Live to Love, Love to Live

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."
-John Wooden

John Wooden would start out each and every pre-season with teaching his player's how to tie their shoes. He said this quote concerning such things as tying shoes. He knew that if his player's did not tie their shoes right they not only would have to retie them, but their focus would be deterred from playing.

During my pre-season at Indiana University Coach Jerry Yeagley would say to us all the time to stop walking barefoot. He said, "Your feet are like surgeons hands, you cannot afford to mess them up with a little piece of glass on the ground". It was so true, but as young adults we thought it was silly. He was right and he taught us many other things along those lines.

Good coaches teach their kids the things they can control. They teach them how to tie their shoes, to not walk around without shoes/sandals, to eat breakfast in the morning, to eat all three meals, to address pain when it arises, to stretch properly, to train hard and then leave everything out on the field, and to be a good team mate.

John Wooden focused on the little details and in doing that his player's controlled the things they could control and the things they could not control they left out on the court everyday. Be a teacher of the game and through your lessons your player's will use those fundamentals of success for not only on the court/pitch/field but in their life after sports.

A coach is a lot like a Father and for some, like in my case, more of a Father than some have ever known.

"Trials become a university where we learn early on where to best place our physical, intellectual and spiritual resources."
-Barry C. Black, Chaplain of the United States Senate and former Rear Admiral Chaplain for the Navy, Marines, and Coast.

I love this quote. It is simple, but there is so much to it. Imagine being a chaplain for men who had the potential of dying. What do you tell them that would be encouraging but still relevant to their lives?

I feel the same goes for coaches in a way. You have to balance what to say to your player's that not only motivates and encourages them, but is relevant to what they are going through.

There are things we Must learn through experience. If we constantly tell our player's the answer, then there are certain things that will not stick with them. Also, they will rely on people and coaches to give them the answers all the time. Good coaches know the right coaching moments.

Use trials to encourage growth in your players. They must realize that each trial/problem they come in contact with is a chance to learn. The great part about being a coach, is that a lesson like this will help that player for the rest of their lives. Do not see yourself as just a coach that needs results in a game. Realize that as a coach you are able to and obligated to help teach and grow a person. You can be a catalyst to not only make them a better player, but to build up their character. See yourself as the professor in the university of trials. Not only will your player's be tested on the field, but they will be tested in real life. Take pride when your player's pass tests in games, but take more pride when they make the right decisions off the field and pass those tests.

I encourage coaches to right things down during a game. Then at halftime to go over the points with the assistant coaches. The players not only get a chance to get a breath but you also can take a breath. You can gather your words and the important topics that need to be said and then present them. Another reason this idea works is that it helps to filter out the things that do not need to be said. Sometimes there can be too much information and the player's will not remember it or they will start to zone out.

Encourage growth, but do not let them focus on mistakes too long. Where battles are lost in the mind is when a player thinks about mistakes too long. Help train your player's to learn that lesson and move on and think about what is next.

QOTW: Would you be a dog or cat and why?
I would be a dog. The things that hold me back from being a dog is: rolling in poop or dead things for fun, licking their butts and their man/woman businesses, licking feet (unless it really does taste that good), and well that is all I have for right now.

"It’s mostly the comportment of the coach on the sideline that caught Wooden’s eye. Brad Stevens is a calm, collected presence on the bench, a guy who strives for positive interaction with his players and projecting an image of confidence amid the storm."
-In a yahoo article

What an amazing NCAA tournament this has been. I do not think we have seen so many number one teams fall to such lower seeded teams. There have been so many games that I was just in awe with the intensity and how they came down to the wire. Sorry to everyone and how there have been so many bracket busters. But, it has been a pleasure to see Butler beat so many teams and do so well. It has also been very cool to hear and see Brad Stevens coach his Butler Bulldogs. The night before his final four debut against Michigan State he held a fundraiser for coaches against cancer. Brad is just a good guy to put it plainly.

I think it is so cool to see John Wooden come out and say that Brad is someone he reminds himself of. A man that demonstrates positive thinking and encouragement amongst his player's. The coolest part of all is how the player's love him and play so passionately. Those kids buy into his whole system and they do whatever it takes to get the job done. He has had his team out play, out work, and he has out coached all the other teams.

It is cool to see all this happen while he breaks the mold of most basketball coaches in college. Brad sits back says some things here and there, but ultimately just let's his player's play. When stuff happens he positively reinforces the kids and brings back their confidence.

“If you’ve done your job as a coach, you shouldn’t have to jump up and down and work for all that attention,” Wooden said Friday. “If you’re the teacher, the game is the test and you never see teachers running around the classroom during the test. They shouldn’t have to.”

His assistant coach says that he does get into player's , but in a different way, "He’s not above getting after a player on occasion, but even then, “it’s positive reinforcement, just at a little louder decibel,” joked Butler assistant coach Matthew Graves.

Now, as I have said the past two weeks. These are the coaches that player's love playing for and will do anything for. Be this type of coach and not only will you be remembered as a good coach, a success, but a person that is well loved by his team mates for a lifetime.

Question of the Week: If you could have one of your senses magnified ten times then what it already is, what would it be and Why?

"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment."
-John Wooden

To play on last weeks topic of inspiring player's, I wanted to talk about motivation and teaching.

I have coached hundreds of times and with all ages. The one good quality I have seen with good coaches is that they find a way to say something so the player they are saying it to will not resent them for that whole practice or week. As I was saying last week in choosing your words wisely, it is something that I want to talk about this week also. Now, when a person is in practice, the midst of coaching, it is tough to control their words or how they react to situations. Let me give you an example through my own life.

Growing up I used to swear on the field a lot. I swore at my players and other players. Let's just say I was not the most encouraging team mate. I realized that had to change. I slowly trained my mind and mouth to stop swearing. I made myself be conscious of the words that came out of my mouth. So, I would catch myself a lot and slowly but surely I stopped swearing on the field. My demeanor changed to be more kind and encouraging towards my players. I had to find a way to criticize/teach other player's without destroying them.

There are two types of coaches I believe. Those that player's resent after training and those that do not. You can get a winning coach even if he is someone who creates fear in his player's through his word domination. I like to call it word domination, because the coach creates a dominating force over player's in belittling them. The player's then come to focus very hard, but only because they know the coach will lambaste them if they do not get it right. These player's may think the coach is great, but they do not like him and will not really talk to their coach much after they play for them. I encourage coaches everywhere to be the coach that motivates through positive criticism and finds ways their player's will not resent them at the end of the day.

Our minds are powerful in that we can control the way we think and say things. If we create an environment that cultivates creativity and being comfortable at training, then we will be on the right track. I do not know about you, but I want my player's to love talking to me. I want them to remember me and want to stay in touch with me. I not only want to be a successful coach on the field, but a coach that is successful off of it. Create that environment that not only teaches player's about soccer, but about growing as a human being. Use the way you talk to them and interact with them as an example. They will look up to you, but make it because they want to be like you and not fear you.

QOTW (Question of the Week) for tomorrow: post your answers on the comment board and I will put the best one's up for tomorrow...
---If you could be any animal, what would it be and why?---

"The greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of inspiration."
-The advice Professor and scholar Cornel West gives to his students.

With Soccer 101 topics I am going to dissect what I think a good coach is every week from my perspective. I am doing this for myself and anyone else that wants to join me. I want to be a coach one of these days and hopefully a successful one on and off the field.

Inspiration is a tough task for a coach. But, it is the one thing that he can give to his players that will drive them to do the extra things that is needed in a game. I know from a player's perspective that it helps a ton if a coach delivers a pre-game speech that inspires us to play and to win every single moment of the game. When I was at Indiana University they used a guy by the name of Rob Kehoe who gave us "motivational" speeches throughout the season. He gave a couple in pre-season, preparing for the season, and one or two during the season. We definitely took in what he said, but not as much as we should have.

During the season he would send us these letters called "missiles." These missiles would give us a reminder of what to keep focused on and to help us during tough times in the season. I encourage coaches to write missiles to their players during their seasons. Not only does it give the coach time to think through his thoughts and words, but to deal with his emotions on different subjects. Because if you say something that destroys someone's/team's confidence you may lose that player/team mentally for awhile. Do a few of these a season, but not all the time as the players may get tired of it.

I have been with coaches who bring out famous quotes and try to instill them into us so we play like what it says. For example Rudyard Kipling said, "...The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack." The more ways kids and people are able to understand teamwork said from different people and in different ways, the better.

Give them the reasons by inspiring them and they will not need to find reasons to succeed. Players love playing for coaches that do the inspiring; it is easy to do battle for them.
One love. One Cause.