Tuesday, June 12, 2012

PROCESS-ORIENTED TEACHING FROM COACH MEYER

The following comes from "How Lucky You Can Be," the outstanding book by Buster Olney on Coach Don Meyer.  One of the things I've gradually learned as a coach is the importance of being process oriented in terms of teaching and keeping players focused and in the moment.  Almost all great coaches understand this principle.  No coach drove that home more for me than Nick Saban as I studied him during his tenure at LSU.  Of course, I learned it from Coach Meyer as well through his mentoring of me.  Here is a passing from the book on his philosophy in that regard:
Don Meyer focused on the process and taught his players to think more about the process than the results—but of course, he understood that a preponderance of correctly executed plays would almost inevitably lead to victories. A rival coach thought this was a brilliant method through which Meyer took pressure off his players: He relieved them of the big-picture worries about potential wins and losses by relentlessly training them to think only about what they could do better in any given moment.