Always something new to learn.

I'm well into my 50's at this stage of my life. My goal each and every day remains to learn something new each and every day. Athletics and soccer in particular these last 25 years have been the impetus of this process. I have learned much. Lately I have been reminded there is still much to learn.

Over the years I have developed something of a reputation for turning programs around in short order.  Be it a high school program like LCC or a club team with Grand Lake United I have enjoyed great success in short order. As I find myself in the second year at Lima Senior I am being humbled by the slow progress of turning this program into the powerhouse I believe it should be. The talent is present, but the culture is not present.  My previously successful "formula" for quick turnarounds is not working as well as it did in the past.

As I have been analyzing the current state of the program after our first year I have been giving considerable thought to what has worked in the past. I have also given serious consideration to what is different this time as I formulate the plan leading into next season. I feel things are beginning to fall into place and progress is being made.  Writing of the process always seem to help me draw things into focus. You are privileged (or cursed, as the case may be)  today to get a glimpse into this process.

Trusted Agents.

When taking over a program and changing the status quo it is always good to have Trusted Agents or players who support your efforts. These are usually found in those who are juniors during the first year of your directing the program. Or at least I have been blessed to have found them in the junior class at past stops.

At LCC, we had a senior Megan who was on-board from the start. She took the brunt of resistance to change that first year becoming a lightning rod for any type of conflict that arose. She was strong and focused.  Our junior was Shayna who bought in and shared the vision from the start. She not only understood what the process was but also helped define how the process would be achieved. Plus, she was strong enough to stand up to the negativity always associated with change and the negative leadership that sometimes emerges in the face of change.  God Bless Shayna. Shayna was, at times, as good a player leader as any I have had the pleasure of working with.

With Grand Lake United it was my son Lance and his teammates Tanner and Adam who set the tone. Their expectations were high and became the standards the team held itself to.  Adding Alex to that mix solidified our vision, our process and how we went about achieving in the process. We weeded out a lot of the resistance to change and negativity over a 2 year period. Alex handled any residual negativity with unbelievable diplomacy and firmness.

I take little credit as a coach for what these young people achieved.  My biggest contribution was identifying the right people to lead the turnaround.  Megan, Shayna, Lance, Tanner, Adam and Alex were easy choices as determined through both their words and their actions.

I have admittedly struggled to find the same type of player leadership in my current position. This past season's seniors never did buy into the vision. They were never able to define the process and so we meandered through the season. Now, it is true TEAM 29 at Lima Senior put together the best season in recent program history. I received lots of congratulatory remarks about having won 10 games in my first season at Lima Senior. It is also true, TEAM 29 never overcame the past culture of the program. I firmly believe TEAM 29 should have had 14 or even 15 wins by the time our season ended in the tournament. Culture eats talent and strategy for breakfast. I was reminded of this on more than one occasion this past season.

Whereas in past coaching stops I had always been able to identify junior leadership to drive the team forward, that was not the case at Lima Senior.  For the first time in my coaching career I will endure two straight classes with below average leadership. And it might well be more than two years.  Our current sophomore class some has possibilities for positive, process driven leaders,  None are a sure thing.  Cole, I force fed into a leadership role too early. He has many of the qualities I am looking for, but the circumstances were not right. Can he rebound? Can I help put him back on track? Micah is not (yet?) strong enough to stand up to negativity as Shayna did for her team. Sam is home schooled and therefore not with his teammates every day. He does possess nearly everything else I am looking for in a player leader.  I have yet to identify the quality of leadership I seek in the freshman class either.  Now, the current 8th graders?  They have several quality leaders among them.  They are probably 3 years away from having the type of significant impact on our culture that is required to move the program forward to where it realistically should be.

Trusted Agents II

Be it in club soccer or in high school soccer, parents play a significant role in your program. As a coach I interact with the student / athletes approximately 2-3 hours a day in season. Parents, naturally interact with their children a whole lot more. Hopefully.  At every coaching stop some of the strongest resistance to change I encounter is from parents.  It certainly was at LCC where the parents of the "star" were adverse to her having to share the glory (scoring goals) in the balanced system of play I brought to the program. I was also not allowed to cut two players (and their parents) from the program who made it their announced aim to subvert everything I did.

Parental resistance was also a major push back at Grand Lake United until I did cut players / parents from the "A" team and regulated them to the "B" team or cut them from the program entirely. Much easier to do so when the coach is in charge and the club administration doesn't want to deal with drama.

And once again, at Lima Senior there is strong resistance from a small group of parents seemingly intent on feeding the "me" in their child instead of the "we" in our program, our team.

I included this Trusted Agents II section only because as I look to identify leadership, define the process and formulate how we will navigate the process it has occurred to me I could move the process forward by cutting resistance from the program and advancing the soon-to-be freshman class into key roles earlier than I would normally like to. Sacrifice the team for the program.

The Past

To be perfectly honest, it is usually the past that motivates the change of culture and buy-in necessary to accomplish it.  At LCC, the program had never had a winning season. They were hungry for a change. The biggest obstacle proved to be changing a few from "Me" people to "We" people.  With Grand Lake United we had players passionate about soccer and tired of getting their butts kicked by the "big clubs" so they too were hungry, eager and receptive to change,  At Lima Senior the upperclassmen are invested in and tied to their past by a recreational league state championship they won when they were in middle school.  I sometimes feel as though they view that youth league championship as the apex of their soccer careers instead of a building block.  There is seemingly little desire to strive for, let alone replicate, that championship success at the high school level.

In my coaching career, I  have rarely been so filled with emotion as the day I overheard some of our varsity players say,

"What does it matter? 

We're going to get our asses kicked anyway."    

This off-season a parent sent me an email regarding scheduling schools of our own size / classification that stated, in part, and I quote,

"I don't feel you have the talent to compete with some of the teams you are going to be playing nor will lima (sic) senior ever have that talent and I am not concerned about seasons to come I am only concerned about this season."

Yes, the son will be a senior next fall.  Yes, he is apparently worried about his son's senior season.  Did he bother to look at our schedule for next season? Apparently not. Yes, we have shed a lot of the small schools / easy wins from our schedule. Yes, we have replaced then with big schools who are comparable with Lima Senior in terms of their soccer programs. Yes, we have scheduled a tougher team or two. Should we still compete for double digit wins? Definitely.  

Change.

Some people embrace change  

Some people resist change

Sooner or later everyone accepts change or gets left behind

There is a certain comfortableness in the current program. For some, it's as if they "know who they are" and that's good enough for them.  They beat up on small schools in the area, Are capable of competing with mid-sized schools and similarly talented large schools. And expect to get their asses kicked by traditional big school powers.  It is the classic "big frog in a little pond" syndrome.  At the very mention of moving to the big pond to prove their mettle they revert to living in the little pond where they feel safe. This is the challenge I face.  Overcoming their fear of stepping outside their comfort zones to discover that is where life and their game begins, not ends.  

Sometimes as a coach we have to admit and come to terms with the fact we cannot positively impact players as much as we would like to.  Cases in point; 1) This past season I dismissed a player from the program after having invested a lot of effort and time in him. He possesses some real potential as a player. He's his own worst enemy. He simply cannot overcome poor decision making on or off the pitch and seeks to lay the responsibility for his poor decisions at someone else's feet. It's a shame. He's slipping through the cracks and will in all likelihood become societies problem in his future. No emotion other than defiance about being dismissed.   2) I had to dismiss a second player from our team. He made a poor decision, admitted it, but due to the nature of the violation of team rules I still had no choice,  He was visibly broken up over the consequences of his decision. 

Notice: I dismissed the first player from the program and the second player from the team.  The player in the second example is back training with the team this off-season. Lesson learned. He and we are moving on.  This is how we want all situations to turn out.

Conclusions?

We, the program, will continue advancing toward the vision I have for the program.  Team 30 may or may not take a step forward from Team 29. That will be up to them as a team and perhaps specifically to the leadership that emerges.  The players of Team 30 will have a mixed lot of individual success and satisfaction derived from their participation on Team 30.

And in the end, that is what we as coaches must always remember - One gets out of something what one puts into it.

I will put my all into this program.  The program will continue to steadily advance to where I believe it can and should be.

Team 30 will get out of it's season exactly what they put into it. Judging by off-season participation rates, that will be something similar to Team 29 before them.  Meh, by my standards.

Individual players will get out of this season exactly what they invest into it. Soccer is a team sport comprised of individual players. Some of our players are putting in the effort and time to better themselves. Others, not so much. 

The more one is invested in a process, 

the more difficult it is for them 
to give up or quit. 

When the 2017 season concludes we will look back on the progress of the program, the accomplishments of the team and the progress of the individuals.  Will we be satisfied?

Culture can win OR lose games.

I have not written much these past few months as I have returned to coaching high school.  I find it difficult to write in-season for a couple of reasons. One, I just don't have a lot of free time. Coaching high school soccer is a full time job in and of itself.  Secondly, most of what I would write about would be about the team I am coaching and because there would exist a need to be critical I do not believe it would be productive to do so.  Today I am going to tackle the broad subject of culture. And, yes, I will be using my current team to illustrate some of the points made.  I will also be using former teams to tell this story.

Some years ago I became a member of an email group of coaches from around the country. This group has been a wonderful resource for me. They have been mentors to me and perhaps I to them as well.  Upon joining the group one of the first things that struck me was how much of the discussion was devoted to team culture.  I will admit I found this a bit of a turnoff at first as I was looking for tidbits on technical and tactical issues. As I read through the discussions on culture I began to understand the importance of team culture and the reason this group of successful coaches devoted so much time to it. I have since become a student of team culture and advocate of working to develop a strong positive one in the teams I coach.

It doesn't happen overnight.

I took over a club team a few years ago. They had not had much success in terms of won / loss record and were looked upon as a team whose players could not make the team of the best club in the area. That first season we went .500 and most were ecstatic with having achieved that.  The parents attributed it to my coaching. While grateful of their acknowledgement of my contributions I knew I had made some difference but not enough. And so the transformation of that teams culture begun.

I knew from past experiences in college, club and even high school that when a coach recruits players to the team it can be difficult to find the right mix for team chemistry.  Most coaches select team members on talent alone and give little consideration to how team members interact with one another, with coaches, with referees and others in general. This is the lesson I was learning through interaction with the email group of coaches.

The second year with that club team saw about a 30% turnover in players. We held "tryouts" and found a few players who were both more talented than the ones they replaced and were better fits to the team culture I was striving to develop.  The team improved their on-field results that year actually winning a league title.  It was a lower level league, but a title nonetheless.

This is where things began to get very interesting.

It was apparent to me our culture needed strengthening.  We would need to lose some players who did not fit with what we were building. I put it to the team to recruit teammates they thought could raise the team to another level. A very interesting thing happened.  The players recruited some of the very best players from the region. They also refused to recruit some of the very best players from the region.  They were very discerning about who they wanted to join the team. Even beyond that, they recruited players to certain and specific positions with the intent of replacing soon to be former teammates who were not interested in buying in to the rapidly developing team culture.

The result of their efforts was a group of 40 players trying out for one team.  We quickly made a decision to form two teams - an "A" team and a "B" team.  After some realized they would no longer be a member of "the" team they had been playing on, they sought greener pastures elsewhere.  Not surprisingly these were the players who were disruptive to the team culture being established.  They were offered spots on the second team but declined because they viewed themselves as better than that.  Within a years time most either sought to rejoin our program or had given up the sport of soccer,

This brings us to present day.

I am now coaching a high school team that has experienced some modicum of success in past high school season. One of the things that has blunted or perhaps even stagnated the changing of culture is the fact the seniors of this group won a recreational state championship when in middle school.  To call it a state championship is even a bit of a misnomer as only a portion of the state was represented at these championships. Nonetheless, this is what they have hung their hat on and have stubbornly refused to embrace advancement of culture that could take them to the next level.  As a high school team they are as physically gifted and technically talented as any I have been associated with. Tactically they still have proclivity to play as they did in 8th grade which consisted to being bigger faster stronger than other teams their age.  I know because I watched them play when they were in middle school.

While we have made some advancements in play this season their old comfort zone beckons frequently. Against a weaker team they will goal hunt reverting to playing dump and run with little to no regard to actually doing so in a constructive and productive manner.  Our center midfielders become forward as do our outside backs. Players almost completely and totally abandon positional responsibilities in search of goal scoring opportunities. As a result, we have struggled in games we should have dominated and had some unexpected, even unpleasant results.

One the other hand, we did find out early in the season that this team was capable of playing with some of the very best in the state. Although excited about this at the time I am now not sure this was such a good thing.  After playing with the eventual league champions for the entire game early in the season we took a huge step backwards against the other two perennial league powers getting blown out by both. All the brilliant play from early in the season completely disappeared in those two matches as players reverted to a previous comfort zone.

Team culture can win games for you.

Team culture can lose games for you.

Both of the above statements are abundantly true.  It was a three to four year process with club team to develop a strong culture of like-minded athletes capable to facing adversity, sticking together with one heartbeat and overcoming that adversity as a united team. My current high school team is not remotely close to having this type of string positive team culture.  Seeing this senior class graduate will be a good thing overall for our program.  That's not to say I dislike this class or any of its members.  They are good kids by and large.  I like each of them.  They have just been resistant to change. I consider them stuck in their ways with little interest in changing even if it were of benefit to them to do so.  I understand this.  This team's culture has cost them results this season. I'm not sure they realize this and if they do realize it, they don't seem to mind. They are comfortable with who they are and what their culture is.

The challenge from a program standpoint is to make incremental improvements in the programs culture moving forward. Can we develop a stronger positive team culture with next years team? This is the key to making progress in the process. Some refer to it as getting a program over the hump or taking a team to the next level. I am confident that with the right attitude, the right team culture, next seasons team will be better than this seasons team has been.  The 2017 team can achieve to greater heights than this years team dared to dream of provided the team culture makes advances,   If the team members are devoted to making team culture work for us instead of against us great things await.

How to Increase Your Value to Your Team.

A very self-aware player recently asked of me, what do I need to do in order to increase my value to the team? This question came about in the context of what the athlete could do during the off season to improve for next fall. Now, I am not the athlete's coach so I cannot speak directly to what areas his coach feels should be the focus of off season work. However, I can address the general concept of increasing one's value to the team.

First and foremost is the players approach to the team, his attitude. As positivity and negativity are both contagious a player with a positive attitude is something all coaches prize.  The conscious recognition that one's attitude is a choice is a starting point. One can decide to have a positive attitude, or not as the case may be. So how we approach the decision making progress in regards to attitude is very important.

Sometimes we have athletes who are very good at talking the talk but struggle when it comes to walking the walk. That is, their words and actions are not always in one accord. So, we might ask if the player is mature enough to take things seriously. Can they adhere to the details of the process even when they would rather not do so?

Another way to phrase this is to ask. what are you personally willing to sacrifice towards the success of the team? Is there present in the student / athlete a recognition that sacrificing for the betterment of the team also promotes an athletes personal agenda? The trendy phrase today is When We Replaces Me. Is the athlete willing to place We before Me?

Respecting authority is another prime example of attitude.  If the athlete disrespects authority this is a manifestation of bad attitude. And when talking about authority the list includes parents, teachers, referees, coaches, captains and those placed in charge of organizing and directing play on the field - goalkeepers for instance. Differing opinions can be a strength to a team, but only when they are expressed at the appropriate time and in a respectful manner. Arguing with referees, coaches, captains, teammates during a match or even during active training is not appropriate.

Much of what has been discussed to this point  might be classified as a players maturity level.  Is the student / athlete mature enough to handle constructive criticism in the spirit it is offered or does the student athlete take such efforts personally as a condemnation of his play?  Can the player give constructive criticism to teammates in the spirit and tone of helping as opposed to placing blame or condemning their play?

How does the athlete deal with adversity? Is there self-discipline and mental toughness present that manifests itself in determination and resiliency to overcome?  These are traits prized by coaches and teammates alike.  They go to the issue of trust.  Is the player worthy of being trusted? Is he honest in his dealings with others - his teammates, his coaches, the referees ... himself?

Attitude is so very important, but has been so overused in the context of team sports it has lost some of its effectiveness in identifying what it is to be a good teammate.  And being a good teammate is at the core of increasing one's value to his team. At the root of being a good teammate is the ability to build productive relationships with all other members of the team.

When an athlete is a good teammate bringing positive energy and enthusiasm to the team and its pursuit of common goals, good things will follow.  Sure, working on technical skill sets and tactical understanding are important and improving in these areas will enhance a players value to his team, but we must not forget the difference attitude makes - be it good attitude or bad attitude.  Be of service to your team and its members and good things will follow.

Team Chemistry

I've not been writing as much as I am actively involved as an assistant coach / GK coach with a high school team. It's difficult to write in-season and not use the team I am coaching as material for the articles so I have refrained from writing at all. I'm breaking away from that line of thinking today because I believe there is something happening worth sharing with you. It involves team chemistry.

To be honest, our team chemistry is average at best which is to say we have good days and some not so good days. I've been doing a lot of thinking of ways to improve the team's chemistry and I'm not talking about the ever popular team bonding activities although those certainly have value. If you are a regular follower of this blog you will appreciate that my mind often takes the path less traveled and perhaps that is the case in this situation as well.

Not to say that our team has a problem, but I believe it important to properly identify any situation before attempting to address the situation.  What factors are involved and at play influencing the situation? This is what I have come up with for team chemistry in our situation.

People
As individual members we are drawn together as a group by a common interest. In this case that common interest is soccer.  We are a diverse group in more than a few ways. This diversity brings a complexity dynamic to the group that I believe is a key to our team chemistry. As we witness in the world about us, diversity can tear us apart or make us incredibly strong.  I am not sure we as a team have fully determined which it will be for us at this point in time. Diverse team members will have diverse points of views based on their experiences, knowledge and skill levels. The respect afforded to each diverse opinion might actually be more important than the opinion itself which brings us to,

Interactions
How members of a group interact with one another directly impacts the efficiency and effectiveness of a groups performance. In a basic sense each player must have and accept a defined role. In a broader sense each player must embrace his role within the standards set by the team. There must also be appropriate enforcement of the standards set for the team.

The most prominent or noticeable role on a team is that of leadership.  When there is no formal leadership structure in a group setting different people will step in to fill the role of leadership at different times, If the group is blessed with a multitude of quality leaders this might be a good thing - I have been part of teams who operated under a leadership council rather than captains. It has been my experience teams operate best when there is a single unified direction for the team orchestrated by a single voice or perhaps two voices in harmony with one another.

Effective teams are not led by dictators.  Each individual of a team is equally important as any other individual. Therefore secondary leadership roles are important to acknowledge, foster and grow. In a high school setting, those filling secondary leadership roles are often next years leaders in waiting. It is important these secondary leaders accept their role as subordinate to the present team leaders,

A struggle for leadership of the team can be necessary at times, but be assured a team will not perform to its full potential during a time of struggle for leadership. There might be flashes or glimpses of what the team is capable of, but when the leadership voice is not unified peak performance will be difficult to sustain.

In a battle for leadership it is often an individual who feels slighted over not being a named leader who attempts to force his way into a leadership role by taking on responsibilities of leadership thereby intentionally intruding on the accepted and expected role of designated leadership. This is where established standards and accepted norms for the team must guide the process.

Standards are the written rules that every team member is expected to conform to while norms are the often unwritten or informal rules all team members are expected to conform to. The norms are a teams culture and whether the norms are functional or dysfunctional a team tends to sanction those who violate the norms. A sign of growth would be when a team member or members take a stand against a dysfunctional team norm and gets the team to change it, Such a person would be viewed as a team catalyst.

Catalysts
A team catalyst is usually someone in a leadership role on the team. It does not have to be a designated leader as a secondary leader can aptly fill this role as well, but it  is probably best if it is a leader - the teams coach or team captain. Leaders provide direction, structure activities, provide and share information, promote positive relationships, support and encouragement,

Motivation or Energy
Every team has an energy all its own.  It is defined by how the individual energy of its members interacts with that of other team members. When individuals are motivated by team goals energy tends to be very positive. When individual agendas permeate a team its energy is usually very negative.

I do believe there is a general misconception that good team chemistry is devoid of conflict. This goes back to our diversity as a team. We will have many different perspectives on any given situation and an honest open exchange of ideas and opinions should be encouraged. The difference between a healthy team chemistry and a toxic team chemistry is found in the level of acceptance to what is ultimately agreed upon by the team as a whole.

It might be individuals believe they should be designated leaders on a team, captains, but were passed over for others. How those individuals deal with this disappointment can be critical to identifying team chemistry.  If they actively seek to continue campaigning for a leadership role or attempt to sabotage the recognized leadership negative energy will be rampant on a divided team.

Negative energy clouds the vision of what a team aspires to be.

Therefore a primary responsibility of leadership is to promote positive energy. Goals to motivate both the individual team members and the collective team are necessary to focus our energy in a single direction much like a laser beam.  Goals are often specific and measurable, but a vision... a vision is a collective goal of what a team can aspire to be.  A vision is what a team draws its inspiration and passion from as a collective group. A vision can be what makes a team an attraction,

Attraction or Cohesiveness
Growth in team numbers occurs when the team is an attractive destination. Before this takes place team members must be appreciative of being a member of the team and feel an attraction and devotion to the team. This cohesiveness fosters and facilitates a spirit of collaboration, mutual support and an infectious spontaneity of positive energy while also reducing counter productive conflict rooted in personal agendas.

Adversity
Collectively overcoming adversity is the surest way to develop cohesiveness. Trust is the single most important ingredient to collectively overcoming adversity.  It is easy to trust one another in an atmosphere of positivity but can a team sustain its trust in one another when adversity is encountered?  Will blame be cast or excuses made when things go against us? Or will we look into each others eyes to find a determination, respect and truthful trust that we draw collective strength from?

Honesty and Trust
Trust is the glue of life, the most essential ingredient in effective communication. Trust is the foundational principal that holds all relationships together. And relationships is what team chemistry is all about.  Without honesty their can be no trust and the resulting poor relationship will negatively impact the quality of performance ... and life.  Differing opinions and even constructive conflict are healthy parts of honest and productive relationships. It's only when individual agendas refuse to yield to the collective good that things turn negative and destructive.

Simplicity
Like so many things in life team chemistry is a very simple thing.  When the focus is on WE rather than ME good team chemistry exists.  When ME is the individuals primary motivation conflict exists with WE and team chemistry suffers.  It really is that simple,

In conclusion it seems to me our diversity is not the strength it might be. The commonality we share is soccer in a general sense.  It appears to me we must find a way to share soccer in a deeper way.  I sometimes refer to a difference between playing at soccer and actually playing soccer. That could also describe our current team chemistry situation.  We say a lot of the right things when in the collective but are not completely honest with one another. There is a reluctance to call someone out when they deviate from team standards or expected norms. Consequentially individualism is allowed to flourish over an attitude and atmosphere of the team.

I am not being negative in this assessment.

I am being honest.

In simple terms, we need more people putting WE ahead of ME,

When WE replaces ME.

I recently purchased an e-book titled When "WE" replaces "Me" by Denise Schilte-Brown. I'm not entirely sure why I did and admittedly fretted over having the luxury of spending $10 necessary to do so given our current work status.  I suppose it was the title that captured my attention. This is a short book of 120 pages written in novel form. I cannot say it is especially well written yet it delivers its message in a powerful and meaningful way. It is the best $10.00 I have spent in a very long time.

Throughout reading this wonderful book I was reminded of my son Lance's spring soccer team.  We achieved extraordinarily on the pitch and I think everyone would be in agreement it was in no small part to our team culture we carried with us on and off the field.  Many of the concepts and ideas addressed in When "WE" replaces "Me" we had amazingly stumbled upon. From shaking one another's hands in greeting and departure to caring enough for one another to help each other out on on the training pitch and in life.  WE definitely replaced ME over the course of those 3 extraordinary years and especially culminating in that last year together.  The comparisons and similarities drawn to our own team is not why I am in love with this book though,

It is the message delivered by a women's soccer coach to a men's football coach and his team that makes this book worth the investment. It is a message pertinent to athletics and even more so to life, There are four simple yet effective principles put into play:

1) Positive Self-talk
2) Make Time for Fun
3) A Servant's Heart
4) Breathe and Be Here

I like very much that I have come to incorporate some of the ideas presented in When "WE" replaces "Me" into my coaching philosophy and life. I am in awe over what I have learned in the two short days it took to read this book.  I am motivated with enthusiasm previously unknown to explore more thoroughly the concepts, ideas and philosophies that have obviously touched me deeply.  I highly recommend purchasing a copy and giving When "WE" replaces "Me" a read. You will not regret it.