National Teams International
08:00 AM
Aug 16
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USA
This story initially appeared on Behind the Whistle, the official blog of the IWLCA, and is being republished with permission from the organization. Angelica Gero is the head coach of the Aquinas women's lacrosse team.
“Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.” – Michael Jordan
If you’re anything like me, then you’re probably a little crazy, and you probably harp on “the fundamentals” often. We can’t progress properly if we don’t have them down, and once we do move on from there, they still never go away. They are the groundwork for everything we do, the little constants without which we cannot be fully successful lacrosse players or teams. From your beginner players to the most elite players, catching, throwing, ground balls, cradling, defense and running are at the base of everything we do.
However, in my opinion, it’s the other things we learn, almost accidentally, while we’re mastering the fundamentals that are so much more vital. On the journey to becoming an invested team sport athlete you have the opportunity to acquire some things beyond the fundamentals that set you up to live a full and rewarding life.
I want my athletes to learn what it truly means to become disciplined. Through the times when they may not understand why they have to do something, but they trust that it’s what’s best for them, and they’re dedicated to that process.
I want them to embrace their toughness. When failure hits them like a freight train and they realize that it can teach you even more than success can and that success without your team is much less sweet. They’ll learn this by being challenged, and pushed, and supported — not by being handed anything.
I’d like them to understand what perseverance means firsthand … when they shave minutes off their mile time or cause a turnover against a player they couldn’t slow down the previous year; when they shake off their outside life to have a great practice against the odds of that day; and finally, when they realize that the cement looking ceiling they were seeing above them was actually made of clouds.
I don’t wish it upon them, but when adversity hits, I want them to be ready. To be able to refer back to the times when things really did feel too difficult. Because they lost a big game that they felt they could’ve won. Because there was a time when everything they worked for that year was pulled from them. And because they came out of all of it stronger on the other side.
I wish for them to become a person that their loved ones go to when they’re in need of support and the person that makes a stranger’s day with a smile. When they remember that time they had their worst practice, game or whole week of their life, when they were in pain. Then they remember how much it meant when their teammates and their coaches picked them up out of it and reminded them of their worth.
I hope that when my players go out into the world that they work for everything they want, and that the quality of that work doesn’t depend on who’s around when they’re doing it … because they learned the difference between a preseason after taking their winter break off and a preseason after they prepared properly, even when their coaches and teammates were nowhere to be seen.
I want to see these ladies take advantage of every experience that comes their way and to be intentional with what they put in and take out of each one. Once they realize how much they miss their teammates in the summer, how difficult it is to stay fit and disciplined after your coach is no longer alongside you, and what their lacrosse career actually meant to them when it comes to an end.
The majority of the time we, as the coaches, are the only ones who realize that those transitions from learning and fine tuning the basics we need for lacrosse are turning into discipline, investment, perseverance, strength, the ability to overcome adversity, self-worth, compassion, solid work ethic and the most beautiful flipping experiences.
So, when we’re back out here trying to convince our teams that nothing works if they don’t get the fundamentals down, let’s also remind ourselves of these things, beyond the fundamentals. Maybe even point them out for them along the way. Let’s teach them that the ceiling is the roof, and that there’s no gosh darn roof over their field, or the field of their life. Guide them to take away the things that they should use after they no longer need the fundamentals of lacrosse. Give the people what they need, not what they think they want … the things that will set them up for the lives that they deserve.