Many of us across the country are into the “dog days” of our seasons. Not only are our coaches logging unbelievable hours but our players are experiencing that “lull” that seems to occur no matter what we do to try to get them out of it.
In looking at this “dog days” concept and relating it to the great players in the game, I have observed that the great ones do experience the feeling but do not surrender themselves to it. They refuse to give in to the temptation of fatigue. They refuse to give in to the notion that fatigue even exists. They simply know that they have to continue to do the things that got them where they are.
You can tell a lot about the difference in players by how they work in practice. There are players who go hard every day. There are players who do the required work. And there is that group of special players — those who do the unrequired work. These are the great players. They separate themselves from the rest of the pack. They find a way to overcome the dog days, to overcome the physical fatigue, to overcome the mental fatigue, to stay on track regardless of the obstacles.
To be the best and to overcome the dog days, players have to understand the difference between required and unrequired work. Many believe that working with a coach after practice is unrequired work. We believe that any work that is done with the coach is required work. The great ones will work on their games regardless of whether a coach asks them to or not. Just thinking about the last few teams we have played, I can bet you that Dirk Nowitzki, Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade — not to mention our three well-known players Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett — all do just as much unrequired work as they do required work.
They understand that success does not stand still. They understand that improvement is an everyday process. They understand that to be great requires more than the good players are willing to give.
I ask you to ask your players: where do you stand in this area? Are you giving in or giving more? Are you giving in to the dog days or are you giving more of yourself because you know this is the toughest part of the year?
To find the teams that put in the unrequired work, just go to league standings.
Coach I really liked this post a lot. I would even ask of you to take it a step further in a future post and speak to the difference between the required work and unrequired work that separates a good player from a great one. With all the emphasis now on players in high school and younger having individual workout gurus and such, I think they sometimes forget, and more importantly the workout guys forget to let the player know that they need to workout on their own as well, on top of what they do with their workout guy. I kind of equate it to music lessons. You don’t just go to the lessons once or twice a week and not practice in between. I think if people really realized and appreciated how much time these players put in to achieve their success, it can only help our younger generation of players who too often feel that these players are just that gifted and don’t work on their games at all. Which we know is far from the truth.