If your definition of success is not met, is the season a failure?
Success can mean something different to every person in your team’s sphere of influence. Meaning your parents may define success different from the athletes, your coaches could have another definitions, Then within your parents and league there could another definition for success.
As the head coach of the team it is critical that you define success for the team and then convey that success to the players, coaches and parents. That means you have to sell it to your team. You will need to take extra time from practices and workouts to make sure that you sell what success will mean to the team. Answer questions and allow the definition of success by part of the team. In time, everyone will understand what success will look like and they will buy in.
With my teams, I often took several practices or workouts before I would consider what success was for my team that season. Now, I went into every season wanting to win a championship,, and I think you should too, however, i learned that with every team success does mean just winning a championship. Every team will be different and let’s face some teams will just not have the skill set or mindset to be a championship. This is ok, but you still need to define success for that team in that season.
In fact, I really believe that some of my most successful seasons was when we just stunk it up. My Spring 2017 baseball teams, was such teams. I was basically starting all over again (because I had so many of my best players that went on to play baseball at the club level), so I was not sure of the talent level. After a few practices, I set our success on being in the top 5 teams (out of 16). We ended the season 8th out of 16 teams, but after our final game all 12 players came to me and thanked me for pushing them to be their best.
To help you define success for your team, here are some ways to do it:
- Always doing your best
- Complete all the team goals
- Playing for each other
- Understanding how the team improved
- Gaining incredible confidence
- Knowing how much you accomplished in the season
- Overcoming obstacles
- Not giving up
I was not success for the regular season based on my definition of success, but I was successful in building players that understood that giving their best is sometimes the most successful thing they can do. You may not win every game or ever the championship, but you always need to give your best.
Remember that as you define what a successful season means to you and your team, that success does not mean just to get a championship but to W.I.N.(What’s Important Next).
Changing Lives Everyday,
Neftali Ortiz