This is our third installment from Billy Packer's book "Why We Win" in which he ask coaches of all sports for insight on their philosophy.Could you talk about defeat and/or failure?
Bob Knight: "...to win and to understand how to win, you've got to know how to prevent losing. And that's what's going to cause you to lose are these things: poor ball-handling, bad blockout, shot selection, quickness of execution, or effectiveness of execution."
Joe Gibbs: "I probably remember the defeats, the real bitters ones...they're as vivid as the great victories...there was a fear of failure for me. And I don't think you overcome that. I think if that's in you -- a fear of failure -- I think that motivates you. Even after won our third Super Bowl, the next year I was right back in the same mind-set."
Pat Summitt: "Our emphasis is on execution, not winning. We're talking about how we need to go out and perform today. And if you execute and you're prepared, then that takes care of it...I'm not even going to talk about failure."
Tommy Lasorda: "I think the fear of facing failure has to be there at all times. I think that is what generates your interest. This is what motivates you, is the fear of failing. Abraham Lincoln once said, 'Where there is fear, there is a great deal of courage.'"
Dean Smith: "I think that motivation is greater if you've failed before. When it fails, or loses, I think you'll see a team respond -- the good, the championship teams will really respond the next night out."
Mike Krzyzewski: "It's the coach's responsibility to profit from defeat. We've always tried to take a positive out of a loss. However, you don't want to get in a habit of losing all the time, so that's the only way of taking positives...I'm not afraid to fail, but I don't want to fail. It's a sense of motivation for me."
Sparky Anderson: "I think my whole career, the thing that drove me to try to do things right, was the fear that I would fail, not only myself, but fail a player."
Bill Walsh: "I think the bottom line for the coach and his squad is how they deal with frustration, disappointment and failure -- how they deal failure. And I think that's really the best way to judge and to analyze a coach and a program -- it's how they rebound from frustration and failure."
