Tips for coaching the nice player. Comments like, Oh what a sweetheart! What a great sportsman, abound from the adoring crowd. These phrases are used to describe the amiable player. This player needs to be loved by everyone so they are really playing for the crowd. Better yet they get awards because they are no threat to anyone!
Got shafted out of a point? Amiable Alma just shrugs it off. Amiable Albert just smiles. Meanwhile Cheating Chester and Double bounce Debby are laughing all the way to the finals while they take advantage of the nice player. How do I coach amiables? First, I do not try to change them. That is not possible and I do not want to mess with anyone’s moral compass. The only way I know is to train them hard, very hard. It is much harder to give a point away after 900 sprint drills than it is after just a few playing workouts. Secondly I ask them to find a player they admire and watch how they handle Chester and Debby. Then copy that behavior if it suits them.
Meanwhile I also have to coach the green meanie player.
The meanie is the villain the crowd loves to boo. Cheating Chester and Double bounce Debbie love to shut the crowd up and create havoc in their own Sherman’s March to the Sea. With the meanie I try to show them how their behavior is counter-productive. Very few of these players win the rally after their outbursts. I do my best to focus them on the process, not the outcome.
Am I always successful? Not always. But I am mostly!
Find your personality and work based on your identity as a person and athlete. To amiable Alma and Albert–love you guys!
Oh, and to Double Bounce Debbie and Cheating Chester-play nice now!