Emotion
When emotion takes over, the message becomes irrelevant.
I have a house in Rhode Island that abuts the local public high school. The school has been falling apart for years and the town recently got approval on a bond to build a new school, an investment of over 100 Million dollars. The town supports the new school, but the local residents have some concerns about the contractors and their work. They are digging up a ton of soil and piled it up about two stories high, and the residents are worried about chemicals in the soil that can be hazardous. It’s turned into a pretty emotional dispute over a number of meetings.
The residents have a point to make, they have the facts on their side. But the meetings have now gotten very emotional on both sides. Everyone who shows up has something to say. They are upset that their neighborhood might be unsafe and they want their voice to be heard. The contractors and school building committee are tired of hearing the same questions and accusations. Everyone is frustrated, and frustration is a useless emotion. Nothing good comes from it. The meetings are no longer productive with the same arguments and accusations being thrown about over and over.
The situation with the school reminds me of something I thought about a lot as a head coach. When emotion takes over, the message becomes irrelevant. I constantly reminded myself of that when I felt frustrated with my team. There were plenty of days when I couldn’t get the most out of them and the more emotional I got, the worse they got. Whatever point I was trying to make was lost in the intensity (and anger, at times) of the moment.
This wasn’t just the case with myself or the coaching staff. I noticed it all the time with the players. How many times do you see one of your players get upset and jump a teammate, only to have the teammate jump right back at him? The point to the message is irrelevant. His teammates have no idea what he just said, it just becomes a battle of emotion. They get into it with each other, but nothing really gets accomplished. It happens in team settings all the time. Marshall McLuhan said “The medium is the message,” meaning the way the message is delivered is more important than the message itself. I think this idea is only heightened in the intensity of team competition.
Emotion is a big part of team sports an competitive athletics. I’m not suggesting we need to take the emotion out of it. There are plenty of times when your team needs to see emotion out of you and it can be very effective. If anything, as a head coach I was guilty of being too even-keeled - there were probably times when my team needed more emotion out of me and I didn’t supply it. But as coaches we have to learn how to use emotion to our advantage, and to teach our players the same.
When emotion takes over, the message becomes irrelevant. Emotion will undoubtedly be a part of your program, but it’s important to learn how it fits, the impact it will have on your team, and how to manage it. Every player and team will react differently to emotion. But you have to make sure the message is still being received, and it’s being received immediately. When emotion dominates production suffers, and your team is getting worse.