Monday, March 16, 2009

Real coaching is teaching people to play the game better

Interesting thoughts from the late Bill Walsh in David Harris' book "The Genius" about how he formed his coaching philosophy.

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"[When he began his coaching career], there was this religion of 'toughness' in coaching circles those days and all coaches were trying to be like marine drill sergeants and scare people into playing well. I got caught up in that for a while but I concluded it didn't come close to working. It was kind of a mass delusion.

All the coaches thought the players loved them despite how badly they treated them, and all the players were doing were putting up with the coach so they could play football. Instead of loving and revering the coach, they couldn't stand im and were disgusted with him but they wanted to play football. They wanted the fellowship, they wanted the association, they wanted the excitement, and only put up with the bullying because they had to. Most played football in spite of the coach.

By the time I left Cal I had decided that if you taught people to play the game better, that was real coaching -- being a teacher rather than a thug."