I had an interesting meeting with Dr. Tom Skinner. Tom is a professor in the education faculty. He also is a former coach of Brandon University Hockey Team; he is the Head Coach of the Romanian National Hockey Team. Tom is also heavily involved in Hockey Canada teaching sessions on leadership.
When I found out the Tom was right at our school, I slowly started bothering him until he finally agreed to work with our team a little. Now entering our fourth year together, Tom is heavily involved in the success of our team.
During our meeting we were discussing how we should conduct our team’s Standards meeting. Standards are our values and actions that we feel we must have in order for the program to be successful and cannot run the program without. So Tom challenged me, he asked me to define what I feel my top three values are. He wanted me to explain my definition of each and give some positive and negative examples.
I think almost every coach will have the same variation of these values. Mine are in no specific order, Team First, Loyalty and Honour. The last two we painted in the team room on the wall. This is reminding the team everyday what they are about.
Team First; to me this means making decisions that have a positive effect on the team. Players who consider the overall good of the team in all aspects of their life are team first players. Examples of this would be when you are tired and not really having the energy to go and work on foot speed and plyo’s. A team first person would make the decision to go and work out. A good real life example is Tom Brady from the Patriots, after they won the superbowl the Patriots were invited to go to the White House. The flight for the team was leaving at 7 am. Tom was in the weight room working out at 4:30 because he knew he needed to get stronger for the team to repeat.
Loyalty; This one is very important. For me this means that you will keep the trust of the team. What happens within the team stays within the team. All teams go through problems, but what you say outside to the community is important and positive. It also means you will keep teammates accountable to hold up the standards. It also means athletes will take time to mentor the younger players, make sure they all fit in and feel part of the team. Negative actions are obvious here, talking about situations that happen within the team, complaining about playing time or coaches decisions forming cliques and not including everyone. Not sharing information or your own knowledge of a specific situation.
Honour; Is being a person who players can say I played alongside her. Being classy when involved with the community, attending classes, volunteering for things outside sport. In sport what one person does affects the whole team. How often do we read in the papers, former athlete charged with…Instructors refer to students as that women volleyball player_________ insert name? This means that one person’s behaviour in class and in the public will affects the team as a whole. We try not to tell athletes how they should live their life, but if they tarnish their reputation it spreads to the whole team. A player is in the paper on television, so they are in the public eye. People watch for them and look for them to screw up. I tease the athletes that I find out how their weekend went before practice on Monday. I was shopping once in the grocery store in Grande Prairie, and a sponsor told me my young first year setter was making out on the dance floor with the setter from the men’s team. So Monday at practice I asked her how her new boyfriend was, and was he treating her well. She was surprised to find out I heard about it already. People like to show they are in the know so they’ll tell one of the coaches every time they see a person in public whether it is good or bad.
The last thought is memorable; For me I have learned that individuals are responsible for creating their own reality and being involved in the team helps create those memories. Some athletes are shy and tend to be a bit of wallflowers, we need to find ways to get them involve so they create their own success and memories.
Those are the values that I hold dear, and I hope that my teams represent throughout the years. I feel for the most part the teams have bought into this and the ones that don’t end up fading away.
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