Relationships and their almost 'secret' effect

Relationships amongst team members are so important for sporting success, and thus the ability of a coach to create and sustain relationships in a team is an amazing valuable gift.

During the week 12 practical session, we paired up and in these groups of two, the class completed activities and conversed throughout the lesson. Each pair spent a lot of time talking to each other, getting to know each other and in someway, building a relationship. The class then moved into a game of basketball, with teams of around four being made by joining pairs. When playing the game I noticed more of a flow, more chemistry, and an ease of play when working offensively and defensively with the person I had paired up with previously, much more than my other two teammates.  I didn’t think much of this interaction at the time until we reflected on the lesson at the conclusion of the session. Keith pointed out how the team that was made of majority friends, but had limited basketball skills (graded as ‘Hot’ on our class scale of skill) actually did better than all other teams, and won all their games. Although I still believe there was a decent amount of luck involved in some of those shots (or maybe I’m just a bad loser), I can’t deny the effect relationships appear to have had on that performance, and on all performance. Keith went on to talk of Olympic example of coaches manipulating relationships to better their sporting performance. The learning and events on this day took my mind back to one of my favourite books, The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons.

The Book of Basketball is a seven hundred page book about basketball, and more specifically the NBA. Bill Simmons, my favourite basketball writer, writes a chapter in this book named, ‘The Secret’. In this chapter Bill talks about the secret of winning championships in the NBA with reference to history, the legends of the game and his large range of knowledge about the game of basketball. The chapter opens, and concludes this topic with a quote from a discussion Bill had with, NBA hall of famer Isiah Thomas;

“The secret of basketball is that it’s not about basketball” (Simmons, 2009, p. 39).

When you compare this quote to quotes from legendary coaches such as John Wooden like, “What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as basketball player”, you can begin to uncover and understand the ‘secret’ to winning that these legends are referring to. Both these example are from basketball but the same dynamics apply to all team sports, and even individual sports for that matter.

The secret Bill and other coaches refer to as an important factor is relationships. Teams with better relationships will perform better than teams with bad team relationships. Teams with good relationships are less selfish, share more and have better team work, which in team sports obviously leads to better performance. Teams with quality relationships have players who care more about the greater good, winning, more so than individual stats and accolades. In Pat Riley’s book, Showtime, he talks about “the disease of more”, where players want more minutes, more shots, more stats, more fame and it disrupts relationships and the team’s chances of winning (Simmons, 2009). 

Bill Simmons mentions many examples in his book of skilled teams falling apart because of non-basketball related incidents, which disrupted team relationships. Also mentioned in the book were many examples of teams that knew about the power of relationships and selected teamwork over talent, beating teams with more talent and skill. 

Despite the crucial factor relationships play in sport, Bill Simmons predicts that 90% of NBA decision makers seem to ignore ‘The Secret’. This is somewhat understandable because of the complex nature of relationships and team chemistry. ‘The Secret’ is not tangible or quantitative. You can’t make stats for mentoring, caring, unselfishness, team chemistry etc (Simmons, 2009).

The complex nature of human relationships means coaches need to be very skilled socially at bringing players together, and be able to notice and understand interactions between players. In an interview about one of the greatest coaches of all time, Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant praised Phil by saying that Phil Jackson was just really good at bringing a group of people together (this video is featured in my Feedback, Perspective and Self Learning blog post). 

 

Bringing a team together to form quality relationships with each other and yourself won’t be easy or the process clear. An example of when I as a coach made decisions to improve team relationships was seen in my selection of a basketball team. I was at a school at the basketball try-outs session. I had picked or cut all the players needed to make a team except for a split decision I had between two players. I could only choose one of the two players. In the end I ended up choosing the player A who had less basketball experience and skill than player B, but had better relationships with all the players and was more liked and social. Considering we were going to be on the road and playing away I thought the increase comradery, support and team chemistry was more important. We ended up going undefeated to the grand final and beating a much higher skilled team with two national players in their roster, becoming zone champions.

Positively effecting team relationships could be as simple as getting to know your students or athletes and creating a caring environment. Whatever the method it will depend on the individuals and the context so getting to know players is essential. One thing that cannot be denied is that quality relationships are a great influence on sporting performance.

References

Simmons, B. (2009). The book of basketball. New York: Ballantine/ESPN Books.