Fans flocked to the Regions Pro-Am golf tournament on Wednesday for a chance to connect with Alabama football coach Nick Saban. Before golf, Nick made some comments worth further contemplation.
Alabama football fans may be surprised about this comparison but to us, football is similar to a chess match. Surrounding all the physical ingredients of player size, strength and speed, there is a mental game. In most cases, the greatest teams are led by the game’s greatest thinkers.
Head coaches and their staffs match wits with opponents with tactics, systems of play, formations, personnel assignments and motivation of their teams. Certainly disparities in player talent, size and speed can largely determine the outcome of many games. But not all games.
In championship contests, both sides may have similar player resources. In those situations, the team that makes the fewest mistakes will usually win. In a closely matched contest, the mentally stronger team will most often prevail.
For teams to be superior in mental strength they must have coaches they respect and trust implicitly. And that takes us back to Nick Saban’s process.
Here is what Saban said before golf, compliments of gridironnow.com. talking about “buy-in” from assistants.
"“We don’t change our organization, based on changing people. We have people come into the organization to buy in to things that we do, just like the players need to buy into the things that we do. So, I think that is the key to the drill. I think it’s really important though, that the people you do bring into the organization can gain the respect and trust of the players on the team. Because I think that’s a really important part of their development, as well as being a team. It all starts with the respect and trust factor.”"
Count us in the camp that sees Saban as a wordsmith who chooses each word with care. In his comments, Saban is discussing leadership, organizational purpose and cohesion. All ingredients essential to championship teams.
As we read those words and think about the vaunted Saban process, one word comes to mind, clarity. The process is designed to maximize clarity in settings at risk for confusion and chaos. Seeking clarity is tantamount to seeking perfection. It is never fully attainable.
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That is why Nick chooses the impossible task of insulating the Alabama football program from the vagaries of chance. Does it always work? Of course not. Does it achieve more than any other approach? Certainly, it does.
Nick learned this perspective from his father. Nick has told the car washing story many times and its lesson about shortcuts. When he missed a spot, washing a car for his dad, he had to wash the car again, the entire car. Take no shortcuts was the message and Nick learned it well.
The better story about his Dad is the late afternoon football practice story. At the end of each practice, with light failing Nick and his teammates had to run to the top of a hill and back. Nick Sr. could not clearly see if each of them made it all the way to the top, so he directed each player to tear a leaf off a tree at the hilltop and return to him leaf in hand.
Leave nothing to doubt is a short jump to leave nothing to chance. Seek clarity in all things. That is the Nick Saban process.
Next: Ten Best Tide QB's of All-Time
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