.png?width=622&height=622&name=Teambuildr-Icon-72dpi%20(blue,%20padded).png "Teambuildr-Icon-72dpi (blue, padded)"){kind=icon}
The culture of a team (or organization) has a way of electing leaders that may not be cutout for front rank. Leadership at times can depend on seniority, experience, playing stats or skill rather than physicality, robustness, mentality and will.
In my opinion, it is of the utmost importance that the leader of your team is the alpha being of the pack. If we don’t consider this then we run the risk of inviting fatigue to devour our bodies, minds and ultimately the success of our season.
“If I hadn’t been in better shape than the others on the court I couldn’t have willed our team to victory. We undoubtedly would have lost that game due to fatigue rather than the fact we were simply out played.” – Jon Schoonover (CRONS Basketball Club)
I’ve seen it time and time again. The best leaders on the field that I’ve been around have always been the most robust of the group. Perhaps, the best example of this was during my first coaching job with CRONS Basketball Club. My team was almost always outmatched from a skill standpoint but we were able to win a lot of games we had no business of being in. This was largely due to the fact we could bank on our leader giving us 40 hard minutes (more if needed) no matter the circumstance.
Still to this day, I have a hard time grasping how we were able to win the tournaments that we won. I can honestly say, one of my greatest moments as a coach was winning the Hoopfest in Indiana with this team. I know what you’re thinking, “come on man, its AAU!” I get it, trust me, but I saw something inspiring that day. I saw an undermanned leader impose his will physically, in a triple overtime game, to beat a team of eight Division-1 commits. Flat out amazing and I’ve yet to experience that type of feeling again as a coach.
“Well how do you know he wasn’t willing his team to victory mentally?”
Don’t get me wrong, the mental aspect is extremely important in sports, in life, in everything. That said, the old strength and conditioning adage –“It’s 90% mental and 10% physical” - is a pure fallacy. This would indicate that our physical capacity to withstand training wears out far quicker than our mental capacity. To me, this doesn’t make sense. I believe that fatigue slowly sets in and has an order of operation.
As mentioned before, fatigue has a plan of attack. First, it wants to break your body, then your mind and ultimately any team goals/aspirations that you have for the season. The greater your physical capacity, the longer you can prolong the spread of fatigue. Physical fatigue comes to you in the form of “hands on the knees,” missed reps and coming short of testing parameters. Athletes who demonstrate these types of behaviors are more than likely not who you want leading the group. Regardless of seniority, skills or statistics.
“It’s very important for a leader to be in optimal shape, physically. When training gets tough – Are you able to get the job done un-phased? Or do you let fatigue break you physically and enter your mind?” – Delaney McGuire (Saint Joseph’s University (Women’s Crew)
Once fatigue has gnawed away at you physically and driven you to your breaking point, the next stop is between your ears. When mental fatigue sets in you’re at a very vulnerable spot in the process. If you allow mental fatigue to wear on you day in and day out, you run the risk of reaching the final stage which can be detrimental to the season. Signs of mental fatigue are the people that say “10 seconds left,” SKIP reps, don’t encourage teammates and athletes that “just get through” workouts instead of attacking the task at hand.
These are the people that “can’t wait for the year to be over,” show up late to practice/training; forget their practice gear and who consistently have bad body language. In the military (In no way, shape or form am I saying sports is comparable to war) this is known as combat exhaustion. Of course, the symptoms of combat exhaustion are far more severe than forgetting your practice gear. If you have a team full of athletes who are experiencing game day fatigue and become exhausted, you can guarantee you won’t experience much success.
In order for an athlete to lead they have to be in great physical shape. Fatigue is like cancer; first it attacks you physically, then spreads to your mind and wears on you until you’re exhausted. The longer that you can prolong physical fatigue the better chance you have of beating fatigue and exhaustion. Be weary of the signs and TRAIN HARD!
-
This is a guest blog by Seth Blevins, CSCS & USAW Level 1, Assistant Strength Coach at Saint Joseph's University. You can follow Seth on Twitter, listen to his Power Circle Podcast, or keep up with his other blogs via his website.
No Comments Yet
Let us know what you think