2010-2011 Lady Tiger hold first team meeting
At 2:00 PM in the Sue Gunter Complex, the 2010-2011 edition of the LSU Lady Tigers gathered for the first time as unit for their season opening team meeting. Unlike the past where they were great by Coach Van Chancellor with a nice "welcome back to campus" speech, the team was hit quickly with a list of expecations and areas of improvement along with a game plan for accomplishing both.
"I felt that we needed a sense of urgency to start the season this year and it was my job to set the tone," said Coach Chancellor. "We have a wonderful opportunity to have a good team this year but it's only an opportunity if we don't lay a foundation in the next few months."
Usually thinks like team goals have been collected in early October but this the team set upon one goal that will effect them from this moment forward.
GOAL #1: being the absolute BEST we can be EVERYDAY!
"It's a goal that is process driven as opposed to being result oriented," said Coach Chancellor. "We can apply this goal today, tomorrow and the next day. It can be applied to class, conditioning, weighting training, practice, games -- absolutely anything."
Another point of emphasis for the Lady Tigers will be improved mental toughness. Coach Chancellor spoke to the team in terms of them allowing to many outside factors effecting their player last year. He also told the team that "mental toughness is one of the few traits that effect everything else on the basketball court."
Communication was another area that Coach Chancellor listed as a necessary area for improvement. "We want to talk more, talk often and talk loud." Every great team I've been associated with or observed has been an excellent communication team." He also added that listening was another area of communication that he wanted to improve upon.
Still yet another topic was to "finish." Coach Chancellor said that the team must first learn to finish in drills, both in practice and conditioning before they can consistently finish plays and games. He vowed to push the team in this area.
The meeting also saw the team receive their notebooks for the year and they also received a personal letter from Coach Chancellor."I really liked the sense of urgency in the meeting," said co-captain Katherine Graham. "This is my senior season and I want our team to strive to be the best that we can be."
Andrea Kelly, also a co-captain, echoed KG's thoughts: "Coach Chancellor certainly laid it out there for us and I thought our team had a great attitude in receiving his message and knowing what we need to do."