When I was in high school back in the 1940s, my buddies and I used to spend a considerable part of our lives playing basketball at the old Jewish Community Center on Linwood Boulevard.
In fact, I was on the 115-pound team that was coached by Bill Hoffman, and two of my teammates were Phil Slimm and H.J. Levicow. The thought never crossed our minds that if we were unencumbered by problems and issues we might be having in our personal lives, we would perform at a higher level, assuming of course we had the skill to advance to a higher level.
And that’s why I decided to write this article. To help the many athletes who are on teams at The J.
For the past 35 years, I’ve been working with athletes and teams as a sport psychology consultant, and some of those teams and athletes were the UMKC Men’s Basketball Team, Norm Stewart and the Mizzou Men’s Basketball Team, the 1999 St. Louis Rams Rookies including Torry Holt and Dre Bly, and WBO World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Tommy Morrison.
And here’s what I learned: When teams become support groups, creating an environment where teammates can talk about their personal problems and issues without fear they may become public knowledge, they begin to feel better about themselves, resulting in their becoming more focused in their sport. In addition, the sessions create a bonding of team members and better team chemistry. One coach I worked with gave these sessions a name: “Team Unloading Sessions.”
So, if you’re a coach at The J, you might consider having team unloading sessions in addition to honing in on the physical skills that you are already teaching. I‘m certain you’ll be amazed at the results.
Marvin Fremerman lives in Springfield, Missouri.