Hard Work and TEAM Slogans.

There are a lot of motivational sayings that advocate working hard.  There are also a few that advocate working smart.  The best of both worlds is, of course, a strong combination of the two.

Given a choice I will take the player who works intelligently over the player who gives great effort more often than not. It's an issue of TEAM with me. 

Breaking down film for a friend this morning I watched a team who had two young men who gave great physical effort. I know for a fact both won team awards - one as team MVP and the other as team MOP - because their coach told me so.  I would not have selected either one for an award. In fact, both would have found it difficult to get on the field for me.



What caught my eye was how often these two individuals operated outside the framework of the TEAM. They could often be found outside their personal responsibility running teammates off of plays to be made.  It should be noted that the team itself had a lousy season. Sub .500 and really struggled to play TEAM soccer at all.  Much of that falls upon the shoulders of the two individuals under discussion here and a third teammate with the same tendencies.  They roamed the field and played over the top of teammates. I will be the first to admit this type of play stands out, especially in a zonal defending system. That's the point.

While these two individuals (one a center back and the other a defensive midfielder) were roaming who was covering for them?  What I found was two of the teams 3 best players working smart and  unduly hard to cover for the two award winners.  They were the "other" center back and the "other" defensive midfielder who were both forced to pull double duty in manning their own positions and that of the person who was supposed to share that work load with them.  These were the real MVP and MOP of this team, imo.

I found the following quote on Twitter this morning.

The privilege of work is a GIFT

The power of work is a BLESSING

The love of work is SUCCESS

I think the first two of these is very true and can be applied to each of the four individuals discussed above.  The third is both relative and subjective.  I know the young men who won the individual awards would say they were successful. They took pride in their accomplishments. 

The two who played TEAM soccer that allowed their roaming teammates to win individual awards probably could have cared less about the awards themselves.  Both were more distraught over a lack of TEAM success. 

I find the quote above addresses individual work ethic and can hold very true in that context.  However, in a team setting, the quote above has some major flaws. Namely, it does not necessarily address collective or TEAM work.

While Hard Work is definitely a theme of this article there is also a cautionary tale within.  I would never place the above quote on a t-shirt or a locker room wall for a team sport.  NEVER. The focus is too heavily on the individual to be appropriate for a TEAM sport.  The point being, when selecting a TEAM slogan make sure the motivational quote you choose to put on your t-shirt or the locker room walls is appropriate for a TEAM.