Sunday, March 1, 2009

Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him

Thought this was a good post for a Sunday afternoon: A few quotes from Randy Howe's book "Coachisms: Winning Words From the Country's Finest Coaches."

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"A guy who gives you less than what he has is, one, telling you what he thinks of you, and two, telling you what he thinks of himself." -- Pete Carril

"Nothing is as good as it seems and nothing is as bad, but somewhere between reality falls." -- Lou Holtz

"If you could have won, you should have won." -- Chuck Knox

"Either get a better player or get a player better." -- Eddie Robinson

"What to do with a mistake: Recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it." -- Dean Smith

"Guys ask me, 'Don't I get burned out?' How can you get burned out doing something you love? I ask you, have you ever got tired of kissing a pretty girl?" -- Tommy Lasorda

"People who live in the past generally are afraid to compete in the present." -- Sparky Anderson

"The coaching philosophy I live by is that the young men in my care will be husbands and fathers much longer than they will be football players." -- Clinton E. Alexander

"It is foolish to expect a young man to follow your advice and to ignore your example." -- Don Meyer

"The fewer rules the coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break." -- John Madden

"It is bad coaching to blame your boys for losing a game, even if it is true." -- Jake Gaither

"I realized early in my career I needed to share something besides how to bounce a ball, how to shoot a basketball. I had to share some things with 'em that would pay off later in life." -- Ronald Bradley

"I constantly stress process over outcome. In other words, don't worry about the exam. Just do your homework." -- Jim Wilson

"In order to be a great teacher or great coach you try to put players into situations that they're going to face during the game, and if you do that, then it becomes second nature, and they don't make those mistakes." -- Mike Shanahan

"I only use statistics to reinforce what I already think." -- Dean Smith

"Either love your players or get out of coaching." -- Bobby Dodd

"Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect." -- Woody Hayes

"Overcoaching is the worst thing you can do to a player." -- Dean Smith

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

"When someone asks me what time it is, I always want to tell them how to build a watch." -- Herb Brooks

"Only praise behavior that you want to be repeated. Never use false praise." -- Dean Smith

"You don't 'handle' players, you handle pets. You deal with players. Stand up for your players. Show them you care -- on and off the court." -- Red Auerbach

"No coach who is sure of himself and his team constantly bawls out his players." -- Jock Sutherland

"I don't think of myself as a basketball coach. I think of myself as a leader. A leader who coaches basketball." -- Mike Krzyzewski

"The way you win is to get average players to play good and good players to play great." -- Bum Phillips

"In any competitive situation, a chief duty of leadership is to minimize the impact of unexpected conditions and distractions on the team in combat." -- Pat Riley

"Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence by seeing how you react. If you are in control, they are in control." -- Tom Landry