Building Blocks and Jigsaw Puzzles

I love analogies. They are very useful as a tool to help athletes understand a concept that might be foreign. Recently I described a particular movement to an athlete as: "its like you are reaching as high as you possibly can to get something off the top shelf of a cupboard". He immediately responded: "I never have to reach to get to the top shelf." (Analogies aren't always perfect.) There are thousands of analogies to coaching and team building. Three of my favourite are that building a great team is like Lego, its like a Jigsaw Puzzle, its like building blocks. All have positives and negaties, but Lego is my favourite. Jigsaw Puzzle You need to start with a solid framework (border) and a vision for how it will look when you are finished. All the pieces are there and have their own unique place to go, it just needs to be put together. It requires consistency and trial and error, but eventually you know that if you stick with it, it will be c