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What are the key factors in winning a competition? Anything from developing a side that can do it; off field culture; team expectations; etc.
Responses
Firstly, you probably can’t win the competition immediately.
You need to find what the teams’ strengths and weaknesses are and in Year 1 create a culture that suits your club and that attracts the right people to your club.
Get rid of the people who “don’t get it “
Bin mobile phones between 9.45am and 5pm at stumps
Year 2 goal is to make the top 4. Get a good leader as captain. Your 3rd seamer in cricket holds the bowling together so get someone to plug up an end so your superstars can go the other end.
Be realistic make it “real “
Get buy in from the team the negotiables (creative ) and non-negotiables (values )
No slashes (players who pick and choose when they want to play) you're either in or out. Slashes create a poor attitude.
Make the semi-finals (you probably won’t win) but learn from the year
Year 3 - Win it by repeating what you did in year and go one further.
Enjoy the ride it’s gold
While this should not be the main focus of your season/tournament in terms of verbal re-enforcement to the players, in my opinion you cannot achieve something unless you have it as your goal - WIN! Win whatever competition you are playing in and base your preparation around how that is best achieved with the players you have at your disposal. Plan for success!
Recognise and adapt your coaching/captaincy to the different personality traits of all players within the squad. You can't treat everyone the same and the players need to understand and recognise these differences as well.
Have clearly defined squad expectations that are non-negotiable (playing and training based), best scenario is the players identify, implement and monitor these themselves.
The "senior or most admired" players in the group all need to be on-board with what the coach/captain wants to achieve and how it will be achieved. Their efforts and attitude need to reflect this at all times. Constant reassessment of the tournament or season can see changes implemented where and when required.
Practice and training are 2 completely different things and both need to be included in the preparation of the players. Practice current skills under as much pressure as possible. Train and implement new skills constantly.
All players should improve through the course of the team's preparation/season in all 5 key areas -technical, tactical, psychological, physiological and socially.
You can either practice hard or long, never schedule a session/week that is a combination of the 2. Players hate it and burn out is not great preparation for anyone. Recovery days/weeks are vital for prime performances over a tournament or a season.
Individual and team successes,( sometimes this is just improvement), need to be publicly acknowledged, rewarded and celebrated by the entire playing group. Especially celebrate winning! Recognition of your success as a team is your opponents will hate you, and hate playing against you. Be the feared team of the competition!
As a coach/captain/leader constantly perform a self assessment and ask for feedback from all players in the team/squad. Willingness to improve and listen go a long way to a happy playing group.
I always like a good quote as well so here are a couple:
IF IT'S MEANT TO BE THEN IT'S UP TO ME! Take responsibility for everything that happens.
THERE IS NO TRAFFIC JAM ON THE EXTRA MILE! Leave no stone unturned in your pursuit of victory.
