The Guys at the Back of the Line
I am not nearly as much of a college basketball fan as is our son, but I do enjoy watching games if a team I support is playing (Go Big Blue!!). There is much more about the game that I do not know than there is that I really understand.
For example, I understand how the scoring works, what a foul is (even though I’m not sure some officials know that), and other very basic things. High on the list of those things about which I have no clue is how specific plays are designed and executed. When I watch a game, things just sort of happen. I never quite understand how they happen.
Recently, for some unknown reason, I got interested in watching a video that showed a basketball coach teaching his players a drill that was designed for one specific circumstance which would/could occur in a game. You might be thinking that this would be about as exciting as watching paint dry. I would be very tempted to agree with you, especially since I don’t know anything about the coach or the team on the video.
I’m glad that the video caught my attention, though. I’m not sure that I understand basketball any better, but I think I learned some things that apply to many facets of our lives.
The drill started with three lines with four players in each line. The coach explained the drill to all of the players and then had the first player in each line walk through it. He also told them the number of times they were going to go through the drill. He further made it clear that, if any player did not do the drill correctly, the whole process would start over.
The coach was not quite ready to run the drill yet. Before the drill actually started, he sent the three players who had walked through it to the back of their lines and got the three who had been in the back of those lines to actually start running the drill.
As I watched the video, it occurred to me that those players were learning much more than how to execute a drill or even how to please a coach. There were, at least it seems to me, a couple of “unspoken messages” being sent by that coach.
Message #1 – Every person on the team is valuable.
(The guys at the back of the line are just as valuable as anybody else.)
Message #2 – Every person on the team is accountable.
(The guys at the back of the line are scrutinized just like everybody else is.)
Can you think of any segment of our society which would not benefit from those two messages? Wouldn’t it be great, in whatever collection of people we can think of, if every person recognized his or her value? What would happen if those people who may now feel unappreciated or ignored were made to feel just as valuable as the “superstars?” What if everybody bought into the “team mentality?” What if, in the church, we understood something more important – the “body concept?”
What would happen if every person understood how his or her actions and attitudes could have a positive or negative impact on others? Is overlooking such things as indifference, poor (or no) performance, negativity, etc. healthy in any way at all? It has often been suggested that it is much easier to pull people down than it is to pull them up. I think that there is something to that.
I will end all of this with what I guess I’ll call a couple of “bonus messages.” They primarily have to do with those who serve in leadership positions.
It is interesting to me that the coach took the time to slowly communicate and demonstrate what was going on and what was expected. So —
Message #3 – The communication of specific goals and expectations is essential.
I almost missed what I will present as my final thought on this. It was something the coach said as he was explaining the drill to his players. He almost casually mentioned where he had, in his words, “picked this up.” The drill did not originate with him. He learned it somewhere. So —
Message #4 – Leaders are learners.
I suppose that, if I had any interest in doing this, I could take the time to find out something about the background of this particular coach. As I’m typing this, I honestly cannot even remember his name.
Is it possible that, somewhere in his past, this man who is now leading and teaching young men could have been one of the guys at the back of the line?
Stranger things have happened. I seem to remember a man who went from being a persecutor of Christians to an apostle of Jesus. As we read the inspired writings of Paul, it is obvious that he did not see himself as the ultimate authority. Because he had submitted himself to the One who has that authority, he could write these words:
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. (1 Cor. 11:1, KJV)
AUTHOR: Jim Faughn