Ubuntu meets GRIT

When NBA coach Doc Rivers took over the Boston Celtics 🏀  in 2008, he inherited a team that had just finished 24-58. He'd assembled a superstar trio, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. But three great individuals don't automatically make a championship team. Rivers needed something more than talent, more than tactics. At training camp in Rome, he introduced his players to "Ubuntu," a South African philosophy that translates to "I am because we are."[1] He used the rookies to teach it to the stars, instead of the other way around…

The Celtics went on to win the NBA Championship that year. The transformation wasn't about discovering secret plays or revolutionary training methods. It was about embracing a philosophy that put collective success above individual glory, combined with the relentless perseverance to see it through.

If you’re a Netflixer, watch one of their all time greatest docu series “The Playbook”. In the episode with Doc Rivers he tells the story…

For field hockey coaches, this combination of Ubuntu's community-focused philosophy and Angela Duckworth's research on GRIT offers a powerful framework for building teams that don't just perform well—they perform when it matters most.

Ubuntu is more than just a feel-good concept about teamwork. It's a fundamental shift in how we view success, achievement, and our role within a collective. South Africa’s archbishop Desmond Tutu described it as "the essence of being human," explaining that "my humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours."

In practical terms for sports teams, Ubuntu embodies several key principles:

❶ Mutual Recognition and Respect: Every team member's contribution matters, from the starting striker to the player who rarely gets off the bench. Ubuntu coaching means creating spaces where players recognize each other's inherent worth beyond their statistics or playing time.

❷ Collective Success Over Individual Glory: While individual skills matter, they only have meaning in service of the team's objectives. As one coaching philosophy states, "I am because we are" means your success as a player is inseparable from your team's success.[2]

❸ Shared Responsibility: Problems aren't just the coach's to solve or the captain's to manage. Every player shares responsibility for the team's culture, performance, and development.

Shane McLeod, who led Belgium's men's team to Olympic gold, exemplifies this approach. In his masterclasses, McLeod emphasizes that "there's certainly a lot that's done behind in regards to creating a team culture and so on. And there's also a lot needs to be pushed back onto the players about how they take ownership in their career path and how they want to better themselves."[1]

This isn't about diminishing the coach's role—it's about expanding the players' ownership of their collective journey.

Angela Duckworth's groundbreaking research on GRIT provides the complementary piece to Ubuntu's philosophy. While Ubuntu answers the question "How should we be together?", GRIT addresses "How do we sustain effort toward our goals?"

Duckworth defines GRIT as "perseverance and passion for long-term goals." Her research at West Point Military Academy, the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and with Ivy League undergraduates revealed a consistent pattern: GRIT predicted success better than intelligence, talent, or physical fitness.[4]

For field hockey teams, this matters enormously. A season or even a tournament isn't won in the first training session of preseason or even in the opening match. Championships are built through the accumulated effort of hundreds of training sessions, the resilience to bounce back from defeats, and the passion that keeps players engaged when the work gets hard.

GRIT consists of two essential components:

Duckworth's research shows that GRIT accounts for an average of 4% of the variance in success outcomes—which might seem small until you realize that at elite levels, margins are incredibly tight. The difference between a semifinal exit and Olympic gold often comes down to exactly this kind of sustained effort and focus.[5]

The magic happens when Ubuntu and GRIT combine. Ubuntu without GRIT can become passive—a team that feels good about each other but lacks the drive to push through challenges. GRIT without Ubuntu can become toxic—individual players grinding toward their goals at the expense of team cohesion.

Together, they create something powerful: a team that cares deeply about each other AND pushes relentlessly toward collective excellence.

Consider Belgium's field hockey programs. The men's team achieved extraordinary success under McLeod's leadership, reaching World Cup and Olympic gold. McLeod's approach (and of course it was not just him) exemplifies this combination. He conducts regular one-on-one conversations with players, building deep individual connections (Ubuntu), while also implementing backward planning from Olympic performance goals and holding players accountable for their development (GRIT).[1]

Adam Commens, former Australian women's coach, describes this values-based approach in his work with Belgian youth programs. The Belgian system uses "TYPE" as their values framework: Team, You (personal development), Passion, and Excellence. But these aren't just words on a wall—they're embedded in the language coaches use, the behaviors they reinforce, and how they measure success beyond wins and losses.

Traditional coaching often measures success purely through results: wins, goals scored, league position. Ubuntu-GRIT coaching expands these metrics to include:

Jamilon Mülders, technical director in Dutch hockey these days, emphasizes this balanced approach: "You need to give more attention to the individual within the group... really making sure that everyone understands that there is a need for space for the individual on the long term program. But there's also a need for us to make sure we've chosen or our parents have chosen a TEAM sport for us."[2]

Ubuntu coaching requires understanding each player as an individual while maintaining team focus. Shane McLeod's approach demonstrates this perfectly. He emphasizes regular one-on-one conversations with players—not just about tactics, but about their personal development, aspirations, and challenges. About life…

These conversations serve dual purposes:

Some players naturally have high consistency of interests but struggle with perseverance through setbacks. Others have tremendous work ethic but shift focus frequently. Understanding these individual profiles allows coaches to provide targeted support while maintaining team cohesion.

Duckworth's research shows that GRIT can be developed. It's not a fixed trait. Field hockey coaches can deliberately build GRIT through training design:

The language coaches use shapes team culture profoundly. Ubuntu-GRIT language emphasizes:

The language shift from negative to positive framing—from pointing out errors to communicating expectations—helps players maintain confidence while still understanding what needs to improve.

GRIT develops through sustained effort toward meaningful goals. For field hockey teams, this means:

One of the most powerful examples of Ubuntu-GRIT coaching comes from teams fighting relegation. These situations test everything: individual resilience, team cohesion, and sustained effort despite mounting pressure.

Coaches working in relegation battles can't rely on superior talent—often, they're outmatched technically. Success requires maximizing every ounce of collective effort and maintaining belief when external circumstances suggest defeat.

The Ubuntu approach proves crucial here. When players know their teammates genuinely care about them as people (not just as contributors to results), they find reserves of effort they didn't know existed. The GRIT component ensures this effort sustains over the many matches needed to secure survival.[4]

Youth coaches have an additional responsibility: developing young people, not just hockey players. The Ubuntu-GRIT framework naturally builds life skills that extend far beyond the pitch.

Research on youth coaching emphasizes teaching life lessons through sport: social skills, creativity, respect, resilience, and self-belief. An Ubuntu-GRIT approach embeds these lessons naturally:

Social Skills: Ubuntu's emphasis on mutual recognition and collective responsibility teaches players to work effectively with diverse personalities and to value different contributions.

Resilience: GRIT development through progressive challenge teaches young players to persist through difficulties—a skill that serves them in academics, careers, and relationships.

Purpose and Meaning: Combining Ubuntu (being part of something larger than yourself) with GRIT (sustained effort toward meaningful goals) helps young players develop a sense of purpose that guides them through adolescence and beyond.[5]

While Ubuntu and GRIT are somewhat intangible, coaches can assess and track them:

GRIT Assessment: Angela Duckworth developed a validated 12-item GRIT scale that measures both consistency of interests and perseverance of effort. Coaches can use this assessment with players (and even have players assess each other) to identify individual and team GRIT profiles.[6]

Ubuntu Indicators: While harder to quantify, observable behaviors indicate Ubuntu culture:

Combined Assessment: The most powerful approach assesses how Ubuntu and GRIT interact:

Perhaps the most important aspect of building an Ubuntu-GRIT culture is that coaches must embody it themselves.

Model Ubuntu: Show genuine care for players as people. Know their families, their academic pressures, their aspirations beyond hockey. Admit mistakes publicly. Share credit widely. Create space for player voices in decision-making.

Model GRIT: Demonstrate your own perseverance through difficult seasons. Show consistency in your coaching philosophy even when results don't come immediately. Continue learning and developing your craft. Be passionate about the work, not just the outcomes.

As David Harte, former Irish goalkeeper, reflects on his coaches: "I've experienced both. You've had a facilitator style coach who was happy for the players to take... to empower the players... And then on the flip side of things, you also had a coach which is quite dogmatic about things and was just a dictator." The most effective coaches, Harte suggests, adapt their approach to what the team needs while maintaining core values.[7]

The combination of Ubuntu philosophy and GRIT research offers field hockey coaches a framework for building teams that achieve sustained excellence. Not through discovering secret tactics or recruiting superior talent, but through creating a culture where players deeply care about each other AND relentlessly pursue collective improvement.

This approach requires patience. Ubuntu relationships build over time through consistent demonstration of care and respect. GRIT develops through sustained effort toward long-term goals, not quick fixes.

But the results speak for themselves. Doc Rivers' Celtics, Shane McLeod's Belgian men, and countless other teams have proven that when you get the culture right—when Ubuntu and GRIT combine—extraordinary achievements become possible.

The question for every field hockey coach is simple: Are you building a team, or a collection of individuals who happen to wear the same shirt? Are you developing players who persist through challenges, or those who give up when success doesn't come easily?

Ubuntu teaches us that we are because we are together. GRIT shows us that sustained passion and perseverance separate good from great. Combined, they offer a pathway to building field hockey teams that don't just compete—they create something meaningful that lasts far beyond any single season.

As Archbishop Tutu reminds us: "A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for they have a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that they belong in a greater whole."

For your team, that greater whole is built through every training session, every moment of support, every instance of perseverance through difficulty. It's built through Ubuntu and GRIT, working together, creating something that transforms not just results, but lives.

If you're reading this the night before training, here are three concrete actions you can take tomorrow to begin building an Ubuntu-GRIT culture with your team:

Don't try to transform your entire team culture overnight. Instead, commit to having one genuine conversation with a single player—particularly one who isn't a star or captain. Ask them about something beyond hockey: their studies, their family, what they're passionate about outside the sport.

This isn't a performance review. It's not about tactics or their last match. It's about seeing them as a complete person and demonstrating that you value them beyond their contribution to results. This simple act plants the first seed of Ubuntu—showing that people matter for who they are, not just what they do.

Make it natural. It might happen during warmup, after training, or while walking off the pitch. Five minutes is enough. The goal is to start building the individual relationships that form the foundation of collective culture.

Tomorrow's session, include one activity where success is genuinely difficult—where players will likely fail multiple times before succeeding. This could be a technical challenge slightly beyond their current ability, a small-sided game with numerical disadvantage, or a decision-making scenario with high unpredictability.

The key is your response to their failures. When they make mistakes, use growth language: "Not yet" instead of "no." Point out what they did well in the attempt, not just what went wrong. Celebrate the player who fails but persists and eventually succeeds just as much as the player who succeeds on the first try.

This builds GRIT directly—it trains perseverance through difficulty. And when you frame these struggles positively, you create the psychological safety that Ubuntu requires. Players learn that failure is part of growth, not something to fear or hide.

Language shapes culture more than we realize. Tomorrow, consciously replace three common phrases:

Replace: "Why did you do that?" (sounds accusatory, focuses on individual failure)

With: "What were you seeing there?" (invites dialogue, seeks understanding)

Replace: "We need to be better" (vague, no ownership)

With: "How can we support each other to improve this?" (specific, collective responsibility)

Replace: "Good job" (generic, outcome-focused)

With: "I noticed how you kept working even when it got difficult" (specific, effort-focused)

These small language shifts communicate Ubuntu values (collective responsibility, mutual support) and GRIT values (effort matters more than talent) without requiring any formal culture program or team meeting. Your words shape how players think about themselves, their teammates, and what success means.

These three lessons won't transform your team overnight. Ubuntu relationships take time to build. GRIT develops through sustained effort over weeks and months. But every journey begins with a single step, and these three actions will point you in the right direction.