Something I’ve noticed with some of the U17 and U19 soccer teams I train is their lack of interaction on the field, by way of communication, encouragement and just general “feel goodedness” (for lack of a better term) about playing the game of soccer with each other.We as coaches are constantly striving to build team chemistry. Chemistry is a hard thing to define and you know it when you have it. I’ve been on some teams that I felt had good to great team chemistry and I recently discovered at an alumni game, that that chemistry doesn’t go away, even after a few years having gone by without seeing said teammates.
So what can you do as a player to be a better teammate and build more team chemistry? There may be no easy answer, but I would like to point you all in the direction of an article recently published on ESPN’s basketball blog, Truehoop.
The article and video is about Steve Nash and the amount of high fives he gives to teammates during a game. Though the video is done in a manner to be a little bit silly and poke fun at Nash slightly, the lessons are there for the taking.
Nash is quite an interesting NBA player. Definitely cut from a different mold than the typical NBA player, Nash can teach everyone involved in sports a thing or two about leadership and being a good teammate. For further proof of this, I encourage you to read the chapter about Steve Nash in Chris Ballard’s book “The Art of a Beautiful Game,” and this other article about Nash by Coach Steve Finamore.
A simple thing like handing out high-fives after good and bad plays (maybe more important the bad) can go a long way in helping someone’s confidence and overall team camaraderie. Keep the lessons coming Nashy.
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