Conduct On The Bench

Practice makes more perfect... a couple months into the season I'm gathering enough observations to be able to offer some suggestions. When I wrote the below to Coach, he asked if I'd ten minutes of practice time just to talk about this with the team, which I was glad to do. But there's a life application here too. At some point we'll be a bench player, watching someone else in a role that seems more glamorous. We can victimize ourselves, or we can bring energy to that role to the best of our abilities. The other application that I believe in strongly about successful teams and people is that being organized gives a psychological and ultimately a physical boost.

As a bit of background, UCLA coach John Wooden presided over the longest winning streak in division 1 men's basketball history, 88 games!

"The concise message in all this is that only one or two players are on the court, and the rest are on the bench - the bench is literally the biggest role. In order to become a great team on the floor, we have to become a great team on the bench, where the little things add up and every edge over the opponent counts. Wooden used to teach his players the right way to put on their socks... we wouldn't go that far!

1. Maybe I can get my hands on a couple of black NCHS seat covers or something that we could place on the coaches' seats before the game. That way every time we break from a timeout there'd be no need to tell guys to move over and make room.

2. When you (player) come out of the game, if you need water, let the guys on the bench know and they can fetch you some. You come sit by me so that we can talk about what you saw while you were out there and what I saw from my seat. Other guys slide down to make room for the ones coming out.

3. When you're out of the game, your role is to cheer/energize and to "coach"... meaning that if you see something out there, please get up and come to me and make observations that I can pass along later. And also to be an extra voice alerting the guys on the floor if you see a double team or screen coming, or an unguarded defender, etc. On the floor you should be running... on the bench you should be talking.

4. Sit up straight - be strong. If you're confused, ask. If you're mad, let's talk after the game. More important than winning is learning and improving... as a teammate as much as a player."