The Wolf and the Pack

Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro First shown on March 26, 2022

The Wolf and the Pack

Now this is the Law of the Jungle

as old and as true as the sky;

And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper,

but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk,

the Law runneth forward and back

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf

and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

The Second Jungle Book   by Rudyard Kipling

This blog, The Wolf and the Pack, was one of the first of our over 200 blogs. It is basically related to teamwork, and it is very unusual as, in the form of a metaphor, it presents a model of living beings demonstrating a human skill. We have used this model throughout our other blogs, usually showing what our Falcons softball and basketball teams are learning and doing.

Very early in their careers we want our team players to learn how to play with others. They must learn how to share, to learn specific patterns, to learn to play as individuals, to be a Wolf at times and to be members of the Pack at other times. You learn to do these things even when you’re at the level of the 1990s Championships Chicago Bulls basketball team with players such as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and Steve Kerr as they were coached by Phil Jackson and learning and using the triangle offense of assistant coach Tex Winter.

The Wolf and the Pack                                                                           March 26, 2022

An important concept of Team for us is based on the Wolf and the Pack.  We have been working with students, players, teams, and parents for all of our adult lives and have developed similar systems that have worked for us.  In our planning for our Grassroots Coaching book we found that we each had read Sacred Hoops, written by Phil Jackson. In this book, Coach Jackson states his ideas about the team and the players and the connections between them. Of the many books I’ve read about leadership and motivation, this is the simplest and best. Anyway, it feels right for me. At the beginning, Coach Jackson quotes a poem entitled The Wolf and the Pack from the Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.

As we understand the Law of the Jungle, the Pack is dependent on each individual Wolf and each individual Wolf is dependent on the Pack. The Pack consists of different kinds of wolves, each with his own unique talents; one is a great tracker, another is a  speedster but tires after a short distance, another is a long distance runner who plods along but is there when needed, another is the one you want in the final battle, and so on. They all come together as a single, effective force— Coaches, Players, and Parents. However, if a single Wolf goes off by himself he will die because he isn’t capable of doing all of the necessary tasks, fulfilling all of the necessary roles needed to be successful. It is also true that if a single Wolf were to leave the Pack, it would suffer the loss of any skills or talents that Wolf brought to the group.

Your Team is dependent on each individual Player with her unique gifts and talents. Not everyone has the strong arm needed by the pitcher, not everyone has the speed to cover the entire area of center field, not everyone has the hands that can scoop up a sharp grounder and get it over to first base before the runner gets there. On offense, you know the Player you want to be standing on second base with two outs in the final inning and you know who you would like to have at bat and they probably aren’t the same Player.

And, of course, each Player is in need of her Team. Only when the Team is at its best, can the Player really express her excellence. In a nutshell, our task as coaches is to make each individual player the best that she can become while having the team work together as an effective unit.