Book Review:

Leaders Eat Last & Coaching Better Every Season

Posted: 2/13/2019; Last Edited: 2/13/2019

By Coach Ryan

Mind Blowing Quote: “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” - Dr. Suess

Education does not stop after graduation. History shows the most successful people are also some of the most curious. Education is one of my core values because it empowers me. The more curious I am, the more I learn; and the more I learn, the better I can coach and help my student-athletes become the best versions of themselves. Today, it is easier than ever to self-educate. Resources on almost every subject imaginable are at our fingertips. Everyone learns differently, some better through reading, hearing, seeing, doing, etc. I use this blog as a way of learning through writing and teaching. In addition to this blog, I always have at least one book I am reading. The more I read, the more I realize how similar so many other industries are to cheerleading and coaching. Fiction or nonfiction, there hasn’t been one book where I couldn’t pull at least one idea out of in relation to coaching student-athletes. In fact, one of the best books I ever read was called The End of Molasses Classes by Ron Clark. Ron Clark is a renowned school teacher who is presently revolutionizing the way we teach kids. My wife recommended it as a good read and am sure glad I read it, as I got a lot of ideas from it.

Coaching Better Every Season

For this week’s blog, I will review two books that I have finished reading in the past month. The first book is Coaching Better Every Season by Dr. Wade Gilbert. It was suggested to me by a former sport administration professor. Thank you Dr. Keller! This book can be applied to any seasonal sport. Dr. Gilbert breaks the year down into four parts: Preseason (Envision), In-Season (Enact), End of Season (Evaluate), and Off-Season (Enhance). During each part of the season, Dr. Gilbert offers a blend of advice, stories, techniques, and examples. Much of the information is pulled from historic and championship coaches, so you can guarantee a lot of this book is tried and true. It is certainly research heavy and not every chapter is a page turner, but if you apply even a little bit of knowledge from this book into your team, you will see success. It took me several months of chipping away at this book to read it all the way through but every chapter was worth it.

One concept I thought was particularly interesting from Coaching Better Every Season was the chapter on how to Design Effective Practice Environments. Specifically, Dr. Gilbert references John Wooden’s eight principles of practice plan design. The eight principles are as follows: 1) Fundamentals before creativity; 2) Use variety; 3) Teach new material at the start of practice; 4) Quick transitions between activities; 5) Increase complexity from practice to practice; 6) Conditioning for learning; 7) End on a positive note; 8) Avoid altering a plan during a lesson. Creating a practice plan is essential to creating a culture of efficiency and effectiveness. Your team will see you as an organized coach and they in turn will buy into every minute of the practice. Time is the one common denominator between your team and the competition. To bring your team into a championship mindset, every minute has to be taken advantage of within each practice. In the book, Dr. Gilbert goes into much more detail for each principle, giving more background and examples.

Leaders Eat Last

The second book to review is Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek. In contrary to Coaching Better Every Season, this book is more well known especially throughout the leadership realm. I read through this 300+ page book within a week, not because of how fast a reader I am but because of how talented of an author Sinek is. Throughout the book he describes why some teams pull together and others don’t. I don’t want to give away all the secrets but the answer lies in leadership. Being a science guy myself, I also appreciated many of Sinek’s research driven explanations for how we lead and why we follow. I believe the first page of Leaders Eat Last says all you need to be convinced to buy this book:

“Leaders are the ones who run headfirst into the unknown. They rush toward the danger. They put their own interests aside to protect us or pull us into the future. Leaders would sooner sacrifice what is theirs to save what is ours. And they would never sacrifice what is ours to save what is theirs. This is what it means to be a leader. It means they choose to go first into danger, headfirst toward the unknown. And when we feel sure they will keep us safe, we will march behind them and work tirelessly to see their visions come to life and proudly call ourselves their followers.”

Simon Sinek also talks a great deal about leaders creating a “Circle of Safety” for their teams. When every team member can trust each other and the leadership, people will become fully invested in the team and its mission. And if you love this book as much as I do, then you will probably want to read his more popular book, Start With Why.

Last Thought

Go ahead and pick up a book of your own; you’ll be surprised at what you find. Reading for 5 minutes a day, every day, will add up to 30 hours of reading for a year; which is surely enough time to get through at least one book. Happy reading!