T-E-A-M (Together Everyone Achieves More)

Bobby Knight is a Hall of Fame Basketball Coach from Indiana, and lover of Sport.  His description of T-E-A-M, “Together Everyone Achieves More” is a simple way for players and Coaches to understand and own a broad meaning of Teamwork, and of what playing on a Team is all about.  In hockey, perhaps more than any Sport because of the speed at which it is played; and because of its complexity and of the potential for danger, being able to rely on teammates is crucial.




One of the greatest hitters in the history of Professional baseball, said this about "Team":

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime."  
Babe Ruth

In hockey, perhaps more than any Sport because of the speed at which it is played; and because of its complexity and of the potential for danger, being able to rely on teammates is crucial.  Hockey Players, over the period of a season naturally develop unique bonds and special relationships with each other and with their Coaches.

Teams that perform well over the course of a Season typically possess natural ability to “gel” one with another and find creative ways to utilize the strengths within the depth of the entire Team.  Superstars certainly exist on even the successful Teams, and the truly successful Teams are those that can all rise to the occasion because they naturally lift and leverage the ability of all players, by emphasizing “the whole” (Team) as opposed to highlighting the parts, or individual star players.  Star players can go down or easily get contained, but a whole unit is not likely to go down with injury and a whole Team is infinitely more difficult to defend against.

Cooperation with and working well with others are very simple keys to building successful relationships.

To excel in school, we must learn to work well with others.  In a family, success-oriented parents who place high value in morality, values and principles understand that getting along with people, starts with respect for oneself and of others.  At work, a good Manager or Organization Leader is one who possesses the natural ability to identify then bring out the strengths of his or her employees because he/she knows that a strong Team is made up of individually skilled and uniquely talented individuals who come together to accomplish tasks. Teamwork! Same happens in Hockey.

I believe the ability to identify strengths in others is a skill that is learned through successful group experiences, including those opportunities presented in Sport, and especially Hockey. The Season of hockey is generally long so the ebbs and flows of a season invite individual players to rely on the strength of others around them.  Every hockey player knows that no singular person can carry an entire season, and humility is the net result of that gained knowledge and experience.
 
As a parent, our daily job is to bring the best out in our kids and as a teacher it is to “lift up” and “bring out” the strong qualities of the learner.  Some of my best and most memorable teachers were often also Coaches on the school or local Sport Association Teams.  They were often former athletes, and I learned through research for this book those Teacher-Coaches brought skills they had learned from playing and from Coaching, into their classrooms. 

I believe we learn a great deal from the wisdom our Coaches draw from, and as I reflect upon my life as a hockey player and as a Teammate, I can now understand the built-in lessons I learned many years ago without really knowing it then. One of the biggest lessons I still remember is probably the simplest thing I learned and most definitely the most important, which is: Team Sport teaches us how to work with others to achieve a common goal and objective.  This elemental life lesson was drilled into us as players, not formally and not by doing line drills or any other “hockey drill”; and it was engrained in us as the Game herself taught us through the accomplishment of personal and Team tasks, shift by shift, game by game and season by season.

“Team Sport teaches us how to work with others to achieve a common goal”

From early in the season try-outs and practices; throughout the Regular Season schedules; Tournaments and into the Playoffs – the Hockey Season is long and often up to 7-or more months in duration.  The average player, who plays at a competitive level of hockey, will play for 10 years and sometimes, more.  It is difficult to explain, but Hockey wraps itself around those of us who are privileged enough to play and watch through the length of the season; and who have invested time, energy, blood, sweat and tears into it, year after year.

I think this happens because a unique relationship is formed in the arena of Hockey, like that which is formed within the union of a Team. Some call this “chemistry”, and in fact as in chemistry, bonds are formed between the Game itself, the Teams we play on, the Coaches we play for, and the Teammates we play with.  The formulas for success lie somewhere in finding the right “chemistry” and mix amongst and within all the parts.

If we play long enough, I think we develop a deeper bond of commitment and it is formed within and with ourselves – as we play and compete at our own top level, whatever that level may be and it applies to areas of life inside and away from Hockey.  The Game, the people, the memories and even the early morning practices all contribute to defining moments; and it is in that spirit, for me that the enduring “Team” of Hockey lives on in my own life, and I estimate the lives of millions of hockey people around the world. 
  
The concept of “TEAM” can reach out well beyond the bench; and in truly successful Programs it can permeate out into Communities, where it helps to mold and reshape whole communities.  Team-building activities; planning meetings; Hockey-moms; Team Staff; and Community events all naturally bring people together and contribute to the legacy already planted in Communities around the world, that support Hockey programming.  This seed is Generations deep, and millions strong.

See you at the rink,
Jody Anderson

@DoctorJody
#HockeyMATTERS