better instead of blaming others.

Know your role.  Whether you are a 3-point shooter, assist leader, defensive specialist, or a practice player, know your role on the team and excel at it.  Be willing to do the hard thing even if it’s not what you may personally want.  I remember really wanting to start as point guard after my sophomore year as I had done the year before but I recognized that not only was Molly better at that position but that I would be hurting the team by not improving as an off-guard and taking a different role on the team. 

Do the work.  Whether it is conditioning/skill work in the off-season, watching game-tape, or just supporting your teammates when times are tough, there is always something you can improve.  Although it may look like someone is a natural leader, these are usually the people that are doing the work that nobody sees.

“What can a player do now during “stay at home,” as a leader to help their team as they work individually?”

While the current situation is difficult for everyone, it also presents a great opportunity to become a better player and leader.  Check in on your teammates to see how they are doing both physically and mentally.  Even without a basketball court you can become a better player.  Establish a daily routine that includes ball-handling/dribbling, shooting fundamentals (even without a basket), and most importantly strength and conditioning.  Speed and footwork drills to include sprints/suicides; strength work (either body weight or with weights if they are available to you); and some endurance training (longer runs, bike rides, jumping rope).  Equipment like kettlebells are suspension trainers (TRX) are fairly cheap and just as effective as traditional weights.  Websites that have HITT (High Intensity tactical training) workouts are great and rarely require much equipment.

Post and share your workouts with your teammates so you can see what everyone is doing and share ideas.  Since no one knows how long this pandemic will last create short and long term fitness goals for yourself and hold yourself accountable.