Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Team Support

I have been injured since I ran the BMO Half Marathon in May and as I can’t play soccer, I have been helping out on the sidelines when I can. Last Sunday I helped to run the substitutions – or at least I did for the first half and about 15 minutes of the second half before all of my team’s subs got injured. The opposing team had four subs and had a good level of fitness to run us around the field. I was proud of my team for not only keeping up with the other team but creating several scoring opportunities. This only brought to the forefront how important team communication is.

Clearly communicating things like position, availability and how much time your teammate has are all very strategically important. But I also don’t think you can over-value the encouragement of your teammates. We frequently use the phrase “Like you can!” when talking to a teammate about to take a free kick or goal kick, or when someone is taking a throw in.I really like this phrase because it says so much; it says that we believe in our teammate’s capabilities, we believe that our teammate is skilled and also that we as a team expect the best from each other. You could do worse than to have an entire team supporting you and expecting the best from you. If it doesn’t work out, well, that’s what practice is for.

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