I was watching a film of a recent game the other day and it dawned on me after I fast forwarded through a couple of timeouts that the videographer was purposely taping his team’s timeouts.
You should see the behavior. All players, assistants, managers and medical personnel go to exactly the same spot in every timeout, whether seated or standing and the attention to the head coach is total. There is absolute total eye-contact with the coach and no one is engaged in side conversations. Occasionally, an assistant is seen handling a side issue but even there, it’s all business. Big Brother is watching but with worthwhile intent. It also helped that the videographer had really good equipment and that he was considerably higher than the bench to get a good angle.
This coach has obviously trained his players exactly where to be and how to act. Maybe he told them he was doing it the first time; maybe he didn’t. In either case, his players now know the deal and know they’re being monitored just like they are in action and that they’re accountable in both situations.
I’m certain now that other coaches likely do this but it never hit my radar until now and thought it worth a short post.
