If you find spelling or grammar errors, they are of my own doing. I am
writing this at home after finishing a good book. Called the Energy
Bus.
We are now six matches into our season. We presently sit 5 and 1. We are also ranked 3rd in Canada. You would think from looking at this that everything is going fine.
We have gone to 5 in every match so far this year. We have shown strong resilience during this steak. We are finding a different ways to win each time. The first come from behind victory was against U of C. We were down 2 sets to 0 when we decided to make a change. We subbed two players in. Both Nikala Majewski and Courtney Roberts entered the match and brought a lot of energy which helped bring the match back. This was both their first times playing in Brandon and in front of our crowd.
The next day we were up 2 sets to 1 and let the fourth slide away. Our focus became about the outcome instead of the moment. We talk about staying in the moment all the time but the score can be a big distraction. This is something we need to get better at.
I found myself getting frustrated with the lack of success we were having. At one point I sat down and my body language was really demonstrating my frustration. My Assistant Coach Teagan Hunter snapped me out of this. She made a couple of suggestion of moves we should make and helped bring me back into the present. We and I recovered our focus and won in the fifth. One would think this would be a strong lesson for me, but it took a couple more days before I truly got it.
On Monday we were all tired. Our level of practice was starting to deteriorate. I found myself starting to yell and discipline to try to get the level back up. But realistically the effort didn’t fall. We were just really fatigued. We jumped a lot on Monday as we identified blocking as one of our major issues to work on.
Tuesdays practice was even worse. It was as if a zombie apocalypse had taken over our team. I again ended practice with a bit of a scolding. Two of our leadership team and a fifth were sitting around and stretching after practice. I decided to address this issue with them. After I said my piece about leading by example they spoke. I was getting really negative. They understood that they need to be held to a standard, but when they also like to know when they are playing well.
This struck a nerve with me. I pride myself for being positive. I try to celebrate when things go well. I needed to find a way to get back to that.
Wednesday morning I read an article about an NCAA Football team and their Energy Bus. I found out they were bases a philosophy on a book the group read. I immediately bought the book to read. It was exactly what I needed.
Two quotes right near the front hit home for me.
1. "We are Winners not Whiners". We were 3 and 1. The team was extremely tired but no one was complaining but me. I was disappointed at our level. But when I talked with our leadership team I remembered all the extra going on for them. We talked on Thursday about our goals again. Discussed our steps in how we were going to achieving them. We left for Edmonton on a very positive note.
2. "Positive energy positive people create positive results". It is easy to sit back and find everything that is going wrong but our mindset is something we can control. We can choose to look at each challenge as a way to move us closer to our goal. Each time a team finds and exploits our weakness it gives us a chance to look at this part of our game and move forward.
We have a strong positive vibe within our team. You can really feel our confidence grow with each new challenge we overcome together. It is up to me the Driver of this Bus to keep the positivity going. That doesn't mean just throw out blank “way to go” statements. It means teaching athletes to accept challenges. To communicate making sure they understand why things are happening. As a coaching group we encourage our team to problem solve. We ask them to find solutions to problems that the opposition throws at us. We want them to take risks. WE need to encourage risks.
I recommend the book to all coaches. There are so many more things that we take for granted that it reminded me of.
We are now six matches into our season. We presently sit 5 and 1. We are also ranked 3rd in Canada. You would think from looking at this that everything is going fine.
We have gone to 5 in every match so far this year. We have shown strong resilience during this steak. We are finding a different ways to win each time. The first come from behind victory was against U of C. We were down 2 sets to 0 when we decided to make a change. We subbed two players in. Both Nikala Majewski and Courtney Roberts entered the match and brought a lot of energy which helped bring the match back. This was both their first times playing in Brandon and in front of our crowd.
The next day we were up 2 sets to 1 and let the fourth slide away. Our focus became about the outcome instead of the moment. We talk about staying in the moment all the time but the score can be a big distraction. This is something we need to get better at.
I found myself getting frustrated with the lack of success we were having. At one point I sat down and my body language was really demonstrating my frustration. My Assistant Coach Teagan Hunter snapped me out of this. She made a couple of suggestion of moves we should make and helped bring me back into the present. We and I recovered our focus and won in the fifth. One would think this would be a strong lesson for me, but it took a couple more days before I truly got it.
On Monday we were all tired. Our level of practice was starting to deteriorate. I found myself starting to yell and discipline to try to get the level back up. But realistically the effort didn’t fall. We were just really fatigued. We jumped a lot on Monday as we identified blocking as one of our major issues to work on.
Tuesdays practice was even worse. It was as if a zombie apocalypse had taken over our team. I again ended practice with a bit of a scolding. Two of our leadership team and a fifth were sitting around and stretching after practice. I decided to address this issue with them. After I said my piece about leading by example they spoke. I was getting really negative. They understood that they need to be held to a standard, but when they also like to know when they are playing well.
This struck a nerve with me. I pride myself for being positive. I try to celebrate when things go well. I needed to find a way to get back to that.
Wednesday morning I read an article about an NCAA Football team and their Energy Bus. I found out they were bases a philosophy on a book the group read. I immediately bought the book to read. It was exactly what I needed.
Two quotes right near the front hit home for me.
1. "We are Winners not Whiners". We were 3 and 1. The team was extremely tired but no one was complaining but me. I was disappointed at our level. But when I talked with our leadership team I remembered all the extra going on for them. We talked on Thursday about our goals again. Discussed our steps in how we were going to achieving them. We left for Edmonton on a very positive note.
2. "Positive energy positive people create positive results". It is easy to sit back and find everything that is going wrong but our mindset is something we can control. We can choose to look at each challenge as a way to move us closer to our goal. Each time a team finds and exploits our weakness it gives us a chance to look at this part of our game and move forward.
We have a strong positive vibe within our team. You can really feel our confidence grow with each new challenge we overcome together. It is up to me the Driver of this Bus to keep the positivity going. That doesn't mean just throw out blank “way to go” statements. It means teaching athletes to accept challenges. To communicate making sure they understand why things are happening. As a coaching group we encourage our team to problem solve. We ask them to find solutions to problems that the opposition throws at us. We want them to take risks. WE need to encourage risks.
I recommend the book to all coaches. There are so many more things that we take for granted that it reminded me of.
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