Beyond the Scoreboard: One Word
Coaches provide their desired one word descriptor for their teams and programs
Beyond the Scoreboard, a series of writings on things impacting coaching beyond X’s and O’s, is brought to you by Sideline Interactive.
Author Jon Gordon is an influence on the coaching community. Many coaches have read his books and even assigned some of his works to their teams’ reading lists.
One of those works asks readers to set a one-word goal for the year to help shape positive change in their lives. I drew some inspiration from this exercise and posed this Twitter question to the basketball coaching community recently:
My aim was to get coaches thinking about the ONE quality they want their teams and programs to most exhibit. Basketball Coaching Twitter came through with responses! Let’s examine them.
First, I think we have a Ted Lasso fan!
There were many similar responses such as “relentless”…
Radius Athletics @RadiusAthletics
One word: What do you want your team to be known for? One word! 👇And the cousins of “relentless”…
Some coaches answered with words pertaining to style of play.
The answers ran the gamut of admirable qualities coaches want their teams to be known for. Bringing this identity to life takes more than wishing and hoping our teams exhibit this one word quality.
I hit a few of the coaches with these follow-up questions in hopes of helping them further define their “one word” and think about specific ways to instill it.
One coach replied like this:
My follow up questions:
What traits can one observe from a “passionate” team?
How does one know they are watching a “passionate” team?
Before we can live it we must define it. Both what it is and what it is not. What do passionate (or whatever your one word is) teams do? What do they absolutely not do?
If someone was watching your team play or practice or perhaps scouting them, would they come away with that desired one-word descriptor of your group?
If they would, it would be because of the actions and behaviors, not the slogan on the back of the warmups. Exhibiting passion in this example starts with defining passionate behaviors and choosing those over behaviors lacking passion.
What is your “one word” desired descriptor of your team and program? Think about what it is and then define it. Choose behaviors that exhibit it and avoid those that don’t.
I’d love to hear your “one word” descriptors in the comments below!
Continue the conversation:
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