Fortitude 365Helping Athletes, Coaches, and Teams Perform!

Show Dogs or Hunting Dogs

28 Nov 2024 · 1 min

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0:30

A short coaching monologue that contrasts two psychological dispositions among players — "hunting dogs" (disciplined, committed, team-focused) versus "show dogs" (self-focused on stats and playing time). The speaker argues that a team’s collective psychological disposition — whether players prioritize discipline and accountability over individual accolades — is the crucial factor for sustained improvement and playing to a shared standard.

When I was coaching a team, was I was concerned about, do we have show dogs on the team or do we have hunting dogs? You know, hunting dogs are focused on discipline, commitment, accountability, doing the right things, getting better. But when you got show dogs, they're worried about how many passes did I catch? What's my playing time? So what the psychological disposition is of your team at this point in the season that they can stay focused and do the things they need to do to continue to improve and play at a high level and play to a standard together as a group is the most important thing.