Customer Reviews

Beyond Winning: The Timeless Wisdom of Great Philosopher Coaches

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Great for young coaches and high school coaches. It will provide the coach with a framework of the importance of athletics and the role they play in later life development. It is not about "winning" alone ... but about the intangibles that accompany the process of winning. Great historical coaches are examined and insight is given into what they truly believed was important. A must for young coaches ... many life lessons are provided.

This book examines the coaching approaches of six "philosopher coaches": Vince Lombardi, Woody Hayes, John Wooden, James "Doc" Counsilman, Brutus Hamilton, and Percy Cerutty. Each is afforded a chapter in the book, and the final chapter gives a summary of the "essence of philosopher coaching." The book's premise is that the men presented believed that coaching was more than wins and losses, that it is inextricably intertwined with the development of the whole person. Each coach presented took a different approach to his methods, but all of them had this philosophical element in common. One of the pleasures of this book is that it has chosen coaches from a cross-section of sports: Lombardi and Hayes from football, Wooden from basketball, Counsilman from swimming, and Hamilton and Cerutty from track and field. Also interesting is that the summary chapter discusses, in part, the flawed elements of each coach's character, implying that they shared the journey toward self-discovery and personal development with the players they coached. An informative book that will certainly help shape (or re-shape) the coaching philosophies of those who read it.

I would not recommend this book for a serious insight into coaching philosophies. There are much better and more comprehensive books than this on coaching. This book does do a fairly good job of documenting the coaching experiences of a few lesser known coaches that were very successful in their respective sports, but I wouldn't give it much more value than that.