Recently I’ve had the opportunity to assistant coach a girl’s varsity basketball team. The high school I coach at just happens to also be the high school I graduated from. I frequently have flash backs of my high school basketball days. It is weird coaching in the same gym I used to practice and play at. Before I started coaching I wondered how much I would miss playing. I’ve realized that coaching is just as addicting as playing. At times I wonder if I’m just as passionate about it as I was about playing. I find myself constantly thinking about the team and our games at all hours. I have come to the conclusion that I would’ve been a much better player had I coached before playing. It is amazing what you see watching and analyzing basketball players that you don’t see when you’re actually the one playing.
Throughout my experience so far I’ve also realized how much growing up as an athlete (especially as a basketball player) has helped shape me as a person. So much about the game and sports in general is relatable to life and business. The other coaches and I are constantly trying to help our team see this connection. In true marketing fashion I’ll call this connection the “5 p’s;” Practice, Passion, Pride, Preparation, and Perseverance.
Practice: We’ve all heard, “You play how you practice,” and “You practice how you play.” But how many people actually take that to heart? Over the last few weeks I’ve seen that this statement is more than true. You have to come to practice ready to play how you would in a game; when you get into bad habits, such as laziness, not hustling, and not boxing out in practice that DOES carry over into the game. Come to the gym on time, be mentally focused on basketball, physically, give it all you have. Practice is where you show your coach and yourself what you have. It’s also the place you can take chances and not be penalized. Try something new here, get creative, let your coaches and teammates know your ideas and thoughts. Practice is much like what we put in behind the scenes at work. Before any news stories are written, any awards are given out, any financial statements come out….practice is where it begins; the grunt work that leads to the recognition. Put in to practice, what you’d put into the game.
Passion: When a loose ball is on the floor, where are you? Hopefully on the floor too. Are you constantly giving your all and helping your team gain momentum? Are you the type of player that can’t catch their breath during time outs because you’ve been sprinting every second you were in the game? Passion is essential as a player, a coworker, an individual, in everything you do that you want to matter. If you aren’t passionate about something it is not only beneficial to yourself to not be a part of it, but beneficial to your team. Positive energy is contagious, so is negativity. Be the person people want to be around. As a coach, a colleague, and friend I want the person in the game, the one giving the presentation, or the one hanging out with me to be someone passionate, someone who truly cares.
Pride: Be proud of yourself, your team, and what you’re involved in. Show that pride. On game days, wear your jerseys to school, make a great warm up CD, go 100% in warm ups, ask your family and friends to come to your games. At the end of a hard practice or game, be able to be proud of how you played win or lose. The big document you have due tomorrow? The big presentation you have to give in a week? Be proud of it. Having pride in something means you truly feel good about something you’ve done. To feel good about it, you must feel like you gave it the time and effort it deserved, which is a good feeling. Be proud to have the opportunity to represent your school or company and run with it.
Preparation: This comes along with everything you do before the game. The way you practice, how many hours of sleep you got, how healthy you ate. Watching game tapes or scouting other teams, your plays, and your strategy. Preparation is key to any successful outcome. I think we can all agree we frequently do better when we prepare for things in basketball, business or life; whether it is a game, a meeting with our boss, or an important conversation with your significant other or a friend. It’s not always about how long you prepare, but HOW you prepare. How much do you know about your competition?
Perseverance: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Simple, but true. When things are looking grim and you’re down by 20 points do you hang your head or do you run you’re hardest and box out even harder? When you have 3 losses and 0 wins, are you going to work harder or assume you’re not going to make the play offs? When you have a bad quarter are you going to assume your business is doomed or make adjustments? In my opinion perseverance is one of the most important lessons I learned from playing basketball. From recreation league basketball to college basketball there were so many times perseverance was necessary. Whether it was losing games, not playing well, coaches and teammates I didn’t get along with…there was ALWAYS something that required perseverance; One of the most important qualities in sports and in life. Always, always, always, persevere. And in the words of the great Jimmy Valvano, “Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.”
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