Journal 18, Week 6

I have struggled to brainstorm for a topic of my choice. I had a discussion with my wife Tuesday night after her match that I felt could apply to leadership.

Since my wife & I both coach teams in totally different sports, we often find that we can help each other. At the same time, sometimes the advice I relay to her is not appropriate for volleyball and vice versa her's to tennis.

Sally has struggled with getting some of her players to buy in to her concept of a total-team-player. She wants to mold players into athletes that will play their guts out every day in practice to make themselves and their team better. Regardless of who plays in matches, we both agree, it is crucial that every player seeks to continuously improve themself so that the team can become better.

Some players feel that playing time is the only way that they can see results. Sally is very clear with them that if they work hard, playing time will result based on the level of effort put forward. What some players don't understand is that they are not playing for their high school or club team where they were the star. They are playing on an "all-star" team that was selected to receive a place on the team. Some players are unable to work hard for their spot because they have never been pushed or had a chance to lose playing time. Their previous teams have purely needed them on the court because they were the best player available. Players also feel that because they provide good individual statistics that they have proved that they can contribute. Sometimes, we both agree, that is the case and the team is successful and the stats show the reason how it happened. Other times, stats can be deceiving and the team is not successful even though an individual's performance may have shined.

After matches, Sally provides quotes to the sports information department that get posted to the Winthrop website & released to the media. I pointed out to Sally that she often provides a quote that references individual statistics. Here is an example:

“We started off strong offensively making good shots against Radford’s defense,” coach Sally Polhamus said. “We lost the tempo of the match in sets two and three but regained it in set four, hitting .414.”

I feel that this overemphasizes the importance of hitting and could be downplaying the importance or serving, receiving serve, blocking, digs, etc.

Sally's previous boss, Bond Shymansky, is now the head coach at Marquette University. Sally credits most of her coaching style to Shymansky and I agree that he is an excellent example. Here is a quote from him after a recent Marquette match:

"...today we stayed strong the whole way through and executed just perfectly in passing.That helped us a ton. I told the team that I believed in them, and that I believe that they have a great attitude about what they can accomplish, and they did, they showed it. They showed it before the match, they showed it during warm up, they showed it all the way through the match. It's a good win for us; we needed it for sure. We need to take that confidence on the road next weekend."

To me, the difference is that Shymansky emphasizd team over statistics. Obviously, he felt that passing was the key. However when his team reads the post they will see that it was important to pass well, but that ultimately it was the belief and attitude that were the difference.

Maybe Sally is right and the key to the match is what needs to be relayed through the media. She agrees that Shymansky's release sounded better than hers & she will try to make quotes that are along that front. Hopefully the Eagles get a win on Friday at Presbyterian and wee can find out.