Andrew Campbell

Monday Morning Tactician: 31 March 2008

March 29th, 2008 in Monday Morning Tactician.

Bob McKillop, yes that Bob McKillop, the insolent yet patient coach who took his Davidson players past my Hoyas last week in the NCAA Tournament said something that struck an interesting chord last week after his squad played their way into the ‘Sweet Sixteen.’ In response to a question about whether he had expected his team to get this far in the tournament he answered: “…We try not to set goals on this team, expectations only create limitations…” I stopped and reread the sentence that I had just seen. What!?! Here we have a coach that deliberately urges his players not to set goals for themselves! How can this be? Certainly this slaps orthodox coaching practice in the face, or does it?



Everybody sets some sort of benchmark or goal for themselves in certain situations. Just last week when we were talking to a new coach we were working with before Palma one of the first questions on the table: “What is your goal for this regatta?” I thought this was a valid and indeed a good question to start a conversation. Without a goal we have no starting point no standard for achievement. Without that standard we have no need for competition. Certainly the lack of focused goals within a team would ultimately produce anarchy as players played towards different levels of achievement. When there is no unifying ideal for the team to rally around then what are they meant to strive for? It seems that safe and practiced coaching and playing strategies in any sport has a goal oriented system in which teams and players set an ultimate end for their performance at a higher level than they start out. Then, by tackling smaller goals along their training and competitive season they may ultimately arrive at their pre-conceived goal wherever it may be. Goals are a critical piece in the puzzle for keeping teams focused through practice and through minor competition as they seek the greater prize. 



On the other hand Goals can perhaps be a hinderance as Coach McKillop says. Once you’ve achieved your goal then what incentive do you or your team have to continued higher up the ladder towards the top? To achieve a goal earns a sense of pride in that self-oriented measure of success. Pride can lead to Sloth and ultimately hold a team or player back from their true potential in the given context. By not setting a Goal at the beginning of the season and instead putting all your team’s focus in a system, then you avoid the limitations of benchmarks and personal-expectations. By focusing on the system then the surprise of exceeding expectations is diminished because you and your players knew all along that their system was superior to those of other schools and should continue winning.


But what are we really talking about here? There must be goals set somewhere even within this system otherwise there is no satisfaction at the end of the season, only frustration and angst. Coach McKillop was responding directly to a question regarding whether or not he was surprised that his team had made it this far in the tournament. If he was not surprised that his team had played that deep into the bracket then he must have had some sort of expectation that they might be capable of doing so ahead of time. His response implies that he did not sit down with his team before the tournament and say: “Our Goal is to make it to the Sweet Sixteen.” That’s fine and a bit easier to swallow. Once you arrive at the doorstep of a tournament where you are only five wins away from a National Title, then everybody in the field is playing to win that National Title. There is a clear goal in the sights of every team on the courts across the country when they enter the NCAA finals: to win the championship. Some teams may have set the goal at the beginning of the season just to make it to the tournament, or to do better than they did in years past. Those are dangerous goals for a team to have no doubt. When you are simply satisfied to be in attendance, then there is really no point in being there. Teams always have something to lose and something to gain every time that they step onto the court or into the boat. Whether or not they are already beyond their own expectations or beyond those of their peers or their elders should not interfere with the goal that every player should always have to play his or her best while trying to win the game at hand. Perhaps this ability to reassess ones goals mid-stride is something that Coach McKillop cares not to address. Perhaps it is too complicated for his players while they ride the national momentum as tournament Cinderellas. Everybody refers to the Final Four appearance a couple of years ago by George Mason University as one of the ultimate Cinderella experiences, and yet while I can see that many of those players were probably surprised at how far they played into the tournament, I refuse to believe that they did not have a goal to be playing deep into they tournament. This year, Davidson is a team many are talking about in the same context, albeit not yet to the same level of success as GMU. So, for the coach to say that they didn’t set a goal to be at the point where they sit is insulting. However, to say that they are not surprised about their position is valid and honorable. 


I agree that goals are potentially dangerous tools to use in a team environment. If you set your sights too low and thereby exceed them, then there is a risk of being satisfied with less a level lower than your ultimate potential. If you set your goals so high that it is unlikely your team can achieve them then there is a risk of apathy towards the process that might take you towards that goal. However, it is an important skill to be able to adjust one’s goals to an appropriate level to place them consistently just out of reach so that the team and players feel the need to extend and perhaps overextend themselves to get there and at the same time make the goals achievable so that there will be a camaraderie and confidence that for the team to build on with the knowledge that they can do it, that achieving one’s goals, one’s dreams (to use the cliche) is possible. 


It is a certain Aristotelean principle that people should always strive towards excellence as their ultimate goal. Excellence is personified by the perfection of whatever it is you want to achieve or to be. It is defined as: outstanding or extremely good, but I think it goes beyond that. Excellence playing at one’s level of potential. I think this is what Coach McKillop was talking about and I applaud him for that. By refusing to set concrete goals of Sweet-Sixteen or Elite Eight or Final Four status, then he has only presented his team’s Potential as a goal for which they should strive. Conventional goals are concrete items that can be written in newspaper columns or websites. Teams can be judged against history by these parameters. If instead the players focus within themselves to play to their personal potential within their team’s system then the ultimate satisfaction is in the achievement of excellence. It is incredibly lucky for a team to be able to align its personal level of excellence with that presented by the establishment under which they play. If Memphis or UCLA, or even my poor Hoyas played to their potential, then they will win the tournament and the championship. If Davidson, on the day, plays at their potential against these powerhouses of the sport and those teams do not, then Davidson may be able to surpass those big teams. The true measure of success should be for a team to realize that they played to their potential even in the face of a loss. This is the most difficult achievement in sport and rarely ever happens. Teams often blame their losses on the fact that they played a superior team before they were able to realize their own true potential. But it is the most powerful pursuit in sport to achieve one’s potential on a personal level, to achieve Excellence (with a capital ‘E’) is what Coach McKillop is striving for and he should not be reluctant to say so. 


Keeping in mind that McKillop’s pesky Davidson team was the giant-killer that took down my team, I will be rooting publicly against them even as their Cinderella bandwagon fills up with under-dog enthusiasts. I hope that they keep in mind that just as the recent Nike ad points out “There Are No Cinderellas.” These teams have worked harder than ever before to earn the success that they are having.


_________________________More to come from Hyeres, France and the training camp here before the 40th Semaine Olmypique Francais this month.�

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