Players Feed Off Of Their Coach's Energy

It’s week four of basketball pre-season, two more weeks to go before game one of the 2019-20 season!

How is the team shaping up coach?

How is your energy?  Are you getting seven to eight hours of sleep per night? 

Are you staying hydrated -  and not with hops or pops?!

Oh, by the way, how is your food intake? 

Just checking-in on you coach.

Energy

Your energy both physically and mentally is crucial as your team feeds off it.

We ask our players to be mindful of taking care of their mind and body - however when it comes to us we think we have this incredible body that can run without the right maintenance. 

When your body is deprived of sleep you are at risk of making poor decisions which lead to poor outcomes.  Sleep deprivation over the course of time can effect your concentration and moods and you are likely to become agitated at every little thing.

This type of behavior will have a negative impact on your communication with your players. 

Touch Points

Every interaction you have with your players is an important touch point - a powerful leadership/coaching connection that reveals who you are.  Each interaction you have with your players is an opportunity to make an ordinary moment into a special one.

What you say, how you say it and how you make your players feel can influence, inspire and shape the way your players respond to you.  Your body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, as well as quality of text messages and level of engagement in a teaching point or conversation are just some of the many touch points at your disposal every day.

Being mindful of these and other touch points is especially critical in today’s sports environment.  

In recent years coaches have been accused of verbally abusing their players and creating toxic environments.  You must be extremely mindful of their communication with their athletes as they can easily misinterpret what you are saying.

Communication

According to psychology professor Albert Mehrabian:

Only 7% of what we communicate consists of the literal content of the message.  The use of one’s voice, such as tone, intonation and volume, take up 38% and as much as 55% communication consists of body language.

This is an important reason why coaches need to be fresh and on guard.  When you are not attentive or sharp you can become sloppy with your words.  Your body language sends a powerful message to your players and staff and can impact the training session negatively or positively.  What impression do want to send your players and staff?

Self Awareness

To know thyself!  Being self aware is to have the capacity to tune into your own emotions and how your emotions affect you, your performance and your players performance.  How in-tune are you with your emotions?

Emotional Self-Awareness competency predicts your overall success at work.  Research done by Korn Ferry Hay Group found that 92% of leaders skilled at the Emotional Self-Awareness competency had high energy and high performance teams. In contrast, leaders with low self-awareness created negative climates at work.

What kind of climate do you want to create? Remember those around you feed off your energy!

Being mindful is a way to enhance your self-awareness capabilities by helping you develop the ability to monitor and understand emotions as they arise.

With practice, recruiting and signing date close by, you are stretched and stressed.  Ironically, this is actually the time that you build your physical and mental fortitude so you can sustain the required energy and physical and mental balance needed as the season progresses. 

You want to go into practice or on a recruiting visit energized, relaxed and in a good mood.  If you want your players to be energized and inspired, you must energize and inspire them.  If you want your recruits to be excited about your program, do the same.  Remember, you have control over your touch points.  Each touch point is your chance to make a great impression!

Each and every one of us brings energy to our co-workers, loved ones, and even the stranger in line behind us at the grocery store.  It would serve us all well to realize that the energy we radiate affects others' lives, and we need to be responsible for it.

Namaste,

Cathy