2019 was a landmark year for Beth Launiere. Not only did it mark her 30th season as the Head Volleyball Coach at the University of Utah, but Launiere was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year and led her team to the program’s fourth Sweet 16 performance. The team’s match up against BYU in the second round of the NCAA playoffs has gone down in Ute volleyball history.
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A Team Culture of Belonging vs Fitting In
There is a subtle but critical difference between a culture of belonging and fitting in. Creating a team culture of belonging is the key to melding a roster of over a dozen unique individuals into a single team with a shared sense of identity and purpose.
A culture of belonging starts with belief that every member of the team has an essential role to play. Finding and utilizing the unique assets of each player on your team will optimize your team’s potential. A culture of belonging celebrates each player’s uniqueness.
A fitting in culture on a team ostracizes players who are different than the majority and forces assimilation. Assimilation is the process in which a minority group comes to resemble or assume the values and behaviors of the dominant group. The consequence of assimilation is a loss of identity for the minority.
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3 Myths About Flow
In 1964, famed psychologist Abraham Maslow originally coined the term “peak experience” to describe these periods of heightened concentration and self-actualization.
A few decades later the University of Chicago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term “flow” to describe this state of optimal performance and intense focus in the present moment. NBA basketball player and coach Bill Russell of the Celtics describes the zone as, “as if we were playing in slow motion. During those spells I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken.”
Peak performance , flow and playing in the zone all describe a state of mind with a heightened state of consciousness that enables athletes to play at their optimal level. Many elite athletes who have won national championships and Olympic medals attribute their enhanced performance under extreme pressure to being in a state of flow or playing in the zone.
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Planting Seeds
Our ancestors were deeply attuned to the seasons of the earth. They new when to plant seeds to harvest life sustaining vegetables and grains because they lived off the food they harvested from the seeds they planted.
For something to grow, a seed has to be planted in the dirt, underground, out of sight. The seed needs to be watered, but not over watered. It needs sunlight, but not too much sunlight. To harvest food from seeds, it takes patience and trust. You can care for it, fertilize it and protect it but you can’t speed up the process. The seed is going to grow at the natural rhythm of the earth. Our great ancestors understood this. They lived by this pace, this rhythm of the earth.
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The Gender Confidence Gap
My favorite definition of confidence is, “an individual’s belief that they can do whatever it takes to be successful in their sport” (Krane et al, 2015). In my book Headstrong, I define confidence as a player’s belief in their ability to reach a set result or established goal. In both of these definitions, belief is the key word. Nothing is going to change in your performance on the court until you believe that you can do the things you want to do. Improvement, starts with belief.
To be the best passer, you need to believe that you can become the best passer. To be the best setter, you need to believe that can become the best setter. And to win the match, you and your teammates need to believe you can win the match! We all perform differently when we are sure we can win, instead of just hoping that maybe we can win but maybe not.
In sports, and in society, masculinity is often associated with being tough, strong, aggressive, competitive and arrogant. Where as, femininity is often associated with being graceful, thin, goal-oriented or being a perfectionist, and being confident, but not overly confident. Oftentimes women who display these “masculine characteristics are accused of being angry, emotional, out of control, or feminists. Many women also confuse confidence with arrogance and are afraid to be labeled as cocky or arrogant. Confidence in particular is often rewarded in men and punished in women.
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Velcro & Teflon Theory
A neuroscientist named Dr. Rick Hanson discovered that the human brain has a natural negativity bias to internalize negative experiences more deeply than positive ones. According to Dr. Hanson, the brain is like velcro for negative experiences and teflon for positive ones.
When you have a negative, fear based, shameful experience or an insecure thought, your mind wraps around it like velcro. When you have a positive experience, for example – when you receive a compliment or somebody affirms and congratulations you, it slides off like melted butter on a teflon skillet. Our brains are hardwired to remember negative experiences and quickly forget positive experiences.
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