'Keep it 200'
I only have one rule...
Coaches,
I have an announcement.
I’ve changed my mind. Again.
Once can get you canceled… Twice can get you crucified. But I’m willing to break these rules that cancel culture has put in place.
Here has been my evolution in thought on cultural values:
4 Values with 3 behaviors attached to each
4 Values with half of them being anti-behaviors.
1 Rule- Do only this.
Iteration 1: 4 Values, 3 Behaviors
This is a screenshot from my old culture playbook with my junior team. We had 4 values, I’ll use 1 for example:
I thought this was simple enough at the time.
Then I met a guy in 2020 who changed my thinking a bit.
Iteration 2: Anti-Behaviors
You can read how he influenced my next iteration here:
And if you guessed that I read Power vs. Force and related reading associated with that text, connected it to a tagline from Michigan Hockey’s culture and changed my mind again… You’d be clairvoyant.
Iteration 3: The Hawkins and Michigan Hockey Switch
If you read the linked article from Iteration 2 and are left thinking… What is simpler than ‘Don’t do X’ you might ask?
I’ve been studying the Michigan Hockey team as soon as the Naurato era began and I’ve been curious about their cultural mantra from the moment he took over.
“Good Dudes Only”
For a year I’ve looked at that mantra and thought there is something to it but couldn’t put words to why I thought it resonated with me until I read Power vs. Force and some related texts.
In one of the related texts it spoke about a way to begin to change your mind about something even if at first, you don’t know if you see truth in it or not. If you want to test it out, the text read with the following 3 transformational words…
DO ONLY THAT.
Do only that… Hmmm…
And then my brain clicked to the Michigan tagline.
My culture playbook is a lot smaller now. It has one item and one rule.
The Item: The Map
The Rule: ‘Keep it 200’
The kids say “keep it 100”, which translates into adult language as ‘keep it real’.
But I prefer to ‘Keep it 200’ with my team. 200 is the minimum level for a message. If it is not at least encouraging or above, I’m not going to deliver the message as a leader.
Here’s some quick alchemy for example. Let’s say your team lays an egg and in-between periods you have two choices. Below 200 or above 200.
Below 200 sounds familiar:
“You guys played like shit that period, if we don’t pick it the fuck up, you’re not going to like practice on Monday.”
Here’s a quick lesson about anger…
How can you transform that message into constructive and above 200?
“I think we’d all agree that wasn’t our best 20 minutes of the season. One area of our game that was encouraging and we can focus on is X, let’s double down on that. Now where do you guys feel we can improve?” Wait for a player to answer.
“Great, now what’s one action we can take to improve Y?” Wait for an answer.
“Okay, let’s focus on only that and I think you’ll like how you feel after the next 20 minutes.”
Possibilities
What if you went an entire year where the messaging, communication and feeling in the room was always at a ‘constructive’ level?
Maybe it sounds utopian, but I think it’s the future of coaching.
Below 200 messaging can literally make your players weaker. Click the link in the last sentence you read if you don’t believe me yet…
Fear, guilt, shame and other tactics that cause resentment and hatred towards your coach are tactics of Herb Brooks and are as dated as the suits he used to wear on the bench. The reign of the self-limiting Old Guard is just about to expire.
No shade at what he did but the game is going to new, expanded, and unlimited heights with the New Wave Rule…
Keep it 200.
Bonus: A Check for Your New System
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