Some more from Steve Smiley's book "Playing For Coach Meyer." I especially love the first part, "Above all else, Coach Meyer was a teacher. In working for Coach Gunter, whenever she was in a casual conversation with someone and they asked her what she did for living, she would always tell them "I'm a teacher." Vince Lombardi has been quoted as saying, "They call it coaching but it is really teaching." I know I've said it before, but Steve's book is outstanding and would make a good one to add to your library -- for you and your players. Here are a few more excerpts:Above all else, Coach Meyer was a teacher. He wanted to teach the game to any and everyone, from the first-grade campers to college athletes, who would come to Coach for advice on all aspects of the game. Coach was obsessed about the fundamentals of the game, down to the very smallest details, and because of this obsession, it was very difficult at times to play for Coach Meyer.
Coach Meyer wasn’t the type of coach that sat us down and gave us a list of rules to abide by. He believed more in the concept of each player making good decisions, with the only real “rule” being that no player was allowed to do anything that would hurt themselves or the team. However, at the first meeting of each year, Coach Meyer would speak and he would always start off by giving us his three “rules.” They are as follows:
#1 Everybody takes notes.
#2 Everybody says “yes sir,” “yes maam,” “no sir,” “no maam,”
( in other words, be courteous to everybody).
#3 Everybody picks up trash.
Coach is very similar to Coach John Wooden in that he is very precise in his practice planning, meaning that he has our whole practice mapped out from the second we step on the floor. When we moved from drill to drill, we ran. There was absolutely no wasted time, and if Coach felt that we weren’t moving in and out of drills fast enough, we would just hit the line.
Coach Meyer wasn’t the type of coach that sat us down and gave us a list of rules to abide by. He believed more in the concept of each player making good decisions, with the only real “rule” being that no player was allowed to do anything that would hurt themselves or the team. However, at the first meeting of each year, Coach Meyer would speak and he would always start off by giving us his three “rules.” They are as follows:
#1 Everybody takes notes.
#2 Everybody says “yes sir,” “yes maam,” “no sir,” “no maam,”
( in other words, be courteous to everybody).
#3 Everybody picks up trash.
Coach is very similar to Coach John Wooden in that he is very precise in his practice planning, meaning that he has our whole practice mapped out from the second we step on the floor. When we moved from drill to drill, we ran. There was absolutely no wasted time, and if Coach felt that we weren’t moving in and out of drills fast enough, we would just hit the line.
