Using Your Gifts

The following quote got me thinking yesterday about hoops:

“The gifts we have learned to use most efficiently are not always the gifts that people want from us.”

That’s nothing terribly profound (though the book itself is filled with great thinking), but it is something that every basketball player must learn. To understand why, substitute one word in for people.

“The gifts we have learned to use most efficiently are not always the gifts that coaches want from us.”

Now in a perfect world, it would seem that what the Coach wanted from the player would be exactly the gifts and abilities that the player wanted to use–exactly how he wanted to use them. But actually, that wouldn’t be a perfect world, because it would remove the opportunity to learn and develop other aspects of your game. And though learning is more difficult, without it, you are bound to become bored.

Yes, it is true (in my understanding at least), that a Coach’s job is, in part, to understand the various the gifts and abilities and desires of his individual players and, in turn, to develop a training program and playing style that enables them to use those respective abilities for their good and the good of the team. That is one major reason why being a Coach isn’t easy. For the various players come to the team not only with gifts they are used to using, but with certain individualized desires on how they like to use them and develop them. To mesh such individuals into one, unified unit is by no means an easy task.

So there is bound to be failure. But even when there is a good deal of success on the Coach’s part in this area, the player must recognize that it is impossible for the Coach to maximize the ability and gifts of every player on the team. Something (or someone) has to give. Indeed, everyone has to give. Every player has to sacrifice for the good of the whole. Numerous problems result when this simple reality is not understood or not communicated.

Practically, it seems wise for Coaches to first, understand this reality, and second, after doing all they can to understand and develop and utilize their player’s individual gifts, to make sure that they communicate with their players about the gifts they want them to use and how they want them to use them and why it will be good for the team. Such conversations can go a long way.

For the players, we must recognize first, that we must sacrifice something for the good of the team. That is a given reality that must be accepted by all or else dissension will soon come. And second, we must do all we can to communicate with our Coach, so that we can understand what exactly he wants us to do. If he isn’t clear, well, that is tough. Really tough actually. But that is where we need to be quick to return to point number one.