The Game Plan
🔎3-Point Focus🔍
1. Habits That Separate the Good from the Great
Excellence isn’t accidental — it’s built on daily choices that stack up over time. The habits you decide to ingrain now will determine how your team performs months from today.
Reflection for Coaches:
- Which daily habits, if fully ingrained, would most impact how your team performs when the season is on the line?
- How will you track and reinforce those habits consistently?
Action Tip for Coaches: Once habits are identified, make them visible — on a whiteboard, in a practice tracker, or in team huddles. Visibility creates accountability.
Ownership Prompt for Players: How will you hold yourself — and your teammates — accountable for this habit without relying on coaches?
Key Idea: Greatness isn’t in occasional brilliance — it’s in the habits players choose to own every day.
2. Mindset Shifts for a Higher Standard
Talent can get you on the floor, but mindset determines whether you elevate the program. Moving from “good enough” to “what’s next” requires a daily commitment.
Reflection for Coaches:
- What mindset shift do you most want your team to embody this season?
- How are you modeling that shift yourself?
Action Tip for Coaches: Reinforce the chosen mindset shift by modeling it in your own language, body language, and response to adversity.
Ownership Prompt for Players: How will you remind yourself — in the moment — to choose a higher standard when fatigue, mistakes, or frustration hit?
Key Idea: The standard players accept mentally becomes the standard the team produces physically.
3. Culture Cues That Raise Everyday Performance
Culture isn’t a phrase on a wall — it’s the sum of your team’s daily actions, reinforced or ignored. Every behavior either strengthens or weakens your identity.
Reflection for Coaches:
- What cultural behavior, if made automatic, would most reshape your program’s identity?
- How will you reinforce those cues today in ways that push players to own them?
Action Tip for Coaches: Choose one culture cue to highlight in each practice — review it before, emphasize it during, and revisit it after. Repetition and consistency builds culture, but never waste words.
Ownership Prompt for Players: What will you personally commit to doing tomorrow to make our culture stronger, regardless of what the coaches say or do?
Key Idea: Culture lasts when players own it — not when coaches enforce it.
💥Smashing Whiteboards💥
Topic: Can You Raise Standards Without Losing Connection?
Raising expectations often risks creating distance between coach and player. When standards go up, players can feel pressure, judgment, or fear of failure — unless connection balances it. True leadership lives in the tension between demand and trust.
Implementation Ideas:
- Ask Before You Tell: Shift from immediate corrections to questions that draw players into ownership.
“What did you see there? How could you have attacked that differently?”
- Model Standards in Your Own Behavior: Players buy into what you live out. If you demand toughness, show resilience when practice gets sloppy.
- Link Standards to Care: Remind players that higher demands come from belief in their ability, not dissatisfaction.
Reflective Questions for Coaches:
- Where did I raise a standard today and explain why it matters?
- Did I create room for players to struggle without withdrawing my support?
- Am I giving equal weight to correction and encouragement?
Key Idea: Standards without connection feel like pressure. Connection without standards feels like comfort. Growth requires both.
🚨Coach’s Challenge🚨
Question: What 3 habits must your team master by November 1st?
Challenge Steps:
- Identify the 3 habits most critical to team standards.
- Track progress daily or weekly.
- Review and reinforce in practice consistently.
Key Idea: Mastery of a few critical habits creates momentum that lasts through the season — but only if players choose to own them.
🔈Buzzer Beater🔈
Excellence lives in the details. The habits, mindset, and culture you own today create the space between good and great tomorrow.
Coming Tuesday, September 2nd – DTG Insight to Impact
Week 1 doesn’t end with identifying habits and culture. On Tuesday, we’ll unpack “The Loneliest Voice in the Room”— the reality every coach faces when raising standards alone.
If The Game Plan sets the habits, mindset, and culture you want to build, Insight to Impact asks:
➡️ What happens when no one else enforces them but you?
➡️ How do you turn your voice into an echo that fills the room?
➡️ How do players, assistants, and role players become standard-bearers too?
Key Idea: Reflection sets the vision. Shared ownership makes it real.
