Over the weekend I watched one of my favorite movies of all time, Hoosiers starring Gene Hackman. It is about a basketball coach who arrives in a small town called in Indiana.  The coach had been fired from a previous job for striking a player, and is a very strict which does not sit well with his current team. He ends up kicking one of the better players off the team for not following the team rules, and the best player in town has refused to come out for the team. The small town is not happy with the style of play that the new coach teaches and attempts to fire him in a tow meeting. At this meeting the best player in town, Jimmy, announces he will play this season but only if the coach stays. 

The new coach has a temper, and gets kicked out of numerous games (even one on purpose). He leads his team to the state championship game that they end up winning. This is quite a feat considering this is one of the smallest schools in the state of Indiana, and all the schools regardless of size play for one state title. They end up beating of the bigger schools in the state, and has some help from some of the less heralded players that do not receive much playing time. It is a classic David versus Goliath story, and it even has a cheesy love story in the plot. 

The coach in this movie first objective was to teach discipline and team play. Players were not allowed to scrimmage until the coach was satisfied they were able to perform basic fundamental basketball skills. When one of the players objected to this he was quickly reminded why they were running through these drills. When one player was speaking at an inappropriate team he was excused from the team until he could come back and follow the team rules. He was not about getting the best player in town to come out for the team, in fact when the varsity team was announced to the school and they boo'd because Jimmy was not out there. The coach quickly jumped in and let the school body know that this was the team and the school needed to be more appreciative of their hard work. 

The coach did a good job with one of the smaller players on the team, as he never allowed to boy to buy into him just being a waterboy. He continually worked on improving his self-efficacy and building his confidence. This paid off in a crucial game where the smaller player hit a pair of free throws to win a game in the state playoffs. As stated in the text the use of verbal persuasion is a way to improve self-efficacy (Weinberg, pg 334). In the state championship game, his team travels to Indianapolis and play in a very large building. His team is obviously a little overwhelmed at the magnitude of the game and the venue that they are going to play in. The coach measures various dimensions of the court to let his players know that everything on the floor is the same. 

Though the coach throughout the movie does a good job of building team unity and focusing on team play, he is a bit of an anger issue. He receives multiple technicals and is kicked out of numerous games. Though this is the only thing that I can that I would do differently, I think it is a poor reflection of how wanted his team to portrayed. Other then that I loved his team developing exercises, and how he measured going into the state championship game. I was amazed to watch how he handled the star player in town. He let him know that he didn't care if he played or not, and I think today many coaches wouldn't have handled the situation as well. Probably trying to push the player into playing. This could lead to burnout, under the entrapment theory where a player plays because they feel like they have to participate (Weinberg, pg 495).

For myself as a basketball coach, I try to make sure that I don't get caught up in the officials during the game and get a technical or worse kicked out. I think that watching this movie it shows that a lot of people are going to have ideas on how a team should play, and that by sticking to your guns and following your own game plan you will have success. I was amazed at how calm the coach was when dealing with all the political acts, but he would get so worked up during games. For me this showed that you need to be the same on the court as you off the court.

References

Weinberg, R. S. (2007). Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 4th. Ed. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.