Sport and the Growing Good #189: Coach Phil Jackson on gameday leadership
We’ve studied many aspects of coaching including having a system, running practice, and forming team identity. Today’s topic will build upon these and other topics we’ve discussed to engage several specific aspects of “leading on game day.”
1. Coach Jackson’s favorite routes in driving thought the Midwest and western US states.
2. Organizing game day so that the players would have mornings of instruction and activity.
3. Game day meetings with coaching staff.
4. Shootarounds. Basic drills. Activating the body.
5. Mike D’Antonio focusing on offense.
6. Coaching in the CBA.
7. The heartbeat.
8. Gameday meditation. From five to ten minutes. Changes throughout the season.”
9. “At some point in that team meeting, I would ask a player, what do you think is important in this game?”
10. “’Let’s talk about your perspective, how you feel about how they guarded you the last time.”
11. Working on specials in the last minutes of the shootaround.
12. Pregame speeches. Limited effects. Focuses: information and emotion.
13. “It’s overrated, the ‘Gipper’ speech.”
14. Dennis Rodman’s pregame routines.
15. Sending assistant coaches out in pregame.
16. Albert Mehrabian rule: “7% words, 38% tone of voice, 55% body language”
17. Why Coach developed his whistling skills and used hand signals.
18. Codes for communication.
19. “I think the voice is resilient and authoritative. I think it’s really important for the coach to have a strong voice.”
20. “There’s a locker room voice that is commanding, yet assuring. It’s instructive.”
21. The Horace Grant example. Positive Coaching Alliance.
22. Timeouts. Getting players composed. “I want you to find the rooted nature. Something that you know that gives you solace. And you can go to the bench and think of that space for ten seconds.”
23. Examples of the rooted nature. Where you were nurtured.
24. Others who were not in the game could encourage teammates while planning was going on.
25. Sitting vs. standing in timeouts.
26. Communicating with the team during crunch time of a game: Research on best strategies for leading during critical/high pressure times include:
-use brief, clear commands
-control body language and tone (players look to coach as model in these times)
-activate leadership within the team (tie into a player-leader during time-out, etc)
-emphasize the next play and focus on the process
-encourage deep breaths
-reinforce trust and confidence in the team and system
-acknowledge the pressure …and frame it as a challenge that we’re ready for
27. Red Holzman during crunch time. Defensive berating… then, “What do you guys what to run? What do you think will work?” “He left it entirely up to us…That was a real eye opener for me. I enjoyed that a lot.”
28. “Michael Jordan was such a great finisher and so was Kobe Bryant. A lot of that was part of the success I had as a coach.”
29. “I think the breath is really important. Take a deep breath and relax. We’re going to go into this. We’re going to be successful. Just be alert and react.”
30. After the game in the locker room. “Temperament is one of the things you have to watch for… Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. You need to find that balance.”
31. The Lord’s Prayer after the game for calming down.
32. After leaving the arena on game day. “I used to take a few minutes by myself.”
33. Coach Jackson and Coach Winter continuing to focus on their video analysis even as the plane seemed to be going down.
34. Communicating during the flow of the game with players.
35. “Sometimes stopping the activity and getting your players to reset is important. And you have to think of creative ways to do that.”
36. Accounting for different players’ pregame rituals.
37. Ensuring that your teams don’t start slow.