How many times do all of us who dedicate ourselves to sport pronounce this word. How nice it is to be part of one. But how difficult it is to create one. It seems easy to sign a series of players or players, the best you can within your possibilities and that’s it. Whoever thinks that it’s done, that it’s that easy, is that he never belonged to a team.
Forming a team is much more than recruiting a series of players or players. It is convincing everyone that the team is above any member of it, and that each member of the group must do what is in their power for the team, without thinking about themselves. When you get everyone to understand that and they are able to assume their role within the collective, whether they like it or not, that is when that team is prepared to achieve success. And that success is not only achieved in team sport. Ask Nadal how important his work team is to him in the successes he has achieved.
The team is not only made up of those who work on the field. It goes way beyond that. A team cannot function without your assistant or assistants, always willing to contribute to improve what you propose, give their honest opinion and work with ideas that they do not share when the first coach does not give in or the assistant has not been able to convince you Or a physical trainer who works to improve those aspects that you cannot improve on the court. In addition, your responsibility in preventing injuries is basic. Or a doctor who ensures that recovery periods from illness are shortened as much as possible and the player can be available to the coach as soon as possible. Or those physios or recuperators who take care of pain or injuries so that they can continue training despite their ailments.
But there is still more. You cannot understand a team without those people who care that you travel in the best possible conditions, that the hotels where you rest are good or that the meals you eat on the go are balanced, abundant and, above all, delicious. Those people who make sure that you live as close to how you live in your own home, that you don’t feel alone and that you are as happy as possible away from your loved ones. The office staff that is willing to solve any problem that may arise. Or who makes sure that the pitch is clean and prepared for you to train in the best conditions. Or that your work office is clean. Or that the material you need is prepared. The press officer who tells the world everything related to the team. And those managers who are close to the team, live day to day as one more member, occupying unpaid hours of their lives, hours that could be spent with their family, resting or using them for any hobby they have, but who use them to suffer with his team in those bad moments, which are always more than the good ones.
Everyone talks about the chemistry that must exist in a dressing room for everything to flow as desired. That all the players or players fit like the pieces of a puzzle is not so simple. It’s not basic either. The important thing is that respect among all team members is maximum. From that point on, what we have already discussed above is essential, that you be clear that the team is above you and that you must do everything in your power for your team. No one can doubt that you will be willing to go the extra mile to help a teammate, that you will put all your energy into making the best possible block so that your teammate is left alone and can shoot, or that your base knows that if they win one against one you will be behind to close that lead. We talked about if that day comes when your team needs you to grab ten rebounds instead of scoring fifteen points, you’re willing to do it. Or if today it turns out that you have to play for that teammate who has an advantage, you are prepared to give him the best possible pass. Defend together, attack together, help each other on and off the pitch.
Suffer, strive, enjoy, share, fight, work together. And all with the same idea of the game, the one set by the coaches, putting everything to carry them out and always willing to contribute to improve them with your experience. But not for you to benefit from that contribution, but for the team to benefit. When you achieve all this you get enormously close to success. And that success consists of competing with the objective of winning and doing it by working while being happy, spending every last ounce of effort, nothing to dose. Then, of course, the ball has to go in and that often depends on other circumstances that are not in your hands. Achieving success without all this seems impossible or, at least, very difficult. If you manage to have a high percentage of everything we have talked about, the same thing will not achieve success but you will get closer for sure, you will have options to achieve it. What is certain is that you will work being happy because you will have put everything on your part. That is the most important.