High Fives...From A Distance

In 2011 the Dallas Mavericks, lead by series MVP Dirk Nowitzki, won the NBA Championship over the Miami Heat in 6 games.  The Heat came into the series as a heavy favorite.  But according to Scott Cacciola in an article for The Wall Street Journal maybe the key to the Mavericks' series upset was that they couldn't keep their hands off each other.  During that series The Wall Street Journal charted the number of times players could be seen touching each other, whether it was a high five, a chest bump, a hug or maybe even a pat on the butt. During the first three games the Mavericks touched a teammate nearly twice as often as the Heat.  They slapped, hugged, bumped 250 times compared to the Heat's 134 interactions and then went on to win the championship.

I'm pretty sure anyone that has ever coached will tell you how important team chemistry is to success.  But often times it's hard to define what exactly it means and it can come in different ways.  This article about the Mavericks series win over the Heat is one that I often referred back to because body language and how a team interacts with one another on the court is a visible sign of team chemistry.  We had team rules (expectations) in place to help with this.  For example if a teammate dove on the floor or took a charge you had to sprint to help them up once the ball was dead.  When subbing in for a teammate you had to touch the person you were subbing for (many teams exchange a towel or maybe a warm-up shirt). During free-throws our teams were expected to huddle quickly.  It was obvious that these type of rules were difficult for teams with poor chemistry but for the teams that had great on-court chemistry they took care of these things themselves without having to be enforced by the coaches.  High fives, helping each other off the floor, hugs, pats on the back and huddling closely all came naturally to the teams I coached with great chemistry.  There was a true togetherness through wins and losses with those teams.

I've said for years that many life lessons can come from sports and team chemistry is no different.  Relationships, families, businesses are all closer and more effective if there is great "chemistry".  And part of that chemistry is touching whether that is a pat on the back, a hand shake, maybe a fist pump or even a hug.  Showing people that they are appreciated and accepted so they feel a closeness within the group.  Even prayer whether it is with family or a small group seems to take on anther level of togetherness when the group is asked to join hands.

So what now?  Social distancing is now a necessity and honestly probably here to stay for a while.  And it's possible that even once this clears up the idea of "touching" will be frowned up for quite some time.  While sports will quickly go back to touching as a way of demonstrating togetherness what about everyone outside of sports?  We are all going to have to work extremely hard at demonstrating that we care for one another and making others feel accepted and appreciated even if we can't show it by touching.  There are many gestures we can all make without touching.  Waving at a total stranger from across the street, greeting those we see with a "good morning" or "have a great day" or maybe just smiling at someone for no reason.  Back to using sports as an example how often do you see a player hit a shot in basketball and turn and point to the teammate that passed them the ball (assisted...demonstrating a thank you and acknowledging a great pass without touching).  So maybe from a distance we can point and say thank you to an essential worker or point and say you're doing a great job and we appreciate you.  Health is obviously a major concern right now.  But a less talked about major concern is mental health.  It's safe to say we are all working hard at distancing ourselves for the health of ourselves and others.  But we need to all be working just as hard to find ways to help ourselves and others with mental health.  We have to find ways to make others feel loved, accepted and appreciated.  Now, more than ever, we have to work really hard at demonstrating "team chemistry" to friends, family coworkers and even strangers.  And for the time being we have to be creative in finding ways to give "high fives...from a distance".