‘Rather Lose With You Than Win With Anyone Else!’
Are you a leader, consultant, coach or trainer? Join Belongify and get certified!
Also, please feel free to check out the new Belongify Patreon page here.
Who has won more basketball games as a NCAA coach? Tara VanDerveer at Stanford will pass Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) at Duke, as the college basketball coach — man or woman — with the most wins of all time! WOW! She is 70 years old and continues to invest in her growth as a coach and person. Most chief executives are lucky to have five years at the helm. How can a leader be so successful for almost half a century, with a winning record at Stanford for every season after her inaugural one in 1985? What’s her winning formula?
The following are summary comments from a recent NYT article. It is not intended to be inclusive regarding all her leader ingredients, however it is instructive:
“Have a vision for your players, and give them the tools. Maximize people’s strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
Don’t be the center of attention.(Put your players, assistant coaches, and other staff at the center).
Don’t micromanage, and seek input.
Outwork the players on your team. Take care of yourself — eat and sleep right, and exercise — so you can take care of one another. If you can’t swim, you can’t rescue the other swimmer, and you’ll both go down.
You can’t have 15 personalities, one for each player. But you can recognize everyone’s different, and get to know them and understand where they’re at.
Every behavior is communication — not just words but also eye contact and body language.
Know that if your senior leaders are unhappy, your whole team will be.
Learn the art of the controlled meltdown (be even-keeled and respectful).
Be yourself, but do not fight change. Young people are the only ones who have grown up with technology — they live on their phones — and with a pandemic. Understand where they’re coming from.
I am a lifelong learner — from professors, assistants, players. I watch other Stanford teams practice and ask coaches about their training methods. And I watch so much basketball. I’m a copier who gets ideas from other basketball coaches.
I am also not afraid to take risks and experiment. We ran one kind of offense for at least 12 years very successfully. When our team personnel changed, I studied the ‘Princeton offense’ and thought it fit our team better. We won the NCAA in 2021 running that offense.”
There you go, 11 guidelines that are accessible to all of us. Of course you need great players too.
Perhaps the best way of capturing the spirit and culture of VanDerveer’s teams is the following story:
“Jamila Wideman told her teammates to pick their heads up after we were upset by Old Dominion in the semifinals, and they were lying on the floor crying. I couldn’t get their attention, but Jamila got them to rise with: ‘I’d rather lose with you, than win with anyone else.’”
When you create that kind of feeling amongst teammates, you really know you’ve been a COACH!
Think Big, Start Small, Act Now,
- Lorne
One Millennial View: Thanks to the inside glimpse of a coach’s life due to sports themed reality tv, the public has a better idea of how meticulously obsessed these winningest coaches can be. It’s relentless studying, improvising, and improving from pre-season camp til the season is over. Not unlike a weathered detective on a high profile case, if there is a game to be played, there is simply no “clocking off” for these individuals. There is always another detail to note, another piece of film to analyze, a new clue to uncover. While coaches like VanDerveer are a special breed, we too can “copy” some of their ideas and learn from their wins.
- Garrett
Edited and published by Garrett Rubis
Search Blog Posts:
Categories
Month
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019