In Crystal Magnates, Truman Alexander examines Nick Saban and Urban Meyer to share what makes their work special.
As far as expertise, he reports that Saban and Meyer excel because of hedonics, scholarship, obsession, and innovation.
Do what you love. Alexander says that 80 percent of Americans don't enjoy their work. That sounds high, but maybe it includes people who would prefer doing another line of work or working with other people. Saban worked as an assistant for seventeen years before getting his first Division 1 job. The definitive work on Saban is Monte Burke's Saban...he's the ultimate creature of habit from his two Little Debbie oatmeal snack cakes for breakfast to his daily routine.
"Never stop learning because life never stops teaching." Success closely correlates with education at least in some dimensions. Coach Bob Knight says that 80 percent of basketball is mental. John Wooden was an English major. Knight had a degree in history and government. Brad Stevens studied economics as did Bill Belichick. Dean Smith had a mathematics degree. All succeeded because of scholarship and teaching in their chosen fields. Geno Auriemma travels to pick other coach's brains during the offseason.
Belichick donated the family library of football books (over four hundred volumes) to the Naval Academy. We need a "performance-focused, feedback-rich" culture that defines ways to change behavior in ourselves and our students.
"Think about most what you like thinking about." Leaders find solutions. Solutions don't fall like rain. If you do what you love and study it, you're much more likely to identify and solve problems. Edison's 999 experiments that didn't work led to the thousandth lightbulb that did. Marc Andreesen counsel's us not just to think about why something will work, but challenge why it won't.
"Imagination leads to innovation that leads to differentiation." - Bill Russell
Brian McCormick has written and discussed (YouTube videos) extensively about "false fundamentals". We have all done them and taught them, but teaching 'other ways' to practice has merit. His book The 21st Century Basketball Practice will likely become a classic. Whether it's innovation or common sense, it works. He advocates for different training techniques, like dribble tag (which we used to do 45 years ago).
Become a member of the "Church of Whatever Works". We shouldn't fear asking ourselves whether we can teach better, communicate better, inspire more.
