Working together in camp develops the team work required to win championships.
Coaches are leaders. Leaders ensure that their teams are prepared for whatever comes their way. Leaders help individuals become better team members. Training camp is where athletes at the peak of their careers return each year to reinforce the basics. It is the fine-tuning of these basic skills honed over time to produce desired results working together as a team without having to think that allows these athletes to adjust to the ever-changing environment that they face on game day.
Training camp is a grind. The climb to the destination for every NFL and college football team is long, arduous, steep, and riddled with obstacles. The destination for every team in a competitive arena is the championship. The climb to a championship for both the NFL and college football teams begin in earnest during training camp. Strategies and tactics are being polished. Players are being evaluated to ensure the best team is crossing the lines onto the field of battle. It is not the 11 best players who cross the lines to the battlefield but the 11 players who make the best team.
Training camp is where the team begins to form its identity. Mental toughness, physical conditioning, attitude, and the team’s passion are all being challenged. It is where the PROCESS begins. A process is a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve one’s goal. This process is designed and mapped out by the head coach to the very last detail. It is a process he believes will be the path to the mountain top.
Training camp is a grind. The habits of camp determine who’s champ! It is through the grind that the personality of the team is developed. Grind means to sharpen, smooth, or produce by crushing or friction.
Championship teams understand and execute flawlessly the finer details of the most tedious tasks. Tasks and techniques that are not executed properly or without purpose are nothing but habitual action. Great coaches educate their team members on Purposeful Performance Tasks. It is through these tasks players produce meaningful action. Purposeful Performance Tasks are often the monotonous, tedious, tiring, and repetitive aspects of training.
Great teams produce meaningful action by embracing the process and finding joy in the journey. The journey through the camp grind is where the seeds of championship growth are planted. Enjoy the grind and you never know the fulfillment you will find!
Great teams do not exist only on the football field. They exist throughout life, in family units, in organizations, in government and in business. Good teams are better than the sum of their individual strengths. Great leaders help guide their teams by creating their own training camps where members can go back and reinforce the basics and learn new skills to allow them to function at the peak of performance whatever the field of play.
