The Paradox of Coaching

Recently, I posted a list of 13 Beliefs of Good Coaches . Now I’m following up by digging deeper into each of them. This post is about the twelfth belief: I am powerful, I have power over others; I can abuse that power and act like an ass. Who is John Douglas? I’m going to guess that some of my UK followers will recognize the name John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry . Nevertheless, every sports fan should be required to know his story. His is a story of fighting, fair-play, and the power of words. John Douglas is credited with what is currently known as The Queensberry Rules . Although originally written by another SportGent named John Graham Chambers in 1865, The Queensberry Rules (which was only publicly endorsed by Douglas) is a code of conduct and accepted rules for the sport of boxing. It is these rules that set the stage for how professional boxing matches are held today. What does The Queensberry Rules have to do with you? When it comes to understanding groups, ...

The following post is the eleventh installment for the 13 Beliefs of Good Coaches . Despite the essential need to set goals, good sport coaches are aware of the paradoxical quality of goal-setting. How many of you have one of those in-car navigation systems? I recently, as the caring and helpful husband I am, bought my wife one for her vehicle. Knowing how busy my wife is, running errands all over town as well as her sub-par sense of direction, I thought I was going to earn Husband of the Year honors with my gift. After hooking up the system, programing it to be as user friendly as possible, I sat back and waited for the praise to start coming my way. Well, two days later my wife informed me that it was either her or the navigation system… one of the two was going to go bye-bye. She hated it and demanded I remove it from her car immediately. Both stunned and a little hurt I decided to drive her car to a meeting I had across town to see for myself why this thing was so horrib...

This article marks the tenth installment for the 13 Beliefs of Good Coaches . This post looks at how good sports coaches believe they must be demanding. I argue that it is more important to help your athletes eliminate negative habits than it is to accentuate the positive ones. Not too long ago I had the opportunity to watch the practice of a very successful basketball coach. One thing that struck me was her relentless emphasis on the negative. It seemed that every other time she spoke it was to point out what her players were doing wrong. After the practice I asked why she felt this approach, stressing the negatives, was the right way to get her players to reach their potential. Her response, “It works.” Coach Bobby Knight was a famous (some would say infamous) college basketball coach that seemed to take this same “eliminate the negative” approach to teaching his athletes. I have to admit, I am a big Coach Knight fan and have been since first reading John Feinstein's...