Making sure you choose a team that works well together is paramount to achieving success. Any problems which develop can end up derailing your chances of success so it is important to learn how to identify and deal with problems.

Many problems stem from interpersonal conflicts which can develop during the playing season. When you think about it, you should not be surprised. Between games, practices, training and traveling, a team will often spend a great amount of time together. When you pair this fact with the tension and pressure to perform well, it is no surprise that there can be conflicts and disputes.

Getting a team to work well together and trust each other can be the best way to head off any problems before they develop or get to be overly serious. You want to make sure that all of the players view each other as being valuable no matter what the position each player is responsible for. This is because a team needs to understand the importance of both offense and defense in order to work together well. There may be players who feel that because they score the most points or play a very involved position they are more important to the team than defensive players and this can lead to arguments that can tear a team apart very quickly.

Picking a team leader or captain very carefully can be the secret to helping stave off many problems. A good team leader is one who knows the other players well and can work with the different personalities in order to motivate and bring them into line. It may not be the highest scoring or most popular player but it should be someone who can work well with all of the players and who is less likely to show favoritism of one player over another.

As coach, it is your job to develop and build your players’ trust in you. If you have done this effectively you may find that this can be one of the best ways to stave off team problems. This is because the players will feel comfortable talking to you about what is going on away from the court. Dealing fairly with all of the players and not showing favoritism can help you deal with any problems in a safe and effective manner. If you don’t have the trust of your players they may not trust you to deal with problems and may try to take matters into their own hands. Then, things can quickly get completely out of control.

You may find that identifying problems in a team takes some detective work. It may come down to watching how the players behave toward each other on the court as well as off of it. If you find that there are some players who are being excluded and shut out by the other players it can not only weaken the overall performance but can also cause anger and resentment to fester and this can lead to even bigger problems down the road.

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