Coach Raveling's Lessons, UNC Soccer Coach Anson Dorrance, and John Wooden's Keys to Success
“The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, put sugar on the floor.” — Charlie Munger
Good morning, coaches!
Today we have articles on lessons from being fired and the importance of getting started, a must listen podcast with UNC women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance (who’s won 21 national titles), and John Wooden’s keys to success.
If you have any feedback or content you think could be helpful for other coaches, feel free to reach out or leave a comment.
Here we go!
ARTICLES
Lessons I’ve Learned From Being Fired: Coach George Raveling offers advice for when you inevitably get fired from a job. A lot of what he talks about is great life advice in general too! Some topics include taking care of yourself (both physically and mentally), not letting yourself lose friendships, exploring and learning what other programs and coaches do during their off-time, and the importance of humility.
It is important to own up to your mistakes because you can learn from it in your next job and, hopefully, avoid having it happen again. Or, like in my case, know how to handle it better the next time it happens. Self-awareness is difficult, but it’s truly the only way to grow and improve your image and reputation.
Successful People Start Before They Feel Ready: James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, uses Richard Branson as an example of why we all need to stop thinking about doing things and just do them. When Branson has an idea, he runs with it and sees if it can work instead of thinking about it for days, weeks, and, months. In order to be successful, you have to start whatever you want to do; by the time you wait until it’s all figured out, it’s too late.
When everyone else balks or comes up with a good reason for why the time isn't right, Branson gets started. He figures out how to stop procrastinating and take the first step — even if it seems outlandish.
PODCASTS
Note: if you want to listen to one of these podcasts, click the link at the end of the description to play it on the app of your choice. You may need to scroll back within your app to the date the episode released. If you are listening on a computer, I suggest using Overcast.
The Efficient Coach: Anson Dorrance on Racism, Character Development and Staying Efficient. This is a must-listen episode with the University of North Carolina’s women’s soccer coach, who has won 21 NCAA championships and coached the 1991 FIFA World Cup team that is in the National Soccer Hall of Fame. I’ve included notes for you below. [August 20, 2020–51 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Overcast | Google | Website Link
His three priorities in order: 1) their character, 2) their education, and 3) their soccer growth.
He has 13 core values they have to memorize and be assessed at over the course of the year to see how they are exemplifying them.
Thoughts on culture: you can’t just take the culture from the Barcelona team and try to install that within your program because college girls in North Carolina respond differently than professional men in Barcelona.
What he recommends to other coaches: Instead of recommending books to read, he recommends to study philosophies and teams that interest you based on your culture.
How he handles stress: playing soccer himself, even at the age of 70, reading, and spending time with family.
My primary mission is develop these young women into extraordinary human beings.
MISCELLANEOUS
Keys for Effective Feedback from Ben Horowitz (Top Venture Capitalist & Co-Founder of a16z):
Be authentic
Come from the right place
Don’t get personal
Don’t clown people in front of their peers
Feedback is not one size fits all
Be direct, but not mean
Hiring for Integrity (via Macro Hive Podcast):
“I think that integrity is a big deal. This is something that people that I worked for before always told me: make sure that the people you hire have the highest integrity above all else, and I never really understood why they thought it was so important until I started doing it myself. What you start to realize is unless you can trust the people 100% to always do the right thing you’re always watching over your shoulder and then you’ve got a lot of wasted effort.”
VIDEO
The difference between winning and succeeding | John Wooden: Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden talks about success in his career, the importance of focusing on what you can control/having an internal locus of control, and his pyramid of success (shown below). He also tells the three rules he kept as a coach during his career: 1) never be late, 2) be neat and clean, and 3) never criticize a teammate.
Your reputation is what you’re perceived to be; your character is what you’re really are.
