Breaking the ice
Whilst coaches and analysts are typically very good at selecting appropriate video clips for team meetings, is a similar degree of effort invested into the structure and flow of each meeting? If not, are we (coaches, analysts etc.) wasting time?
In a typical 2 game week, an NCAA D1 player may sit in ~4 hours of meetings:
2 debriefs: ~30-60mins total
2 penalty corner briefings: ~30-60mins total
2 outlet/press briefings: ~30-60mins total
2 game day briefings: ~30min total
1 individual meetings: ~15mins total
Given these requirements, it is important that there is variety in delivery and structure, player engagement, and lighter moments so as to ensure that meetings do not become stale and players remain focused.
It is possible to begin this process even before a word has been said. The image below left shows The Treachery of Images by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. Prior to playing Belgium, I adapted his work for a title slide to a presentation, to help foster a light hearted moment of discussion and learning before we started.
Over time this has become something of a game, with the players guessing how the image relates to the country we are playing. I’ve done similar things in the past wit college teams - using pictures of Crockett and Tubbs for Miami of Ohio, which is of course over 1000 miles from Miami Florida, is low hanging, but funny, fruit.
It is also possible to create an environment conducive to analysis before the meeting has even started. On episode 312 of the Way of Champions podcast, Quin Snyder revealed that the Utah Jazz video room was “where the real heavy dialogue happens a lot of time. We had fun, we put this big heavy steel door that we put on it, and I like to think of it as a bunker, a bomb shelter”. Less extreme, but along similar lines, Clive Woodward, the 2003 Rugby World Cup winning coach, would call the video room the ‘war room’ as it was a place where scenarios could be discussed and rehearsed.
“The difference between an ineffective meeting and a productive, fun meeting is in the behavior of those planning and leading the meetings.”