Makings of a good team

For the benefit of readers, I am just re-posting all the pieces as a whole.

One fine evening I went to a Hindi movie “Chak De India” – a movie focusing on Women’s Hockey (Indian National Game). The movie highlights the TEAM – Together Each Achieves More – concept. The movie could have covered a lot of other areas as the story had a great scope. Anyway, that’s my personal opinion.

While watching the movie, a thought has captured my attention and that is what I am trying to share with you here. “Any team is born but all great teams are definitely made.”

What I mean by this?

A gathering of the required number of players could be counted as a team. But a team that can withstand any situation and deliver the goods at any cost can only be made, nurtured, guided by a dedicated coach or a captain who understands the nuances and the finer points of the game to the core. Along with this he should have a sensible approach towards man management and treat individual players as they like them to be treated.

The initial stage (the lead)

Through a defined selection process, a team will be selected. This team could be of any level, be it school, college, university, city, state or the country. The panel, how good or stupid it is, will definitely follow some parameters in finalizing a squad that will participate in the tournament for which the team is selected. This is where the general misconception starts. The selectors’ job, in a way, ends here (how the selectors have to approach the selection process will be discussed later). It is here that either the coach or the captain steps in (depending on the status of the team – as a few teams might not have a coach) to take the team and bind it into one unit.

Each player will have some strength that helps him make the team. This strength is what is most vital for the team as well and it is up to the coach or the captain to identify and use it to the fullest to optimize the efficiency of the performance of the team as a whole. ***for ease of use, coach or captain will be mentioned as ‘The man’ from now on***

The team should be revolving around the man for better results as following a singular path will generate better results. Sometimes it is always best to leave the decisions to one person (as long as everyone believes him, it should not be a problem).

The second stage (horses for courses)

As the team is already picked, ‘The man’ in due course of the conditioning or practice camp before the tournament should assess the strengths of each individual to such a level that; given any situation in a match, he should have a clear plan of when a given player will deliver his best. Different players for different situations….

Each player has a unique pattern to psyche himself to be in ‘The Zone’, a place where a player is ought to be, to perform at his best. ‘The man’ has to understand these patterns to define the roles to his members. It is this understanding that generally differentiates the best and the ordinary.

A wrong move at the right time or the right move for a wrong reason doesn’t give the desired results. ‘The man’ is the one who makes the moves and hence it becomes very important for him to ‘be in the game’ all the time. Any opportune moment shouldn’t be let to go through. As a predator on the prowl, players got to seize (Killer instinct) every opportunity they come across. To achieve this ‘instinct’, it takes lot of commitment and dedication from ‘the man’ and each player.

Final stage (Reading)

“The man” should focus equally on all spheres of the game that count in deciding the outcome of the game and not only on the happenings of the game. ‘Opponents’ weaknesses, his team’s possibilities, strategies, to name a few are some points he should definitely work on. And the moment he feels that he found a leak he should make it count through his moves.

On a given day he might find his key players, not in their elements. He should accept this, as everybody is human and instead of being a hard taskmaster he should distribute the workload among the others. This shouldering of additional responsibility is one of the key ingredients that take the team further as a sense of brotherhood grows. All this depends on how ‘the man’ handles his team.