How to get team chemistry in big win basketball

5 Proven Ways to Build and Maintain Team Chemistry Over The Course Of A Season

By Trent Ryan

Photo Credit: Harris Walker via Harris Walker Photography

Maintaining team chemistry as a coach may be more important than X's and O's to a team's success throughout a season. Seasons are long and each one has its own unique ups and downs and challenges. However, it is necessary to keep your team operating as a single unit.

Individual players have the tendency to get frustrated when their minutes are cut down or their shot opportunities are decreased. It's during times like this that it's essential for the player(s) to see the larger picture and pull for the team regardless of individual issues. Team chemistry must be a higher priority than individual goals. If coaches sense there might be an issue with team chemistry, it must be caught early on and fixed as quickly as possible.

Since this issue is something all coaches have dealt with at one point or another in their career we decided to put together a list of ways to build and retain team chemistry.

For this article we polled several successful high school and college coaches and picked out common threads we saw in the answers they gave.

#1 Team Captains

Assigning team captains is a very popular philosophy amongst coaches. Every coach I talked to believed in some form of naming team leaders. However, the players who are picked must earn the title of Team Captain. Arbitrarily picking players to fill the role greatly lessens the honor. Picking players who understand and embrace the opportunity to be a team leader is important and more beneficial to their teammates.

Team captains can help “spread a coach’s gospel,” as one coach put it. Team captains can almost double as assistant coaches. One coach has his team captains determine the conditioning that the team has to do at the end of practice. This makes conditioning seem more like a team activity as opposed to a punishment. Players are more receptive to their peers. One coach recommended having team captains because those players are able to put it on their resume.

Coach Danny Miles, who has over 1,000 wins at the college level, recommended an interesting way to handle a situation when some players have seniority over others. He would have the seniors carry the equipment bags of the freshmen as opposed to it normally being the other way around. Coach Miles went on to say about the carrying of the bags that, ”no one faction of the team does more than the others. ” The level of contribution should be the same across the board, regardless of age.

#2 Do Things As A Team Off The Court

Sharing meals as a team is a great way to build chemistry. University of Iowa Women’s Coach Lisa Bluder said, “We eat a training table meal together every single day.” It lends everyone the opportunity to get to know each other off the court. Coaches can get to know their players a lot better during these team meals. You can ask about their lives outside of basketball, ask about their parents, find out what their hobbies are off the court, etc.

Players and coaches getting to know each other on a more personal level will build a stronger bond between everyone.

If your team is presented with the opportunity to do something positive in the community, make sure you don’t miss it. Examples that were given by coaches were: bowling, litter pick up, working with senior citizens, reading to young kids, etc.

Not only will you be giving back to the community, which builds character amongst your players, but also your players will bond in a way that isn’t measurable. Having your players work as a team on something not related to basketball is a great way to improve upon team chemistry.

If your team is a traveling team, a good time to get to know each other is during long bus trips between games.

#3 Emphasize Team Goals Instead Of Individuality

Emphasizing things like defense and rebounding is important because those things are done as a TEAM. The goal of not allowing the other team to score takes a whole team effort.

There must be a common goal between players instead of each player having an individual goal. All the players on the floor must work together in order to accomplish the goals that are set forth by you the coach.

The advantage of forming team chemistry this way is that it’s seemingly unintentional. When you teach things as a team it’s only natural that the team will become stronger and operate more as a single unit. One coach preferred building team chemistry this way. Instead of taking time away from practice and specifically working on team chemistry, this accomplishes both at the same time.

Another way to accomplish this is to have what one coach called an Equal Opportunity Offense. This type of offense isn’t run through one specific player. Instead it has a very simple but effective philosophy: if you’re open for a good shot, take it. By doing things this way no players will ever feel like they’re being marginalized by their teammates. The more you allow each player to feel as if they’re able to contribute at any time, the better team moral will be.

#4 Recruit The Right Players

Nobody knows a team better than their coach. You know what type of player works in your system and what type of player doesn’t work. It’s important to have a solid grasp on what you’re looking for in recruits so you don’t bring a player in who doesn’t fit the mold you’ve created.

If there’s a player who might bring a higher level of talent to the team but might disrupt the chemistry of your team it’s important to think long and hard about the decision to bring that player aboard or not. Coach Mike Neer, who has over 600 wins at the college level, told me that he has done this on multiple occasions. If he didn’t think the player fit with his system and his current players, then he stopped recruiting the player. A coach put it this way, “You need players who will sing in your choir, not one who will break off into a solo”.

I also had a coach tell me that input from current players is an incredibly valuable way to determine whether or not a recruit will work with your team. They’re the ones who will be on the court with the recruit; ask them for their opinion. Doing so will not only give you insight into the recruit’s style of play and how he might mesh with the team but will also give the players the feeling that their opinion matters.

#5 Success

This one is very simple but essential. Every single coach I interviewed said that the best teams they coached had great team chemistry. That team chemistry led to wins. The more success your team has the easier it will be to have good team chemistry. Not to mention it’ll make it easier on the coach. The less time the coach has to deal with team chemistry issues, the more time he’ll have to focus on coaching. It goes the other way as well. The better your team chemistry is the more likely the team has the potential to succeed. Once that circle starts, the team will start running like a well-oiled machine. Reaching this point should be the goal of every coach, regardless of the sport.

At the end of the day, team chemistry could very well be the most important thing to a basketball team. Honesty amongst teammates and coaches has the potential to make or break a team and it all starts with the coach. A coach must lead by example and show that honesty is always the best policy, on and off the court. These lessons will translate to when the players interact with one another. A coach’s ability to build and continue building team chemistry throughout the course of a season should be one of the top priorities.

What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments, suggestions, and questions. . .

4 Ways to Develop Fantastic Team Chemistry

As we continually bring up on Basketball For Coaches, coaching isn’t just about the x’s and o’s. We need to teach more than basketball. There are other things which are necessary to give your team the best possible chance of success.

Photo Credit: gus_estrella via Compfight cc

Team chemistry is one of these crucially important ingredients.

Is fantastic team chemistry absolutely imperative to be a great basketball team? No. A team of highly-skilled players with poor team chemistry will more often than not beat a team of poorly-skilled players with great team chemistry. That’s just basketball.

Then why is team chemistry important?

I believe it comes down to two things;

1. It will maximise their talents.

Great team chemistry will enable your players to play at a higher level as a team than their current skill-set would allow. This is due to increased confidence (as a team and as an individual), being willing to work hard for eachother (dive on loose balls), making the extra pass to a teammate, holding each other accountable, and a whole lot of other positives for the team.

In essence, on a team with great chemistry, the players will care more about the success of the team than the success they achieve as an individual.

2. It makes for an enjoyable season.  

At the end of the day, no one wants to coach a team full of players that hate each other and don’t enjoy spending time together, no matter how many W’s they put on the board.

Here are 4 things you can do to improve your teams chemistry and become a better overall team:

When running partner drills, take it upon yourself as the coach to put people together who wouldn’t usually choose each other. If given the chance, players will always choose the same person to partner up with. That’s not what we want.

We want our players to feel comfortable with all of their team-mates. The more interaction they can have with different players, the better the chemistry on the team will be.

This is especially important at the start of the season when bringing new people onto the team. Pair them with a veteran leader of the team.

This won’t necessarily make them play better together on the floor. That’s what practice is for, learning each other’s tendencies and such, but doing things outside of practice will develop relationships between the group and make for a more enjoyable overall season.

Just last season I coached a young player that didn’t want to come to practice because he didn’t feel comfortable and didn’t know anyone. When we started doing things outside of practice he got to know a few of his teammates and started attending training more regularly. This lead to better team chemistry for our overall group.

Here are a few idea of things your team might enjoy doing;

1. Dinner together after a game.
2. Local swimming pool.
3. Watching a movie together.
4. Going paint-balling.
5. Camping

It’s all about getting players comfortable with each other.

Bullying or conflict between teammates can tear a team apart. Often it will start out as a small issue between two players, but once it starts, more and more players will become involved and the issue will grow, eventually dividing the team.

The key is to put a stop to the bullying immediately. We can’t tolerate that kind of behaviour.

If it’s not something you can work out with the two players, get all involved and their parents together and endeavour to solve the problem before it gets any bigger.

As one of the greatest coaches in the NBA today says…

“We believe in people executing their role and caring about the team more than anything individually – Gregg Popovich”

Defining roles are extremely important when it comes to team chemistry. Players want to know what to expect and what you expect from them. What do you want them to focus on when they’re out on the floor?

It’s important to acknowledge the importance of all aspects of basketball when defining player roles. Many youth players believe they’re not making an impact unless they’re scoring which is completely not true.

During games, make sure you’re acknowledging aspects other than scoring. I always praise a great pass that set up the score rather than the person that finished the play to encourage more unselfish passing.

Coaches have to make the players that do ‘the little things’, like get 50-50 balls and rebound, know that they’re an important asset to the team.

“Only 4 different techniques? Coach Mac why haven’t you included more? There’s way more than that!”, I can hear you saying it already. And you’re right. There are a lot more ways to develop team chemistry.

I’ve listed 4 and now it’s your turn!

Leave me a comment below listing the best technique you’ve used to bring the players on your team closer together. Let’s all help each other out with different ideas! Thanks coaches.

Psychological preparation of basketball players | Physical education

Author: Poletaeva Nina Petrovna

Organization: MBU SShOR "Yunost"

Settlement: Belgorod region, Stary Oskol

CONTENTS

Introduction

Basketball is the most important means of physical education aimed at increasing the efficiency and improving the psychophysical qualities of those involved. This is an exciting team game that contributes to the development and improvement of the physical, mental and intellectual qualities of a person; players' mastery of professional motor skills and abilities. Basketball instills in athletes willpower, endurance, perseverance, courage, determination, self-confidence, a sense of duty and responsibility, patriotism and collectivism. The effectiveness of the education of these qualities depends, first of all, on how purposefully the relationship between the physical, psychological and moral education of athletes is carried out in the training process. The training process in basketball is built on increasing the complexity and intensity of training sessions, acquiring special knowledge by players about the psychophysiological properties of the individual, the structure of the body and the biomechanics of human movements. In the process of detailed preparation for a long season full of various competitions and, directly, in the lessons on the technique and tactics of the game conducted by the coach, athletes acquire the necessary professional knowledge, skills and abilities to increase the variety of individual and team technical and tactical actions of basketball players. This suggests that the key to the successful performance of a basketball team in competitions is the high sports training of players (which is mainly realized in sports training), which includes all aspects of preparing athletes for a long sports season (theoretical, technical, tactical, moral-volitional and psychological). Thus, sports training is a complex specialized process aimed at the formation, development and improvement of the necessary physical, psychophysical and psychophysiological qualities of players, which has a versatile effect on athletes.

Basketball is a team sport that requires full dedication from each player in changing game episodes on the court; it allows you to develop endurance, good coordination of movements, flexibility, mobility and jumping ability in the game. It is an excellent school for teaching the interaction of players in a team, because success in the game depends not only on the developed eye of the athletes, but also on their ability to understand the intentions and tactics of other team members. An important factor is the ability of players to make instant decisions, taking into account the game situation on the court, since the specifics of the game involve sudden changes in direction and pace, which alternate with forced jumps during shots, fighting for a high ball and trying to cover the throw. The main task of the coach in preparing for the sports season is to gradually lead the players to optimal physical, technical, tactical and mental readiness.

1. Content and tasks of psychological training of basketball players

Psychological preparation is understood as a pedagogical process of formation and improvement of personality traits important for sports and mental qualities underlying them, in other words, psychological preparation can be understood as the process of forming a sports character [5].

The character of an athlete is determined by the properties of the personality, which is formed by fixing the necessary psychological states caused by certain mental processes. In terms of the psycho-pedagogical theory of activity, the management of mental states and the education of personality traits are correlated as a means and a result.

In this case, the mental state is understood as the corresponding attitude of the athlete to the world around him, which can arise both under the influence of external influences of the coach (external regulation of mental states), and due to the efforts of the athlete himself (self-regulation of mental states). Consequently, the coach, in addition to his own influence on the athlete's psyche, must teach him the methods of self-influence, which will significantly increase the effectiveness of the process of psychological preparation.

2. Types of regulation of mental states of an athlete

J. Wooden notes the importance of psychological training in basketball: every coach must know psychology and be a psychologist. Speaking about the “pyramid of success” he developed, which is based on diligence and enthusiasm, and faith and perseverance help to reach the peaks, he writes: “We all differ in our abilities. Some may have more abilities than you, they may be bigger, faster, stronger and have superiority in other physical qualities, but no one should surpass you in such very important qualities and characteristics as team spirit, enthusiasm, hard work, cooperation, constancy, determination, honesty, sincerity, reliability and integrity. Acquire and keep these qualities - and success is guaranteed" [2].

The need for special psychological preparation for sports competitions is clear to anyone who is preparing himself for a career as a basketball coach. Preparing a basketball player for high sporting achievements is a long process that requires certain lifestyle restrictions associated with the need for large time expenditures to participate in training. Therefore, it is important to form an appropriate psychological attitude not only to sports competitions, which are a bright holiday, but also to the heavy gray everyday life of a long training process.

All of the above allows us to consider the content of the psychological preparation of basketball players in three interrelated blocks: 1) psychological preparation for the training process; 2) psychological preparation for competitions; 3) regulation of mental states in a particular match.

Hence there are three general tasks of basketball players' psychological preparation:

— to form a positive attitude to the training process;

— to form mental qualities that contribute to success in competitions;

- create favorable mental states in a particular match.

3. The content of psychological training of basketball players

High results in modern sports require many years of intense sports training and a lifestyle subordinate to it. The athlete must be psychologically prepared for this. Such preparation is carried out in the course of the sports training itself due to the constant formation of motives that are the motives for sports and training activities, or through the creation of favorable attitudes towards various aspects of the training process. This division is conditional, since motives can be formed, in particular, through the creation of appropriate relationships. However, the specificity of motivation requires its separate consideration. The process of formation of motives and attitudes towards sports training, in addition to external regulation by the coach, can be carried out, as noted above, by self-regulation. This is an important component of the content of psychological preparation for a long training process.

From here it is possible to formulate particular tasks of psychological preparation of basketball players for a long training process:

— to form motivation for the training process;

— to form relationships that ensure the success of the training process;

— teach methods of self-regulation of psychological states.

Analysis of numerous scientific and popular literature on psychology,

experience in psychological counseling of game students and a series of experimental studies conducted jointly with students of the Samara State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, allowed the author to come to the following conclusions.

The desire to train can arise in a player without the influence of external reasons, arbitrarily, from the awareness of sports training as a goal, from interest in the game, the desire to improve one's skills, etc. It can also be caused by external factors, such as punishment and encouragement, threat and demand, group pressure, expectation of future benefits, etc. All these incentives

for sports training (in any activity in general) are called motives in psychology.

Motivation is the most important part of the learning process, and coaches are doing the right thing by focusing on this aspect of training. Most often, a coach motivates his players using rewards and punishments.

However, it is quite clear to specialists that when a coach is concerned about raising the level of motivation of his players, relying on their self-esteem, common sense and the need for self-improvement, he achieves better results.

According to special studies of foreign sports psychologists, among the motives for going in for sports, attractive for young people can be considered the possibility of maximizing their abilities, the ability to control oneself and the environment, and achieve physical perfection.

Less significant motives include the desire to be a “real man” (for boys), achieve social status, or receive large monetary rewards.

Setting distant goals. Winning a city, country, world championship, or the Olympics are examples of far-reaching goals. The coach must show the player a series of intermediate goals, the successive achievement of which will lead the player or team to achieve far distant goals. At the same time, it is important that the achievement of the first intermediate goals is difficult, but real, allowing the athlete to experience a sense of success. Gradual achievement of goals after intense training contributes to the formation of an attitude towards a serious attitude to the training process.

Shaping and maintaining a mindset for success. At the heart of these actions of the coach is the encouragement of the development of the sports ambition of the players. Among the means of forming and maintaining the attitude to achieve success or develop sports ambition, one can note the promotion of the athlete's success. This is facilitated by the constant posting of statistical reports on the achievements of basketball players in individual components of the game on the wall of the gym, the creation of stands with photos of the best players and sports trophies of the team, mentions in the media about the sports achievements of individual players and teams, etc. At the same time, the coach must control the process of the formation of sports ambition and prevent it from turning into the form of sports vanity.

The optimal ratio of rewards and punishments. The most common means of increasing the motivation of players to the training process is the coach's assessment of their performance in the form of praise or disapproval. Any of these methods are more useful than the coach's markedly indifferent attitude towards a player with insufficient motivation. The issue of preferential use of praise or disapproval is decided based on the needs of a particular pedagogical situation and the player's personal characteristics, and in this sense, the behavior of the coach should be quite flexible. In addition to praise, real symbols of the players' achievements are used as an encouragement: badges, diplomas, tokens, medals, prizes, etc.

Emotionality of training sessions. It is understandable that praise or disapproval by a coach elicits an emotional reaction from the players. Thus, motives are closely related to emotions. In other words, if the training process is not emotional enough, it is difficult to maintain the necessary motivation for it.

The increase in the emotionality of the training process and the corresponding motivation for it on the part of basketball players is facilitated by the inclusion of outdoor games in the training, the competitive method of organizing exercises, the introduction of background music into certain parts of the training, the presence of spectators at individual training sessions, the encouragement of the emotional behavior of the players, the emotional behavior of the coach himself .

Development of team traditions. The formation of a close-knit team of players and team spirit is one of the important means of increasing the motivation of basketball players for the training process. When a player begins to feel that his personal efforts help to solve collective problems, he has a different attitude to the training process. The development of the team's traditions is facilitated by the unified sportswear of the players, the organization of festive rituals, for example, on the birthdays of the players or the reception of new team members, commemorative tournaments and tournaments of team veterans, festive evenings after the end of the season, etc.

Special decoration of the room for the team, as described by B. Knight, can also become a tradition.

Motivation is a year-round process. Players need to know what we expect from their games. We have a lot of slogans that we put up in the team room. One of them: "Victory loves those teams that are less likely to make mistakes." Basketball is a game of mistakes, and the team that makes fewer mistakes has the best chance of winning.

Pete Newell, who in my opinion is the best basketball coach in the world, shared this view: “Basketball is a simple game. You must hit more accurately than the opponent and make more throws. If you hit more accurately than they do, it says about your attack. If you hit more than they do, it speaks to your defense."

Another of our slogans: "Calmness and movement equals an accurate throw." I also encourage mine to read and leave materials in the locker room that I believe will help the player in their development as both a citizen and a player, motivation keeps your players doing what is necessary to play basketball successfully.

Making collective decisions. Discussing the goals and particular tasks of the training process with the team, making collective decisions on training and lifestyle issues under the guidance of a coach significantly increase the players' motivation for the training process. An excellent example of this is the experience of B. Knight.

Goals are set for the whole team, in accordance with this, static information is collected at each game, with which the players get acquainted after the end of the game, dividing it into three groups - attack, defense and general. On the side of each goal, leave a place to mark the result. If we have reached the goal, we write down the percentage in black, if not, we make a mark in red. Goals should be challenging enough, but achievable. We've maxed out at eight goals in a single game, and have averaged five goals in every game over the last two seasons.

Attack targets: field goals - 52%; free throws - 75%; losses -10%.

Objectives of defense: 1) to prevent the opponent from scoring more than 65 points per game; 2) to prevent the opponent from exceeding 42% of the effectiveness in shots from the field; 3) prevent any of the opponent's players from scoring more than 20 points; 4) force the opponent to make 214 losses.

General goals: 1) to score first in each half; 2) pick up 58% of all bounces; 3) commit no more than 16 personal fouls; 4) make 12 throws more than the opponent.

If you achieve all these goals, it will be impossible to lose. It is not enough to tell a player to play to the best of their ability. This task must be specified in numbers.

At first glance it seems that Knight is talking about a special psychological preparation for the competition. However, it is not difficult to imagine how the players begin to relate to the training process after making these kinds of collective decisions.

Personal characteristics of a coach. A strong motivating factor in the conscientious attitude of players to the training process is the personality of the coach himself.

To quote B. Knight again: “Motivation starts with the coach. We must motivate ourselves daily. I try to do this by going to every training session, counting everything from the moment I enter the court, for example, if there is any of the players that I need to reprimand in order to set them up for a good job.

Among the many characteristics of a coach's personality that help motivate players, one should first of all name confidence, exactingness, optimism and perseverance, curiosity and professional intuition.

The coach must be confident in his competence and the decisions he makes. We must remember: the fact that your team is not in the top three, and you yourself are not yet part of the coaching elite, constantly mentioned in the media, does not mean that you cannot train. Your confidence instills faith in your students.

The coach must be equally exacting (we are talking about discipline) to all players. Otherwise, he will begin to lose confidence in himself. It is good if behind his firmness the players will feel friendliness, respect for themselves. In the end, the success of the coach and the success of his students are interdependent, which is a sufficient basis for mutual respect.

Coach's optimism helps players to overcome the inevitable difficulties of the training process. Everyone understands that it's easier to be optimistic when your team is winning. If she loses, it is useful to recall the statement of Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci that 90% of their experiments ended in failure. But they were persistent, and this ultimately determined their success. Remind your students of this.

Dictionaries define curiosity as the desire to acquire new knowledge; inquisitiveness. At first glance, the coach's curiosity concerns only himself. In fact, everything in the communication between an athlete and a coach is interconnected. An inquisitive coach is always eager to learn more about the secrets of his profession. His wide erudition helps him explain to the players the patterns of the training process and the need to use certain means of training in it. Knowledge of this kind helps players to form a meaningful positive attitude towards the training process.

But it's not so much about this, but that the training process is too multifaceted, and each player is too individual to give recipes for all occasions in advance. The most necessary at the moment ways of influencing students, including to increase their motivation, the coach helps to find professional intuition, the development of which is determined, on the one hand, by practical experience, and on the other hand, by the desire to acquire new knowledge, or curiosity.

Summing up, it should be noted that, according to one of the country's leading hockey coaches V.V. Tikhonov, the final meaning of the coach's activity is not physical, technical or tactical training, but the formation of the will of the ward. And the development of the will is associated primarily with the formation of a rich motivational and semantic sphere of the players. And the coach must know how to do it.

In addition to the formation of players' motivation, the coach's task also includes the formation of a system of attitudes towards different aspects of the training process. "The system of relations determines the nature of the experiences of the individual, the peculiarities of the perception of reality, the nature of behavioral reactions to external influences." The elements of the system of players' attitudes to the training process are the attitude to sports training in general, the attitude to physical activity, the attitude to training sessions, the attitude to the sports regime.

In order to create a positive attitude of players towards sports training in general, the coach should not determine the team's starting line-up during the pre-season. It is better for him to constantly change the starting five so that the substitutes do not feel useless. According to B. Cosey, the late deadlines for determining the starting five make the entire team take a more responsible attitude to the training process.

D. Wooden advises ending each practice session on a positive note so that the coach and players look forward to the next session. If the coach and players end a session in an irritated or pessimistic state, they are unlikely to look forward to the next session and have to start under difficult conditions that might not be there.

Fear of large training loads is basically removed by good motivation. Hockey coach V.V. Tikhonov talked about the "barriers" that are built in front of each athlete and coach in his activity and which must be overcome in order to move on. His main ideas included the following provisions:

1) there are no limits in loads;

2) the idea that one should take care of oneself is wrong. As soon as the thought of “saving” oneself appears, the athlete ends there: he was unable to overcome such a barrier;

3) the athlete must strive to be in peak form all the time, avoiding a drop in form.

V.V. Tikhonov sees it in breaking the barrier of fear - the fear of burden.

D. Wooden also talked about the experience of developing positive attitudes towards large training loads through the collective acceptance of what he called “training rules”. Here are some of them: “Never think about your bruises and fatigue. If you are tired, think about how your opponent might have run out of steam”; “The condition is improved by hard training work after you are exhausted. Force yourself to work when you get tired”; "Set a goal for yourself to be in better condition than your supposed opponents." Copies of these jointly agreed rules are given to each player on the team, after which, according to Wooden, he must either agree with them or leave the team.

Practice has shown that following the principles formulated above significantly speeds up the process of transferring the nature of the team's activities from collective to joint.

References:

[1] Vavilov A.L. Group cohesion, individual readiness and effectiveness of the game of the basketball team // Actual problems of human knowledge in the field of

educational activity: materials of the annual scientific session of the BPA on May 25

2000 - St. Petersburg: BPA, 2000.

[2] Wooden D. Modern basketball / Per. from English. and foreword. E.R. Yakhonotov. - M .: Physical culture and sport, 1987.

[3] Gomelsky A.Ya. Basketball team management. - 2nd ed., add. - M.: Fizkultura i sport, 1985.

[4] Gomelsky A.Ya. Prove yourself right by winning. — M.: Sovetskaya Rossiya, 1987.

[5] Gorbunov G.D. Psychopedagogy of sports. - M.: Physical culture and sport, 1986.

[6] Daimatsu H. Follow me / Per. from Japanese. Foreword O. Chekhov. - M .: Physical culture and sport, 1972.

[7] Cretty B. J. Psychology in modern sports / Per. from English. Foreword V.V. Davydov. - M .: Physical culture and sport, 1987.

What does team chemistry mean for the NBA and how to achieve it

Basketball is a great mystery.

“I don't believe in statistics. There are too many factors that cannot be taken into account - for example, the player's heart "(Red Auerbach).

All diseases are from the nerves.

Each of us has been familiar with this doctrine since childhood, but hardly many of us are fully aware of its significance.

The direct dependence of a person's physical state on the psycho-emotional component is clearly demonstrated by the wonderful science of psychosomatics, whose main purpose is to study the influence of psychological factors on the state of the bodily shell and its components. Despite a considerable number of skeptics, the indicated scientific direction is not only flourishing, but also guaranteed to bring healing to people suffering from a variety of problems - from headaches to vitiligo.

More than once in my materials I compared the NBA with a full-fledged living organism, which functions approximately according to the same laws allotted by the Lord as our bodily and astral shells. Based on these considerations, let's assume that each of the League's teams is a certain body or group of bodies: Golden State is the heart of the Association, San Antonio is the brain, New York is well ... in general, the logic is quite transparent.

However, regardless of geographical location, any team periodically encounters problems that are far from sports components in their origin, such as throwing technique or polished movements in footwork. This, of course, is about the seemingly weightless concept of team chemistry. The allusion with one of the most difficult exact sciences to comprehend is not accidental: to form a good, stable team chemistry, a verified interaction of the ingredients of the players, the coaching staff, the front office and Lady Luck (where without it) is necessary.

Chemistry is a factor so significant that it will allow a team with a conditional starting five Calderon - Korver - Covington - Bonner - Smith (Jason Smith) to reach the playoffs, where, however, seasoned guys from the conditional Warriors will certainly break off their horns , who have everything in order with chemistry and the players are an order of magnitude more talented.

You don't have to look far for examples: remember at least the recent match between Cleveland and Indiana, in which the guests, losing 25 points by the big break, managed to win back the backlog! Of course, the team owes the lion's share of success to its leader, and this is what distinguishes great teams: the ability of coaches, team leaders at critical moments to motivate other partners in such a way, create a mood and distribute roles that not only a 20-point gap, but also a score of 1-3 You can play in the final series.

Let's turn to more global real-life examples of the impact of chemistry on the results of the team:

• The Knicks, who strengthened (albeit with reservations) the roster in the offseason, were considered as iron contenders for getting into the playoffs. Despite Noah's injury, the team kept going: Rose was in the best condition since returning from injury; the start of Porzingis made the fans believe in his getting into the upcoming MVZ; Melo was habitually reliable. Ironically, the toxic atmosphere in the locker room for New York became the factor that sentenced the next season: constant rumors of exchanges, incorrect statements by Phil Jackson and his comrades against Melo, a strange demarche of Rose, who left the location of the team without explanation, aggravated relations Rambis with the players - all these things negated the positive mood of the beginning of the season. If Jackson were a little more restrained, and Rose and Porzingis were a little less impressionable, and in the 1st round Cleveland would have been swept by the Knicks;
• There are many more positive examples this year. Miami, a bunch of refuseniks and write-off personalities, almost managed to reverse the seemingly inevitable failure, and all thanks to Spoelstra's coaching genius and the solidarity of the players, with Dion Waiters (yes, with him) at the head.
• In Washington, it took Scott Brooks a little over a month to resolve a years-long leadership crisis brewing in the team's dressing room. The result was not long in coming: the Wizards took 4th place in the East (and could have been third), Wall had the best season of his career and cemented the title of the top point guard in the Conference, and Bradley Beal grew into a full-fledged player of the MVZ level. Remarkably, the same chronic injury Beal, to whom the management was afraid to issue a 128 million contract, played 77 matches, spending the maximum time in his career on the floor - almost 35 minutes. Mental comfort (and a competent coaching approach) can work wonders!

A natural question arises: how is it possible to achieve the desired result in a team of 13-15 people in the shortest possible time?

The answer is no. It's only in the movies that Jordan, with the help of a "secret composition", instantly turns a gang of cartoon psychopaths into a combat-ready team. In reality, building an intra-team atmosphere is a laborious task, but at the same time it is absolutely achievable.

Let's turn to the main, proven methods of building ideal relationships within a sports team.

1. Common goals override individual goals

"What good can you expect from a team whose best player is not the best partner?!" (Brad Stevens).

The first rule with a slight tinge of the dictatorship of the proletariat, in other words, command chemistry. How many times have the world been told that individual talent can help win a single match or a series of playoffs, in rare cases reach the final, but by definition is not capable of winning a champion title.

Fundamental basketball components, such as defensive play and rebounding, are designed to prevent the opponent from putting the ball into the basket, which, first of all, requires reliable teamwork.

The main obstacle on the way to building a chain of interaction is the human ego. This vulgar component is a product of the psychotype of a spoiled child, which necessarily exists inside each of us. The problem is that it is extremely difficult to get rid of the inner minion, so experts prefer to find ways to switch attention.

Five players in the Knicks' last championship roster (1972-73) averaged over 10 points, with two others, Jerry Lucas and Phil Jackson, averaging 9.9 points and 8.1 points, respectively; all seven subsequently became members of the Hall of Fame. The creator of success was the legendary Red Holtzman, an ardent supporter of the classic basketball offense, the so-called "Equal Opportunity Offense" system. The main principle of the attack is to deliver the ball to the player who is in the most favorable position for an open throw. An approach where each player on the floor is at the forefront of the attack eliminates any possibility of selfishness and allows the performers to remain focused throughout the match.

2. Signing the right players

“The system is the way to win! Believe in your system, then get it across to the players.” (Billy Donovan)

It's no secret that throughout the 21st century, Knicks functionaries have been trying with all their might to lure the most attractive free and not very agents, completely ignoring the compliance of the performers with the adopted game strategy (which, by the way, was also not much). The detrimental trend continued for almost two decades, during which the Knicks lost absolutely all respect among fans of the best ball game.

Most of the teams (to which the long-suffering shoemakers themselves have joined in the last couple of years) still try to adhere to a certain approach in choosing players: Stan Van Gundy, faithful to the precepts of V.S. Chernomyrdin, is trying to build a champion team in Michigan, and in the end result is still Orlando, with Drummond and the shooters surrounding him; The Knicks are tinkering with the archaic triangle offense, while the Warriors and Spurs are just consolidating the best possible tactics.

Sometimes the appearance of even the most talented player in the roster, but not at all suitable for the game pattern, can destroy the favorable atmosphere that has been created for years to come.

Some GMs should benefit from Mike Neer's experience: a coach from an obscure NCAA Division III college had regular discussions with his players about whether to sign a particular recruit. As a result, in a 37-year career, Nier scored over 600 victories (65%).

3. Appointment of team captains

“In good teams, coaches keep the players in focus; on great teams, the players keep the players in focus.” (Joe Dumars)

The presence of even the most advanced tactical schemes does not guarantee the final result, because the players, for nothing that the elite and millionaires, are a standard society in which the most talented person is not always the best leader.

That's what the team captain system was designed for. The coach, at his own discretion, chooses one or more players who, in addition to performing on the floor, will have to perform several more functions.

Firstly, this is the role of a kind of basketball electrolyte, conveying the will of the coach to less efficient partners like electric current.

Secondly, the captains are called upon to monitor the atmosphere within the team, because the coach, as a person more often of age, in some situations may find it difficult to find a common language with a representative of the younger generation. This is where the captain comes in, who, like a real Machiavellian governor, becomes the eyes and ears of the coach and allows you to extinguish the conflict or misunderstanding at the embryonic stage.

During training, captains can be entrusted with scheduling and adjusting intensity levels to minimize the number of young Iverson followers.

Of course, the presence of captains does not guarantee automatic access to the championship heights, but their absence can cause considerable damage to team chemistry, which will necessarily affect the results of the team (for example, Denver, Minnesota and "Lakers").

4. Veteran Presence

“Young players need role models, not criticism” (John Wooden).

Contrary to popular belief, old age does not always go hand in hand with worldly wisdom. Therefore, in the process of selecting a veteran roster, one must be based not only on the physical condition of a basketball old-timer, but also on his reputation. It is for this reason that the fundamental Elton Brand, and not an overgrown troublemaker like Stephen Jackson, was invited to the role of the godfather of the spiritual mentor in the locker room of Philadelphia.

The long-suffering Knicks of 2012-13 are a clear example of the beneficial influence of veterans on the team. At that time, the “Shoemakers” were able to pick up a completely unique composition of honored players: the presence of Kidd, Camby, Thomas and Sheedy allowed the team to reach the 2nd round of the playoffs for the first time in the 21st century, and J.R. Best Six.

In the absence of real elders, the role of "veterans" is often assigned to young people who, at best, have a couple of years in the NBA behind them. In this case, the coach should be doubly careful, because sanity is a rare guest among recent youths.

Danny Miles, Oregon Institute of Technology team coach with 43 years of experience, avoided hazing in curious ways, such as assigning the usual rookie duties (like hauling gear) to second years.

5. Clear roles

"Basketball is a team game, but that doesn't mean that every one of the five guys on the court has to make the same number of shots" (Dean Smith).

A team is a mechanism, each cog of which must play the assigned role necessary to achieve a common goal. The role, of course, is not determined on a whim: it all depends on the skills, physics and psychotype of a single player. Looking at more than twenty years of San Antonio's success, there is no doubt about the viability of the mentioned postulate. But no: there are players who question the decisions of the coaching staff regarding their own role in the team. Rejection gives rise to instability - and now the recent rebel is again looking for his place - already in the new team. In this case, the story of Dion Waiters, one of the most egocentric characters of the League, is very revealing: the defender refused to accept the new role prepared for him by the returning King of Ohio, and departed for another agricultural state (where, however, he did not stay either).

One of the most common myths is that the only way to benefit a team is to score points. And if at a young age such misconceptions are allowed, then stupid triples through two defenders at the age of Christ are a guarantee of an early move to the basketball courts of the Middle Kingdom.

6. Strict discipline

"When a player is late, he openly demonstrates that his personal time is much more important than the team" (Don Mayer).

Do not forget that NBA players are the same people, many of whom are not averse to scoring for training or arriving late to the gym. Such things are stopped in the strictest way: a fine, a temporary disqualification, a decrease in playing minutes and - when it comes to systematic violations - expulsion / exchange. Of particular danger are hedonists from among veterans, who by their own example negatively influence the fragile minds of young people.

7. Matching players who are not particularly close

“Some people believe that it takes five best players to win. I realized that to win, you need five players who are best combined with each other ”(Red Auerbach).

Contrary to popular belief, people with a similar worldview are attracted to each other much more willingly than opposites. Players from the same college, city, calm or vice versa - jokers - prefer to spend time together, and during training they are more likely to choose friends as partners. This approach is much more comfortable for the players themselves, but it can harm the team as a whole. Therefore, a common technique for cultivating team chemistry is to pair up players who are not too close to each other; as an option - newly arrived players are paired with established leaders of the team.

8. Analysis of each player's mistakes

“Good players want to be coached. Great players want to hear the truth about themselves” (Doc Rivers).

Equality is a concept as beautiful as it is ephemeral. However, a good coach should try to avoid being selective – especially when reviewing past games. Many domestic fans hastened to anathematize LeBron, Griffin and the entire Cleveland for the dismissal of the public's favorite David Blatt. Meanwhile, the ex-coach of the Russian national team made a lot of efforts for such an outcome: the mentor was frankly afraid to criticize James, recouping on other players, which caused the anger and indignation of the latter.

9. Do not expose internal problems

“Praise loudly, criticize in a whisper” (Don Mayer).

David Myers, one of the leading sports psychologists in the United States, calls conflicts normal for any group of people. Moreover, the absence of conflicts in relationships between people or in an organization is a sign of indifference. Correctly understood and identified, conflict can stimulate renewal and improvement in human relationships. The last principle was adopted by Phil Jackson, who deliberately pitted Kobe and Shaq to exacerbate competition. Already as president of the Knicks, Phil Jackson, apparently due to the lack of a second full-fledged star, began to pit Carmelo Anthony with himself, and in very strange ways: ambiguous tweets, press conferences and articles of frightening frankness. As a result, New York, which has long become the talk of the town on the sidelines of the NBA, has turned into a uniform big top, where current players are mixed with shit, and former ones are beaten in the stands.

10. Spending time outside the gym

“We interact with each other all the time, even when we don't notice it” (Pat Summit).

Regardless of the current results, the team must rest and spend time together off the court. Whether it's an outdoor workout, a joint dinner or fishing - the notorious "team building" (along with a reasonable amount of alcohol) contributes to creating a more comfortable environment of discreet familiarity. Several joint events - and it is already obvious who is just being cautious, and who is a closed sociopath with megalomania.

Author's methods for building team chemistry

In addition to the above methods, the best basketball coaches acquire their own methods of unity of souls. Let's focus on the most curious:

Gregg Popovich's family

Pop's genius is in his desire to follow the simple postulate of T. Roosevelt: people don't care how much you know, until they understand that you yourself care. Through the efforts of Pop, the entire Spurs organization is a natural family, where there is no I, but there is WE; each of its members - from the owner to the junior video coordinator - knows that he will always find support in any undertaking (well, or he will be reasonably explained why his initiative is now out of place). Pop is a supporter of discipline and dedication, which does not mean at all that players need to walk around with a poker face 24 hours a day (by God, Duncan came with such an expression at 1997, Popovich has nothing to do with it). The coach does not hesitate to discuss topics far from basketball with his wards, including personal problems of players related to family or health. Pop takes the best of the draft, finds a way to fit the newcomer into the system, and brings in people who can help build strengths and mitigate weaknesses. Caring, indifference are the cornerstones of Popovich's system, no matter how pathetic it may sound.

Despite the abundance of talented students on the coaching bridge, no one has yet been able to export the "Family" system - because much in the Family is based on the figure of Gregg Popovich.

15 strong Pat Riley

the season was filled with a variety of cards: these could be photographs of players, their family members, children's drawings, some motivational slogans, images of the Larry O'Brien Cup - on the back of which the main slogan of the team was necessarily listed - 15 strong (The Power of Fifteen in a free translation ). Any member of the team could approach the cup, put a new card in it, or take one or more - and the effect was akin to watching a family album and motivational videos at the same time. Everyone found their own inspiration in the cup. By the end of the 2006 season, more than 120,000 (!) cards had accumulated in the bowl - and the Miami Heat took the championship title.

Doka Rivers' Ubuntu

Big Trio's "Boston" was built on the principle of ubuntu, an African near-philosophical trend, which was based on the principle of becoming oneself through helping others. The system, inspired by the teachings of Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, suggests that no player can reach their maximum potential by focusing on their ego. Ubuntu, on the other hand, encourages us to move towards excellence by helping our neighbors - players, coaches, team personnel. The African concept of universal altruism allowed the newly completed Celtics to win the championship in their first season.

Mike Krzyszewski's Fist

Coach Kay, one of the most decorated coaches in the NCAA, offered the studios the simplest principle of unity. Just like a human fist consists of 5 fingers, Krzyzewski's game psychology is based on 5 fundamental elements: communication, trust, collective responsibility, care and pride. According to the coach, each of the fingers has its own importance, but only when five of them gather, the fingers form a fist, which in the end is able to cause maximum damage to the opponent.

John Wooden's Pyramid of Success

The greatest collegiate basketball coach with over 80% of wins in his 30-year career, John Wooden turned his coaching experience into a 5-level Pyramid of Success, topped by the greatness of the competitive spirit (“Give out your best game when you need it. And you need it every day.") Every young player started his journey to greatness with a basic level of building friendships within the team, loyalty to the team, dedication and enthusiasm. The second stage urged to be more attentive to details and demanded to follow the set course. The third stage is devoted to the improvement of one's own conditions - both physical and moral. The final steps - the fourth and fifth - were entirely focused on the psycho-emotional state of the player: self-confidence and competitive spirit.

Analysis of team chemistry levels

Reflecting the effectiveness of team chemistry in statistical protocols is a complex process and currently not available, however, the development of such metrics is only a matter of time. The problem of calculating team chemistry was also discussed at the recent MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference - a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where statistical maniacs from all over the world flock (primarily from the New). In 2014, SyncStrength presented an interesting concept for calculating team chemistry, based on standard statistical and individual biological indicators of players (in particular, heart rate). The essence of the concept is to study the heart rhythms of the players and synchronize them so that the hearts of the players literally beat in unison. According to the authors, in the future, coaches will have the opportunity to study the biometric indicators of the wards and identify the most productive tandems.

While the mentioned technologies are only paving the way for big-time sports, let's try to independently determine the effectiveness of team interactions between existing NBA clubs.

The methodology, of course, is very subjective, but the results obtained reflect the current intra-team tendencies and the achievements of individual teams.

9 criteria* were used for evaluation:

* – in criterion No. 3, players who have spent 2.5 seasons in the team are equated to the category “3 seasons or more”

Maximum score according to criteria No. 1-8 - 2 points; the negative message of criterion No. 9 led to the reverse order of counting: a club that did not appear in scandals or public conflicts gets 0 points, in all other cases 1 or 2 points are taken away, depending on the severity of the ongoing chaos.

Intermediate evaluation results:

As a result, all 30 clubs of the Association were divided into 5 conditional groups, depending on the current level of team chemistry - from "top" to "critical".

CONCLUSIONS

1) Cleveland didn't get into the top category due to a failed defense in the 2nd half of the regular season. In the playoffs, the Cavs are ranked 4th in defensive effectiveness, securing a theoretical place in the elite in terms of team chemistry.

2) Expectedly high (which is no less pleasant) turned out to be a gang of "refuseniks" from Florida. Coach Spo, like Jordan in Space Jam, built a fighting team from underdogs that defeated all the main favorites of the regular season; a significant contribution to the formation of team chemistry was made by local glue guys - in particular, the excellent James Johnson.

3) The results of Houston may not seem too impressive, but it is worth taking into account 2 facts: a) the team has been updated beyond recognition over the past year, and above average performance with such a number of changes is rather a blessing; b) in the playoffs, the comrades still go on a par with the habitually reliable Spurs in terms of chemistry.

4) Clubs in the face of major change are symbolically included in the group with low intra-team atmosphere: Chicago, Indiana and Detroit are waiting for July to explode the free agent market. "Phoenix" can also be honored with a couple of point exchanges, but changes in the level of counterparts can hardly be expected; there is a tendency to strengthen team chemistry in the Arizona squad.

5) In New York, everything is very hard, but that's nothing: if Melo intends to remain in the team at any cost, we expect a full-fledged civil war. A war in which only one will survive...

***

Basketball is a great mystery. You can assemble a talented squad, implement a proven attacking system, develop an ingenious defensive strategy, create the best training base - but there will be no result if the individual goals of the players dominate the team. Even the most talented egoist, who by a lucky chance dragged the team to the Final, at one moment stumbles and falls. And if there are no partners nearby who can pick up the torch, then all previous achievements will mean absolutely nothing.

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