Written by Every athlete influences their team. If an athlete is excited about being at practice or training, their excitement positively influences those around them. If a teammate is injured and is out for a while, the other athletes on the team are concerned for their teammate and maybe a little worried about getting injured themselves, thus resulting in distraction and lower morale. Each member of the team matters and can influence an entire team to greatness.
Imagine a role payer on your team having a string of good luck over several games on top of her normal performance. Her good luck, always being in the right place at the right time, and her increased abilities are resulting in not only her own success, but her teammates. What may have been a slow start to a season could have changed because of one athlete’s change.
There could be an athlete that is always the pulse of the team. If he is playing poorly in practice or competition, sometimes the entire team just starts playing at a lower level. While one athlete should not dictate the positive or negative outcome of the team, sometimes they do.
That is why it is extremely important to capitalize on positive opportunities. If an athlete on your team scores a goal, makes a block, catches a difficult pass, or magically catches a ball that was a guaranteed home run, there is an undeniable benefit in the form of excitement and newly found momentum for your team. This is where the coach needs to lead the newly changed direction of the team. This leadership is not in the form of technical prowess, rather to keep the team focused and the momentum going. The coach should be keeping the team excited, even if the athlete’s success was a fluke. Embrace the positivity and remember that it could just take one athlete doing one thing that is extraordinary to change the momentum of the game, season, or playoffs. And when in practice and competition, the coach must continue to enable the creativity of the athletes by letting them learn and try new techniques and ideas to make their team better. While they may not be successful all of the time, the coach leading the culture of letting athletes take risk, make mistakes, and challenging each other to be better will lead to better outcomes. And in all cases, always celebrate every athlete’s win, whether small or large, as it will always lead to success of the athlete and team.