How many guys have ever been on the second strength? Probably everybody. How many of the guys are on the second team at the time they thought they should have been playing all the time? What attitude did you have in practice when this was going on? See you can only have one or two attitudes you can say I am going to prove this coach wrong through your effort and throughout playing the guys on the first team or you can say coach is a jerk he cannot see what I can see neither can his assistant coach is, neither can the opposing coach is, I must be right.
There are only two reasons typically that the guys on the second team instead of the first teams. Let me know what those are? Lack of effort, the other is the lack of understanding and what your roles or responsibilities are. Does that make sense? I have seen a lot of players over the years that had point guard skills and a shooting guard mentality. It did not do the team any good did it? But coach I can bust the three. Great, you are shooting 20% from the three-point line and I got another guy who shoots 50%. Who is going to be the shooting guard?
Or he might need a guy coming off the bench and he might be the guy coming in as the first sub off the bench and think that you have to score 20 points a game and what does he need you to do. He needs you to play defense, pick up the intensity level, rebound and get easy scores on baskets from rebounds. That is how you have more playing time. There is a difference between what you think you need to accomplish and what the coach thinks you need to accomplish and you need to address that with the coach not in a team setting but after practice. Go get in the shower, cool off, say “Coach, what role do you want me to play or what role do you need me to play to help the team the most?”
Listen to what he has to say to find a way to make that work because you know who is going to have the last say. Who is it going to be? It is going to be the coach. Make work what he wants to have happen and then he will make work what you what to have happen. You do what he wants and you will get what you want. It is a real simple process. If you want the coach to notice you and you want to get more playing time make your scrimmages have meaning. Every team practice and scrimmages against the first team happens every day in practice, offenses and defenses.
If you want to be on the first team and you are on the second team play like you’re the opposing team they have to meet the next night. That is how you get their. You learn to beat people and you will learn to beat people that were ahead of you at the beginning of the year. Larry Bird said the following, “I always thought the practices were so important to prepare other guys to play to our second unit those practices were their games.” You may break the starting line up; you may never break the starting line up. You might be a sophomore or a junior with seniors that are going to play ahead of you or you might have a coach that says, “You know what I am loyal to my seniors they will play first.”
You might be a better player. If your seniors are going to play first and that is your coach’s mentality. It is not a bad mentality. A lot of coaches are loyal to their upper classmen. You go to a junior college, you got a head coach and he has got a sophomore that is pretty equal to a freshman and he is trying to find a sophomore place to play which is what he will do for you next year. Do you understand that better? He is loyal to the guy that has already been in his program and sweat, and bled, and worked for a year and a half and trying to find him a place to play.
You have to understand the coach’s mentality. He might have loyalty to that so when you do get in the game or you do not start and you play three quarters understand what the coach is doing. It is your responsibility to have maturity about what the coach is trying to accomplish. Everybody has been in a practice where they thought I am better than this guy and I am better than that guy. You might very well be, but I already might have three guys that can shoot the ball and are scoring in their seniors.
You could be a sophomore. I might need you to play defense. You go into practice you play your guts out and be the best defensive player you can. Learn how to be a good defensive player. All the other things will come to you. Everything has its time and its place. In practice make the most out of the scrimmages. Beat you opponent in every drill. If you are doing full chord drilling drills work on being faster than everybody else. If you are doing sprints work on being first in sprints. Don Juan at UCLA 110 NCAA National Championships, he said the following, “When the stars wore a card you have got it made because the other players feel foolish if they are not out working. It goes back to practice and work ethic.”
What it benefits of practice effort of going full speed? What are the benefits to you? Benefit number one, you are better prepared as a player. Benefit number two, you will improve your skills and your game faster. Benefit three; coaches see that you are ready to play. Benefit number four, it increases team unity and enthusiasm. Benefit number five, competition breathes greatness.
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