A Terrible thing just happened....so now what?

Coaching is nowhere near simply knowing your Time and Score Situations inside and out, have a sound substitution pattern to maximize your players' energy levels, have a solid X and O portfolio, knowing how to structure your practice plans so that it flows well while touching on all the important things your team needs to refine or knowing when to help the refs do their jobs better (yeah I went there). There are so many times in a game that high character leadership must come before all of that.  This video is by far the best example of how to NEVER have your team leave a huddle after a terrible mistake and it does not matter what level of play we are talking about.

Yes George Hill should have hit his second foul shot. Yes JR Smith should have known what the situation was on a make or a miss. But the shot was missed and the NBA (Next Best Action) move from JR did not happen or from Tyronn Lue with a miss timeout situation. We can all pick that apart like there's no tomorrow.  But what I want to focus on is, what was happening, or more importantly, not happening on that Cavs bench after the terrible thing.

Coaching as mentioned before, has so very little to do with the focus of this timeout from the coaching staff (the next play).  In this situation, togetherness as a unit needed to be the NBA move. It is painful to watch the Cavs completely fall apart from a messed up moment. All that needed to happen (not to over simplify) was for someone to step up and get that group to move on together from the bad moment. Not to let that one moment kill their chances to regroup and play inspired basketball for game two.  But it is not at all what happened. Instead, the coach waited until there was just about no time left in his timeout before joining his team and showed, in my opinion, a weak way to confront the situation that really needed to be addressed- togetherness. George Hill needed to hear and feel from someone that he will get a shot again. To not worry about it. He needed to be given energy. Nothing like that happened. Instead, everyone stayed silent and just got sucked into the terrible moment. You will notice Kyle Korver speak up and Smith seemed to snap out of it.  Then he touches Hill (touching is a big deal in energy giving) and Hill seems to snap out of it.  But again, far too much time elapse and both players fall into the negativity of the moment. Where is Lue....why is every single coach silent not doing a thing to help keep everyone's minds away from going dark and yes, Lebron should have stepped up as well to try and get his guys going again.  But, the terrible moment was sealed when  Lue finally gets to the huddle and admits that they had a timeout left but did not call it. Smith and Hill want one more crack at it but the negative energy from their player leader was too much. This to me was the moment that buried the Cavs in that series. Not to take away the plan the Warriors had in place to beat them.

What needed to happen is not taught in any coaching course I have ever heard of. Nobody talks about these situations in coaching clinics.  But they are MASSIVE to building teams, togetherness and a trust culture.

1- Leadership starts at the top.

The Head Coach needs to tackle every difficult situation head on. Be true! Head Coaches are human and they make mistakes just like anybody else. Thinking about oneself when you have players that need you is to me, the worse mistake you can possibly make (forget about missing a timeout call). Be there for your players ALWAYS AND NO MATTER WHAT! (I have made the mistake of not being there in hard times. It will never happen again).

2- Player leadership

It is critical to any successful team. The best player does not always need to be that person. It can be anybody really. But most of the time, the guy (or girl) that has a relentless work ethic within his or her team will have the ability to get everyone's attention.  But when a player's leadership is being manifested, it needs to be supported by his peers and by the coaching staff.

3- Touch

It sounds odd but the touch makes it personal. It says "I'm with you". It helps tremendously to snap the mind out of the funk it is in or it helps keep it right where it needs to be. Tap on the leg, shoulder grab, hard hand squeeze, etc are all tremendous for showing a high care level.

Coaches need to work on these skills as well as all the other stuff they need to be able to do in a blink of an eye.

Maximum Effort is a Skill

Toughest thing to teach has nothing to do with basketball. Anybody that has coached or been in a leadership role business wise will speak for days on how vastly different each individual in their organisation is with respect to effort levels.  I have been coaching basketball for a while now and at all kinds of levels. I can sincerely say, that I have only coached a handful of players that get after it as hard as they can every single day no matter if we are talking about a practice, a game or a workout. The majority of the players I have coached, needed to be motivated on a daily basis to exert the maximum amount of effort. This situation is the norm. Case in point, see quote by Steve Nash below. Anybody that claims that it is not the norm, to me, are ignoring their role in developing the skill. Or maybe they think developing the skill is not part of their role as a coach?

I hear it all the time: "I shouldn't need to coach effort!" or "We don't deal with players that don't bring it everyday". Truth is, for a coach to be able to say those things, one has to look at the body of work to get to the point of being able to say these things. Maximum effort is a skill and this skill, so far as I am concerned, it best taught through culture!  The players that exert maximum effort 100% of the time have been taught to do this at some point in their lives and it has become a part of them.  It has become the way they do things. Someone or something has instilled this trait in that player or person. It did not magically happen. All humans are born with a psychological self defense mechanism (cognitive dissonance) that tells our brain to take the path of least resistance. To change that requires focused intent and specific goal setting.  Not to mention a heightened awareness to stave off the idea of coasting or taking it easy.

Here are my thoughts on how to best motivate your athlete. You will notice that I try to stay away from extrinsic motivation (although it does have its role) and focus much more on creating intrinsic motivation (change the mindset).

1- It's all about the culture

This is where strong leadership comes in. Having a reputation set as the type of leader you are will greatly facilitate establishing your norm of maximum effort every single day to your players.  But regardless of how great the reputation and how great the leader, it will be a slow and frustrating process unless you have players that already have maximum effort trait in them. These players must be your captains. And it must be well understood to the group as to why they are the team captains. Don't declare them as the hardest working of the bunch. Rather, declare them as the best mirror image of you, the leader. Common language that would be heard in this culture should be: "we don't do it that way here", " insert team name here way" or a player holding another player accountable for lack of effort (not for making a mistake or missing a shot). Once this type of thing starts happening on your team, you have set the culture to maximum effort standards across the board.

2- Mindset

Getting better every single day in the pursuit of constant and regular success, fully understanding that failures will happen just as constantly and regularly and should be embraced when it does, is the only way a hard working team thinks. No such thing as failing. Failing is learning. Learning is getting better. When the effort is on a maximum scale, that is the only way to maximize the learning. When your players or your people can buy into this very powerful way of thinking, great things happen. The group has a strong sense of mission. A strong sense of togetherness. The focus is always optimal. The athlete becomes world class in his approach to his craft. The leader, simply needs to sit back and make sure the emotional state of his players or people is balanced so that they can continue to be what they have become to be.

And to me, it really is two things.  Maybe other coaches or leaders see it as a much more complex predicament.  Sometimes the culture set happens quickly and sometimes it takes time. Sometimes the culture falls apart (seen it first hand and it's not pretty).  At the end of the day, if your player leadership is strong, vocal, consistent and the mindset is there, maximum effort on a daily basis should remain to be the norm.

As usual, share your thoughts on the topic in the comment section if you have anything at all to add.