I'm Not A Yeller

I think I have a particular style of coaching.  It doesn't seem like a stretch to say other coaches have their own styles. (Bruns is great at culture, Walden is great at forming religious cults, etc.)

When I coached Bolt last year, I had a couple general goals and theories that got mashed together in my head and drove most of the things I did.

Goal:

- Help the players figure out how to be the best they can be.  The general outcome goal of this is to help NUT be the best team possible at some point down the road.  A critical piece of this goal might include helping Bolt have a successful season.  In my mind team success for Bolt is almost entirely about the growth process and fulfillment.  So effort is big.

Theories:

- I don't like to yell.  My thought is that I'm not going to fix you by yelling at you.  I'm just going to make you feel attacked and light your dojo on fire.  I would rather watch for both the good and the bad, then work with you one-on-one.

- The Tiina Booth mental toughness approach.  The legendary Amherst and UMass coach has this theory that teams shouldn't get too high or too low in terms of energy level.  I love this idea.  I think ultimate is a sport where each point can be looked at in a vacuum.  The strategy doesn't really change based on a shot clock or a power play.  I want players to be able to make mistakes and execute at a high level right afterwards.  No time for tantrums.

- Hard work = fun.  I think that working hard leads to growth, and that growth brings fulfillment.  I'm not talking about the kind of "fun" you have if you blow off class to watch a movie, I'm talking about the feeling you get from pushing yourself in sprints with your teammates next to you.  Or from lining up on universe point in a hard-fought game.

- Team culture matters.  It's important to me that everyone in the program is treated with respect.  I think teams can easily fall into an "athlete meritocracy" where the best athletes get worshiped and the benchwarmers get treated like dirt.  This doesn't make sense to me.  Most of the best players in NUT program history started as benchwarmers anyway.  (For the record, I think our program today could take a motivated freshman with zero prior athletic experience and have him contribute on the A team in 2 years or less.)

A few weeks ago I was driving to Motown Throwdown with Bruns, Adam, and Ducky.  We started talking about coaching, and Ducky quickly brought up that Stupca was the best coach he's ever had.  Ducky went on to talk about how Stupca would yell, call people out, and occasionally be like a drill sergeant.  He also talked about how Stupca was able to maintain a tremendous level of trust and respect within the team, and especially with him.  Since then I have wondered what that balance might look like, and how Stupca was able to deftly manage it.  I'm certain I have a different style than Stupca, but it seems like a mistake to not try and learn from him.