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The Missing Link

03/23/2016, 12:30pm CDT
By Dan Bauer

Team chemistry can't be measured, but is immeasurably important

It is playoff time in the world of hockey.  High schools have crowned their champions, colleges are in the process and the Stanley Cup playoffs are on the horizon.  It is the sports version of survival of the fittest as each step toward the elusive hardware exposes both weaknesses and strengths of the competitors. 

The margin of victory is often as imperceptible as a razor’s edge.

It is the time of the year when out of the masses of suitors for the championship crown only a handful of true contenders will emerge with the right stuff to put themselves in position to win it all.  After years of preparation as individuals and months as a team each challenger will face the pressure of the losers go home finality of the playoffs.

Each team will be dealt a unique hand of cards to start the season.  Some hands will look better than others, but like a stone faced game of poker, the best hand doesn’t always win.  There is no exact formula to guarantee victory—for anyone.  There are endless books, theories and game plans to achieve victory, but none are guaranteed blueprints to win that final game of the season.

Hockey as much as any game is becoming a game of statistics and much like the saber metrics craze of baseball we now have hockey analytics.  We chart shots on goal, blocked shots and turnovers and try to determine what mathematical value they have in winning games.  They are hard and fast numbers used to conclude the probability of victory.  We are a society that loves to prognosticate the sports future based on statistics.  It is the fodder that fills endless hours of sports talk radio every day.

Despite these analytical advances to turn this game into a paper chase, the fact still remains that no team has ever won a game based on their stat sheet.  As we scrutinize each team we consider their skill level, experience, work ethic, coaching and other factors in an effort to predict their success.  And while many of these characteristics can be measured in some way, there is one that cannot.

Team chemistry.

It is the Holy Grail of intangibles that can only be measured from the hearts of each team member.  It is the Bermuda Triangle of coaching that has many strategies, but no concrete answers on how to achieve it.  It is the Nuclear Power of forces that can propel a team to a championship.  Its success is well documented in the animal world where wolves and geese depend on it to survive.  Its influence is available to every team, but not all choose to embrace it.

Achieving true team chemistry requires an unselfishness described by the Buddhists as “mudita.” It is finding joy in the happiness and success of others.  It can be a very difficult emotion to foster in a competitive environment where a teammates gain could mean your personal loss.  It is simply stated as putting the team first.

Every concession a player makes that puts the team’s goals ahead of their own brings the team one step closer to the harmony that wins championships.  Coming to grips with not being a captain, playing on the third line, not finding yourself on the score sheet often enough are all challenges that “team” players must learn to accept.  Sometimes finding and grasping your role on the team is the most difficult part of a player’s season.  Finding peace and happiness in the success of teammates whose job you would like to have requires maturity and selflessness.  It is the ultimate litmus test for attitude.

As a coach you know when your team has found that right blend of chemistry and you know when they haven’t.  The formula is different with each team and can only be discovered by the team itself.  Coaches can provide direction and opportunity, but it is the individual team members that have the power to make it happen.  Like the wrong chemical, one single dissenter can turn this annual chemistry experiment into an abject failure.

Winning a championship is a daunting task that will only be achieved by one team.  The degree of difficulty in winning that final game cannot be fully appreciated until you have traveled that journey and failed.  A handful of teams will have what it takes, but only one will rise above all the rest.  The one team that escapes or overcomes injury, the one team that creates those “lucky” bounces better than their opponents, the one team that comes together like peanut butter and jelly will ultimately hold the trophy.  Being the best has never been an easy task.  It requires great sacrifice and commitment to the team at the expense of your own agenda.  Not all players are willing to be that selfless.  And when they aren’t they sabotage what could have been a championship run by their team.

Championship teams depend on the power of teamwork and team chemistry.    

The legendary John Wooden said, “Each of us must make the effort to contribute to the best of our ability according to our individual talents.  And then we put all the individual talents together for the highest good of the group.  Understanding that the good of the group comes first is fundamental to being a highly productive member of a team.” 

As a coach, when you are fortunate enough to find that group of individuals that truly becomes a team united it is the Mount Everest of coaching, that can only be enhanced by a championship.  Because a team united is a team ripe with all the character traits that the athletic experience produces.  If you have the right people on your bus, in the right seats, there is no limit to what you can accomplish.

In the post-game euphoria of a championship celebration there is always reference to the unity and collective efforts of the team to pull together.  As coaches we are fond of the decree that a team is only as strong as its weakest link. 

When it comes to winning that elusive, for all but one team, championship, there can be no weakest, or missing link. 

Dan Bauer is a free-lance writer, teacher & hockey coach in Wausau, WI.  You can contact him at dbauer@wausauschools.org.

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