3D Coaching - Diving Deeper

Capturing the Heart Behind the Jersey

Sometimes it is the simple things that make the biggest impact. Coaches want results and can spend hours and months and entire seasons working their tails off in the first dimension with less than stellar results from their teams and athletes. But when coaches show their athletes that they care about them on and off the field, the results change dramatically. When athletes know they are cared for and see their coaches serving them, they step up to the plate.

One coach visited the homes of his athletes. One athlete was a young man who had missed 23 days of school and though naturally talented, was unmotivated at practice. He told the coach he didn’t have to come over, but the coach insisted that he was visiting all of his players. A visit that was supposed to last fifteen minutes turned into two hours. The coach formed a connection with the boy’s family and showed his athlete that he cared about more than his athletic ability. He never missed another day of school and was awarded a football scholarship for college. All because one coach showed he cared.  

Peer Modeling

When 3D coaches model good character to their athletes, their athletes will follow suit. And when athletes model to other athletes, both build character and strength. The author of 3D Coach Jeff Duke shared the story of a senior football player who was a good blocker but had not assumed any leadership on the team. The coach asked him to model his blocking techniques to a younger player. At the next game, that younger player executed the block so that the team scored a touchdown. The next day, that senior showed up in his coach’s office and wanted to know how else he could help. Not only did this peer modeling help the team move closer to victory, but it raised up a new leader in this senior lineman. 

Bringing Back Joy

Emotions are part of the second dimension in coaching. It is easy for coaching and practicing to become monotonous. Endless drills and so much running. But it is necessary part of training for the athletes to become stronger, right? Yes and not always. One coach who was looking to coach the 3D way found a technique that reintroduced joy into practice and in turn produced better results on game day as his athletes remembered their love of the game. He surprised the team one day by mandating a type of drill they were all familiar with but hadn’t practiced for years. He sent them to the basketball court to play tag. “The players were back peddling, sidestepping, twisting, and twirling. It turned out to be some of the best cardio training he had ever conducted.”  More importantly, every athlete was smiling and laughing by the time they were done. That rarely happens with the regular drills.

Team Cohesion

A team may have some of the best players ever to come out of a sport and still come up wanting while another team may not have any spectacular players but come out on top. First dimensional coaching focuses on fundamentals, but it falls short of working toward full team cohesion where a team comes together as a united front to accomplish a task. It is not about simply learning to play together well but creating more of a family atmosphere.

One high school team did this through an exercise using “helmet stickers.” This wasn’t a new concept but was traditionally reserved for first dimension accomplishments, like blocks, tackles, etc. This team used it to build cohesion by having other players award helmet stickers for positive things they saw teammates doing, like standing up for someone being bullied or helping the lunch lady with the garbages. It soon transformed the team, and all the players were noticing the positive acts being performed. This led to greater team cohesion and yielded better results on the field as more than just the star players were noticed for things they had done.