The key to coaching is love. It's not knowledge; it's not discipline. If you love 'em, you can discipline them. If you love 'em, you can yell at them and laugh about it later.
Interpretation
Coaching is rooted in love and care for the individuals being coached, rather than just expertise or strictness.
This quote emphasizes that effective coaching is driven by a genuine affection and connection between the coach and the players. Dabo Swinney suggests that love creates a supportive environment where discipline and criticism can be received positively, as the players understand that the coach has their best interests at heart. It highlights the importance of emotional bonds in fostering growth and resilience within a team.
In practice
Use this quote during a team meeting to reinforce the idea that care leads to effective coaching.
I always tell people, good coaches are a dime a dozen. Good coaches that are good people, good husbands, good fathers, that love their players and are passionate about doing things in a way that I believe is important, that pool gets real small.
No, we don't control who our parents are. We don't control what color we are. We don't control what home we are born into. But we control our attitude. We control our work ethic. We control our drive and our commitment.
I'm looking for players who make their teammates better. You do that with enthusiasm and passion.
One of the great creative statesmen of our age was Franklin Roosevelt. He was creative precisely because he preferred experiment to ideology.
What I always say is, 'Do every job you're in like you're going to do it for the rest of your life, and demonstrate that ownership of it.'
I don't think that there's a hard-and-fast deadline. . . .What we have said all along is that this is not an open-ended process, we are not in this just to talk for talk's sake. . . . We expect prompt, concrete steps to be taken over the next couple of weeks.
When I got to the Mavericks people were all giving me advice - change this, change that - and one thing that I didn't do was fire anybody.
If a President of the United States ever lied to the American people, he should resign.
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