November 4, 2016
5 Brilliant Ideas to Create Championship Cultures – Best Stolen Ideas – Part 6
“If you want to gauge the culture of a team ask the last guy on the bench how he likes being on this team” – Jim Tressel
One of the favorite questions I ask every coach I interview is:
‘What is the best thing you have ever learned or stolen from another coach?’
If you know me at all, you know my passion is around developing great winning cultures on teams. Here are 5 Brilliant ideas to improve the culture of your team:
- Ingle Martin, state championship coach at Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville – 3 truths about players:
1 – They want to contribute
2 – They want to belong
3 – They want to know they have what it takes
- Tim Corbin – National championship coach at Vanderbilt – Empty your bench in inning changes – Anyone on the bench, between innings, go out and throw/stretch to stay involved.
- Asking for commitment: When running team sprints, Jason asks each player to raise his hand when he’s ready to give his absolute best on the next sprint. Raise your hand when they are committing to their teammates that this will be their best effort. They don’t run the next sprint until they are all raising their hands. – Jason Hahnstadt
- Nate Sanderson – Nate’s team created a culture where they immediately gave high-fives to any player who made a mistake. The power of touch and positive encouragement was emphasized. They created an environment where they weren’t allowed to say ‘my bad.’ They make it a race to see who can be first to give a high five to someone who has made a mistake. Link to 3 minute video showing his team doing this in the state championship game: Youtube Link
- Strength Coach Will – Try to not overcoach during games – have your leaders figure it out. It’s not a video game – don’t try to control every action.
Culture eats strategy for lunch. Next week we wrap this series up as we discuss being a parent-coach.
