As I discussed in my article Fear of Conflict and Healthy Debate – Why You’re Season May Have Failed this Year and How to Fix It – 5 Dysfunctions Of a Team (Part 2 of 5) a little healthy conflict is something I encourage in my practices.
 
In the previous article I spoke about how, “Conflict can lead to people examining multiple solutions and seeing other sides to issues, and this way, they can determine which solution is the best, thus making united decisions and building relations around those united decisions.
 
This is all good and a must as a coach, but personally, I like to take it 2 steps further and “Stir it up!”
 
Now there are a few things to remember before going around and “Stirring things up”.
 
One – you must have trust with your players.
Two – your players must know your heart is in the right place and that whatever you are doing is in your opinion in their best interest. Don’t try this if you have not established this, for boys or girls!
 
Situations I would often do this in are for the elite players (College destined super star) on the team with mediocre talent that are rolling along in 2nd or 3rd gear through practice and still dominating. My goal with these players is multi-fold.
– Forcing them to pick up their training level and push to 4th and 5th gear.
– Make them comfortable with making mistakes and learning from those mistakes. (These athletes often suffer from mistake-a-phobia meaning they are not comfortable making mistakes and using those mistakes as a learning opportunity. Especially around weaker players.)
– Get them ready to play at the higher level in college with greater competition and pressure.
– Get them ready for performing on the big day and not cracking under competitions
– Thriving when others talk smack and not getting in their own heads
– Raising the play of the team because “The energy of the gym rises to the highest energy on the court”. If they are operating in practice in forth or fifth gear soon others will too. Also players skill level all rise when they play with better players.
 
Step 1 – I will sometimes, once I have built a relationship with players and there is trust, CHALLENGE THEM. It could be as simple as talking smack and saying you only hit angle and cannot hit line. Or I bet you can’t jump float serve the ball short for a change with a “Change-up jump float Serve.”
 
Step 2 – I will sometimes create a little conflict between players in the form of healthy competition and challenge them to be better. This may be player verses player drills or in some situations may be player verses me drills.
 
Conflict and competition builds character and my job is to get them ready to perform on the big day. I would prefer that character is already developed in my practices so that when the big day arrives they are ready to show that character by performing at their best!
 
Oohrah!!!