A great team lets its members reach their full potential, measured by leaving with no regrets and keeping lifelong friendships. It takes four things: athletes making good daily choices, taking ownership of the team, intentional coaching that builds character, and strong support from parents and administrators.
At Proactive Coaching, we believe every young person should be on a great team. Now, great teams come in all shapes, forms, and sizes. Of course, we work with athletic teams, but sometimes the best teams at schools are the bands, performing arts, debate. What it takes to be on a great team is what's important. Now, before we get into that, what's a great team? Great teams just don't happen by chance, and not every great team is gonna win a state championship, a national championship, a conference championship. Some might not even go 500. Great teams, I remember when I found out what they were about. It's when a junior high coach looked at me one day and said, "Never let it be said of you and never let it be said of our team that we shouldn't reach potential." See, great teams reach potential. Great teams reach potential, and you know that happens when two things occur. One, you walk away from the season with no regrets, and two, your teammates stay with you in your life forever. So as we look at that, we build about four special things that have to happen for teams to be great. One, athletes have to make great choices every single day. How many times do you see teams self-destruct, not by what happens in the competitive arena, but by choices that are made outside the competitive arena? Or by what happens in practice when people don't bear down to make the choices that they need to make every day to reach potential? The second thing is leadership and ownership. Athletes have to take leadership and ownership on their own team. It's their team. The coach is the facilitator, but it's not their team, it's the athlete's team. It's not the parent's team, it's the athlete's team. The third thing that has to happen is intentional coaching. Coaches have to go beyond the X's and O's. They have to coach for character. Character is defined by getting your athletes to make great decisions on effort and behavior. Every day we must teach that. And the last thing is great support. Support by the administrators, support by the parents. Not ways that tear apart teams, Not ways that turn their back on teams, but things that help teams reach their potential. See, that's proactive coaching. We're in it to help our kids reach potential, to understand what that's about, so when they go on in their life, they're able to reach potential in far greater things than just an athletics team. Thank you.
