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When our staff got to campus a year ago, our first priority was to establish a winning culture. Calling it “mayhem”, on the court our goal was to share, shoot and suffocate, which we believed would create separation from our opponents. Off the court we chose to do what we called separation seminars. This is where we focused on strengthening team chemistry. We wanted to build a culture where the TEAM is all that matters. We showed videos, read articles and quotes throughout the year. The highlight of last year’s separation seminars was the three-day long camping trip in the fall. It really got the guys and even the coaching staff out of their comfort zone, which really allowed us to grow closer together as a team.
This year we wanted to really empower our captains (which we call “commanders”), so we allowed them to lead our separation seminars. We took John Maxwell’s 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork and cut it to 10 that best fit our team:
- Law of Significance
- Law of Big picture
- Law of The Niche
- The Law of Mount Everest
- Law of The chain
- Law of The Bad Apple
- Law of Accountability
- Law of Price Tag
- Law of The Bench
- Law of Communication
Led by our commanders, the focal point of each seminar was two or three of these chapters. Set up to be very interactive, the entire team and staff took notes, and added their own thoughts. Each chapter was presented with a related video.
Senior forward Kristijan Krajina led our discussion about the Law of Significance. As he explained, this law says that for a team to be a good team everyone must understand their role and the significance of it, no matter what it is. Whether it is to score or to rebound or bring energy from the bench or even film, everyone’s role is significant. If the person who’s role is to be the best rebounder on the court decides they would rather try and be the best scorer, we wouldn’t have a very good team. If the person filming misses a play in practice, that same situation might show up later in a game and we wouldn’t be as well prepared for it. Kristijan gave us this quote from Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
Senior point guard Julian Norfleet presented the Law of The Bad Apple, which is about how it only takes ONE person to ruin a good team. For example everyone could execute a play to perfection but if one person doesn’t set that one screen, your shooter wont be open with a chance to win the game. At the time of this seminar, the New England Patriots were dealing with the Aaron Hernandez situation. Julian asked the team to say some words that described the New England Patriots organization. Everyone reacted with negative words, including criminals. Julian made the point that if he were to ask that just a couple weeks ago people would of responded with nothing but complimentary adjectives, but it only took one person to destroy the face of a team and even an entire program.
Overall, the exercise was an outstanding learning experience for our team heading into 2013-14.
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