All the Coach Wants

Skill, talent, athleticism.

They’re often the elements that outsiders notice and the factors that draw attention to our teams.

But as coaches, we know better. We know what we value, what frequently determines success or disappointment, what allows us to get at least a little bit of sleep at night.

“Those guys who don’t make mistakes, who know exactly who they are,” former NBA coach and ESPN commentator Jeff Van Gundy recently said on The Ryen Russillo show.

“I think mental strength is so important to being able to deal with the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys. Some of our star players are a little bit more up and down in those areas. To surround those guys with mentally-strong guys is absolutely critical to get the success you want.”

Ultimately, intense adversity is inevitable when we try to do anything at a high level — and talent alone isn’t sufficient to defeat the daunting opponent or accomplish our ambitious goals.

It requires an uncommon resilience from our teams that no matter what we’ve been through, we can stare the next challenge in the eyes and not blink. And while we may not defeat it, we'll at least go down giving it everything we had.

Not all of our team members will have innate toughness, though. In fact, many won’t.

It’s on us as coaches and leaders to cultivate it and put our team members through as much realistic hardship in practices and rehearsals as we can — constantly reinforcing how important this resolve will be on the journey.

We as leaders would be wise to remind ourselves that sometimes, we might be better off turning to a tougher or more cerebral team member over a more talented one.

“Every time I put a dummy in and he’d do something dumb or we’d do something dumb, I wouldn’t be mad at the guy, I’d be mad at myself,” Van Gundy said.

“But tough, smart players. How often do they underachieve?”