Team chemistry is something that changes from basketball season to season. A team consisting of identical players from one year to the next can easily have different team chemistry each season. Some young coaches have a hard time understanding how important it is and some even struggle to know exactly what it is. To succeed as a coach you MUST understand this subject and take it very serious.

1. How to Achieve Better Team Chemistry
-by Coach Brian Schofield
http://www.hoopskills.com
Team chemistry is something that changes
from season to season. A team consisting of
identical players from one year to the next
can easily have different team chemistry each
season. Some young coaches have a hard
time understanding how important it is and
some even struggle to know exactly what it is.
To succeed as a coach you MUST understand
this subject and take it very serious.
Chemistry is the makeup of each team and
can refer to a couple of different things. You
could be talking about chemistry on the court or off the court – sometimes they
directly affect each other. It’s all about the mixture of feelings, attitudes and
motives the players and coaches have.
One reason Phil Jackson is such an amazing coach is his ability to handle conflict
and create synergy amongst his players. He isn’t the smartest guy in the world
when it comes to x’s and o’s he just flat out knows how to motivate and lead. He
knows how to take a bunch of guys with different backgrounds & personalities and
make them mesh together in near perfect harmony.
It has been proven so many times that just because you have the 5 most talented
players on the floor does not mean you will always win. A perfect example of this is
what we have witnessed happen to the United States Olympic Basketball Program
over the past 10 years. It has become more and more apparent that having the
right team chemistry is an essential ingredient to championship teams.
I was on a number of teams that had great team chemistry and others that didn’t.
I’ll focus on the elements that I believe are most important to building team
chemistry and others that will destroy it.
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How to Achieve Better Team Chemistry-hoopskills.com

2. What Builds Team Chemistry:
 Communication is the key to team chemistry and this starts at the top.
Good coaches understand that in order to have a solid team they need to
be able to communicate effectively the role of each and every player.
Players need to know what is expected or they can get lost. They’ll start to
listen to outside voices and that leads to problems. The first step of earning
trust is to have open doors and let players communicate their feelings
without holding it against them. Players that trust their coach will play hard
for them.
 Fairness and Equality is next on my list. Players want everyone to be treated
equally regardless of them being the best or worst player on the team. If
the best player is slacking but doesn’t get punished but the worst player
does then you start to create a chasm between players and coaches. I’ve
seen this a hundred times. Coaches have the tough choice of balancing
between the two because sometimes not playing the best player results in a
loss. I am a firm believer that every coach who stands his ground for the
good of the team will earn the respect of the best and worst players. It
creates trust. Players want to and need to trust their coach. When they start
to feel like certain players are getting a free pass it destroys any chemistry
that was there before.
 Role Acceptance. Teams with great chemistry understand their role and
excel at it. Do you think that Lamar Odom wanted to come off the bench for
the Lakers or start? Of course he wanted to start but Phil Jackson had to get
Odom to buy into his role and it worked. Once Odom accepted his role the
team was able to go to another level. If a coach will communicate the role
and get the player to buy in then the team will have better team chemistry
and the difference will be seen on the floor.
What Destroys Team Chemistry:
 Listening to outside sources. I know that this is something that is hard to do
and I probably should have called this ‘believing outside sources’. Coaches
and teams do all they can to build unity and team goals and outside sources
come in and voice opinions and it tears a team apart. The same thing goes
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How to Achieve Better Team Chemistry-hoopskills.com

3. for us that are married. When couples have problems they should work
together and not listen to outside opinions. When they start to believe
those opinions it can destroy the relationship and a basketball team is no
different.
 Apathy. When players or coaches show a lack of interest or caring it is over.
That will spread like cancer among the team and destroy it. Teams will give
up easier and be willing to accept losses. Nothing destroys a team quicker
than apathy or lack of caring about one another.
There is nothing to me like watching a team that truly enjoys playing together and
trusts each other. The best team chemistry I have seen in recent years is the
ILLINOIS team of 2005. They were led by Dee Brown, Deron Williams and Luther
Head and if you have time to watch an old tape of them then do it because you’ll
see what real chemistry is. Those guys had each other’s back and would be where
they said they’d be on the court. They didn’t care who scored as long as someone
did and they picked each other up. They ended at 37-2 and lost in the NCAA title
game but that team was amazing.
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How to Achieve Better Team Chemistry-hoopskills.com