One of my greatest privelages as a coach was to work with Sue Gunter. She was an outstanding teacher, a tremendous coach and a wonderful friend. I learned so much from her that I am currently working on a book about those lessons. From time to time, I'll share some of them with you.Attitude was a big part of her teaching philosophy. She demanded of herself and her staff that we were positive teachers. Certainly that doesn’t mean that on the occasions that merit it, that she didn’t raise her volume and display her displeasure. In fact, she could dissect a team with precision if they were not concentrating or executing. However, the difference with her over many coaches is that she would immediately begin looking for positive things to compliment after she ripped a team.
It was the same after a loss. Coach Gunter would let the team know in no uncertain terms that she was upset with their performance. More importantly, as a master teacher, she would detail the areas that we were lacking. The next morning, however, in our post game staff meetings, she would always make sure to let our staff know that we were going to be positive and uplifting with the team. Her theory that she rode to great success was to instill confidence in her teams and this would start with a positive practice.
She wanted to correct and construct...not criticize.
