How to Be a Good Player

Learning Your Role

Develop your fundamentals. If you want to be a good team player, you've got to work first on being a good all-around athlete, spending time building the fundamental skills necessary to your sport. If you want to be a great basketball player, that means spending time dribbling, developing your defensive skills, and learning to make crisp passes. If you want to be a great soccer player, you've got to learn to control the ball, shoot accurately, and move to space. It's fun to just get out there and play the sport you play, but doing drills is an essential part of practicing. Instead of just shooting hoops, practice some of the dribbling drills you do in practice, or working on other defensive training drills that you learned from the coaches. Working on building the less-fun skills will help you to stand out and become a stronger player.

Learn the responsibilities of your position. Playing a team means filling a specific role. Unlike being a tennis player or a golfer, playing as a part of a team means filling a role. It's not every football player's job to score touchdowns, and it's not every soccer player's job to shoot goals. Being a good player means learning the specific responsibilities and role of your position, and studying how best to fill that role. Learn where you need to be on the field and what your specific job should be. If you're playing defense, figure how you select an opponent to mark up against. If you're controlling the ball, how can you best distribute it around the field? When you're first learning how to play a sport, most of us want to go for the glamorous positions: quarterback, striker, point guard. A great team, though, is a team made up of role-players who play the positions for which they're most suited. If you're a great defender, don't waste energy being envious of the offensive positions. Embrace your role and commit to improving your skills.

Practice hard. Showing up to practice and giving every single workout your best effort is a critical part of being a good team player. Practice hard and you'll improve your skills and your knowledge of the game, setting you and your team up for success. Show up on time to practice and be prepared to work. Have your gear ready and plenty of water. Start stretching out and getting ready to work. Have a good attitude about practice. Some athletes have lots of talent, but look like they'd rather be at home playing video games than building skills with teammates. Be a better player than that. Leave all your grit and effort on the practice field. If you pull up and take it easy when you're supposed to be lifting weights, running laps, or doing drills, you're going to be slower, weaker, and less talented than your opponents. Bring it to practice.

Stay healthy. Even if you're a great athlete, you can't be a good player if you're spending all your time healing from injuries and recovering on the bench. It's very important to take care of your body and stay healthy and in-shape to compete in games and give your team the best chance of winning, game in and game out. Warm up before you practice and cool down afterward, every time. Never run onto the field without stretching and warming up your body for hard work. Good players should also take several minutes to stretch out after practice, to avoid cramping and soreness. Get enough rest between workouts. If you've got to practice tomorrow, you shouldn't be staying up until the wee hours of the morning playing Xbox and chatting online. Get enough sleep, at least 8 hours, and allow your body ample time to recover and rest before putting it to the test again tomorrow.

Stay hydrated during workouts. A study of NFL players found that almost 98% were dehydrated before workouts, which can lower performance levels by as much as 25%. Sports drinks and plain water are an important part of maintaining electrolytes and hydration, giving you the energy to perform at your highest level and stay healthy. Before working out, drink 15 or 20 ounces of water, and try to drink about 8 ounce of water every 15 minutes during practice. Drink slowly to avoid upsetting your stomach during intense workouts.

Listen to your coach. Good players need to be coachable, which means you've got to learn to take criticism and apply new lessons to getting better and improving your skills on the field. Be respectful and learn to listen. Coaches aren't there to tell everyone that they're doing a great job and that everyone's going to end up going pro. Coaches are there to make you a better athlete and train you to win. Sometimes, that might mean you'll hear some suggestions and criticisms. Bad players fold up and get frustrated when they receive criticism and good players will listen and take lessons from it. If your coach calls you out for your sloppy squats during a workout, you could get moody, or you could say, "Yes, coach!" and sweat a little harder. Never argue with your coach, especially in front of the other players. If you've got a problem with strategy, or something the coach told you in practice, set up a private talk about chat about it alone. Good players should never question the authority of the coach in front of the team.

Communicate on the field. Teams need to be organized and coordinated to win. Silent teams lose and talkative teams improve their chances of winning. Cheering for other players, calling for the ball, and communicating clearly about players and strategy is a critical part of team success. Make it your goal to be louder than the other team at all times. It's important to talk to your teammates, but try to avoid trash-talking the other team. Unless it's absolutely necessary to talk some smack as a way of motivating your teammates. Then, go for it, but be gentle.

Push through the pain. Training isn't always fun, and games can be crazy-exhausting. But good players–great players–learn to push the pain of training into the back of their mind and fight through it. When you're exhausted at the end of the game and the ball springs free between you and the goal, you could jog toward it tiredly, or you could dig deep and sprint. Good players sprint. Find ways to stay motivated and fire up for games so that you'll be energetic and enthusiastic to fight for the whole game. Play some loud music that gets you pumped, or fire yourself up with a sports movie, or other team-building exercise that you enjoy.

Practicing Good Sportsmanship

Lose with dignity and win with class. All games will come down to the final minute and you'll find out if all your hard work was enough to win, or if you've still got more work to put into it. Good players are tested at the moment the last whistle blows. Are you going to handle it with quiet dignity? Or are you going to be sore? Sportsmanship starts with knowing how to win gracefully and how to lose just as gracefully. When you win, it's perfectly fine to celebrate, but never ok to taunt the opposing side. Be happy that you won, but never rub it in. Congratulate and compliment the other players for a job well-done and stay positive about the experience. When you lose, it's ok to be disappointed. No one likes to lose. But don't sulk, make excuses, or lash out at the opposing team or your teammates. Treat each loss as a learning experience. What can you take from the game to use to improve for the next? What could you have done better?

Follow the rules and play clean. Good players don't take shortcuts, or even look for them. Good players recognize that games aren't all about winning or losing, but about how you win or how you lose. You need to be able to look back at your performance with pride, regardless of the outcome. Hold yourself accountable. In many team sports, the rules are a regularly changing thing. Learn the rules and study them, staying up to date on the newest and most recent rules.

Play with passion. Good players run on passion and emotion when they're on the field, using their desire to succeed drive them. For some players, coming up with a good storyline or a good dramatic angle to the game is an important way of getting passionate. Saying "It's just a game" is a good way of going half-speed through the rest of the game. Michael Jordan used to invent slights and insults from his opponents, making it personal. He made each game a chance to show up his opponents and prove them wrong (even if they hadn't said anything to begin with). Don't let your emotions take over and push you to poor sportsmanship. Play passionately, not angrily. Practice turning it on and turning it off when you're on the field only. As soon as the game is over, let it be over.

Don't show off. Putting your skills on display to impress other players, observers, or opponents is bad sportsmanship. While it's common to get wrapped up in the competitiveness of the moment and want to do well, good players don't need to show off to prove their ability or to feel better about their skills. Know that you're talented and that you're a good player without the need of running up scores, embarrassing other players, and hamming it up for the fans. One good team technique to get in the habit of practicing is to learn to pull back if you're winning by many points. On the soccer field, if your team is up by more than six goals, start making a rule that no one can shoot until every single player on the field has touched the ball. Use the opportunity to work on your ball handling. Make the game more challenging for yourself.

Don't argue with the officials. When the referees make a call, specifically a call against you or one of your teammates, don't argue. Follow their instructions to the letter and speak to the officials respectfully. Talking back or arguing can make the punishments worse, displaying bad sportsmanship. When you address the officials, use the word "Sir" or "Ma'am" and try to calm yourself, if you're frustrated. Take a second to take a deep breath and check your emotions before you open your mouth.

Being a Leader

Lead by example. Being a leader doesn't necessarily mean being the most talkative, giving corny motivational speeches at halftime. Silent and stoic or loud and inspirational, leaders come in all forms, but have one thing in common. Leaders lead by example. You need to practice what you preach, putting lots of effort into your game and improving your play. When other teammates see you leaving everything on the field, doing that extra rep, running when your tank is expired, they'll be motivated to do the same. Go 100% all the time. As a team leader, remember that you're not a coach. It's not your job to tell other players what to do, it's your job to be a good player. If others are motivated by your performance, all the better. If not, just focus on your own skills and in doing the best job you can do.

Learn to motivate your teammates. Teams are only as fast as the slowest player, a chain as strong as the weakest link. Try to identify your teammates that need a little extra and help them out by pairing up during partner drills, or cheering them on during practice. If you're a strong player, you might automatically gravitate toward other strong players, but try to spend time with younger teammates who might need to learn more. It'll mean a lot to them and make you stand out as a leader. Cheer on your teammates, clapping and encouraging the players when something goes right, and when you see other players getting frustrated with the way something is going. Take control of the morale of your team and encourage them toward success. Different teams have different dynamics, meaning that there's no one way to motivate other players. Some good players may need motivated with some reverse psychology: "You can just sit this one out if you're feeling tired. Maybe it'd be better to let one of the freshman play instead?" Likewise, some unconfident players might need encouragement to improve their play: "You're looking like an upperclassman out there. Keep it up, kid."

Never make excuses or blame teammates for failures. Morale can sink quickly with a loss, but if you get into the blame-game, it can sink a whole lot lower. Never throw other players under the bus for losses, or make excuses for your own play. It wasn't the officials, or the weather, or the subs fault that your team lost. It was the team's. If it was obvious that one player had a particularly bad game, it's not necessary to talk about it. If that player looks particularly down, take them aside and give them a slap on the back. Get their head straight by reassuring them it's not their fault. If one of your teammates gets punished for breaking a rule, take it upon yourself to serve out the punishment with the rest of the team. If one player gets a yellow card and has to run laps at the next practice, run laps with them. Get the other players to do the same. Come tougher as a team and act as one.

Be loud on the sideline. Leaders should be hollering and cheering, invested in every game as if it were the Super Bowl. Cheer on your teammates and encourage them even when you're not on the field giving it your all. Get your other teammates invested in the outcome of the game, even if they're not playing. Support everyone and be loud.

Leave it all on the field. Each time you go out to play, inspire your teammates by leaving everything you've got out there on the field. 110% every time you play. Push through the pain, rely on your training, and make sure that you never finish a game wondering if you could have played harder. Sweat and grit it out to give your team the best chance of winning.