September 20, 2021 - Own Your Space (Part 2)

I was reminded yesterday of many years ago when I was sitting in on an open gym run for some high school players (and probably wrote about it in these weekly postings)… my good friend and GREAT coach (Coach Mike Gurley) was overseeing the scrimmage and showed me why he has been so successful over the years. During the scrimmage, he was not teaching plays or running drills, he was simply encouraging and clearly communicating… 

By “clearly communicating” I am not referring to the x’s and o’s of where guys should be cutting or setting a pick or making a pass… those things would come later when he was actually conducting practices… but he was clearly defining players’ roles and making sure they knew he was on their side!

The particular play that popped into my mind was of a young man that was very gifted with speed and power; he had blown by his defender and hit a lay-up, to which Coach G exclaimed his pleasure and his “vision” for this young man. He (the coach) loudly shared his approval of the shot, and then reminded the player that he was to only shoot shots like that because he wasn’t good shooting from outside. That sounds harsh but it was the truth of how the young man would best benefit the team. (And following the reminder of the player’s role, Coach yelled, “You know I love ya!”

The reality is that great teams are made up of players that understand and execute their roles. Defining roles motivates players to “own their roles” and take more responsibility… and in the event they don’t like their roles, to have a clear picture of that they need to do to change that; and a clear picture of how the team is to work together. Clarity breeds unity!

Romans 12:6a says this, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…” I love a line from how Eugene Peterson worded it in The Message: “let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.”

My pastor said it this way yesterday when teaching from Romans 12: “Find your lane” He went on to then encourage us to get moving in those “lanes.”

Each of us should be diligent to know our gifting(s) and how we are designed to benefit the team! In my time of coaching, I often talked about not just taking up space but “owning your space” (both offensively and defensively.) [I wrote about this concept a couple years ago: I often tell players to “own their space.” I explain that the game is about “owning real estate”; beating the opponent to the spot he wants when playing “D”… or getting to the spot you want when on offense. June 2019]

So, this week’s bottom line is a reminder to OWN YOUR SPACE!