Everyday is a Tryout

Everyday is a tryout is a mantra I repeat to my teams on an almost daily basis. My teams are a strange combination of dictatorship and meritocracy. I strive to give as much ownership of the team as possible to the players while retaining final say on certain matters to preserve order for the common good. Sometimes I wonder if the message being sent is the same as the message being received.

Everyday is a tryout. Four words that can define a process, a life even. They go to the very heart of what has become known as the daily grind. What you earned yesterday should be but a platform for what you will earn today. What you earn today is the starting point for tomorrow's growth.  This is what a meritocracy is.  This is what life is.

I have begun meeting with potential leaders of next years team. These are the players who have expressed interest in being captains. What I am seeking to determine is which of this group understand everyday is a tryout. Who among them understand that leadership is an action word, a verb, long before it becomes a noun?

(Hit the jump for the rest of the article)

Meritocracy - Dorrance and Harbaugh.

Regular readers of this blog know I am a fan of the University of Michigan.  More than a few of the quotes found on these pages can be directly attributed to former and present Wolverine coaches and players.  With the hiring of Jim Harbaugh as head football coach at Michigan comes a wealth of new material headlined by the word meritocracy.

1. an elite group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth.

2. a system in which such persons are rewarded and advanced:

A recent quote from Coach Harbaugh:  Meritocracy- Process to determine an elite Team. Progress determined by Talent, Execution & Effort

Now, Coach Harbaugh is not re-inventing the wheel as Anson Dorrance's Competitive Cauldron approach is well documented and has proven wildly successful for his teams. Coach Harbaugh is returning the topic to the fore and in using the use of the word meritocracy in defining what the Competitive Cauldron is in reality. 

If I had the staffing to chart every detail of training and games I would like to, I would adhere closely to a meritocracy approach.  First of all, I love statistics.  Yes, I actually do.  This will seem strange coming from someone who doesn't even keep simple statistics like assists or goals scored for his teams. Heck, I rarely know the in-game score unless a scoreboard is present.  Just ask my players. I am constantly having to ask referees the final score after matches because I have no idea.

The reason why I am not overly concerned about assists and goals scored is because I view them as a product of so many other areas of the game that can be charted or documented.  Statistics on the quality of one's first touch, the number of lost possessions directly attributed to a specific player and where on the pitch these occur are much more useful to me.  I want to know how many crosses a defender allows / denies and how many un-pressured services we allow. 

I am anxious to see the Wolverines take the field next fall after a spring and fall camp of Harbaugh "charting everything" and posting each days and cumulative results on the locker room walls for all to see.  It's a form of internal program pressure on the athletes to determine who the "winners" are amongst them.  These are the people Dorrance and Harbaugh want on the field of competition against opposing teams.  Winners, that's what a meritocracy is all about defining.