Five books that changed the way I coach

by Ryan Maloney, assistant women's volleyball coach

A good book changes my life. I've never read an article, blog post, or tweet that's had that effect, but my bookshelf is full of ideas that have changed how I see the world.

I brought this up in a recent interview with English professor Ted Steinberg. He nodded solemnly, "books are more serious."

Here're five books that have changed the way I see myself as a coach:

1) The Man Watching - Anson Dorrance and the University of North Carolina Women's Soccer Dynasty, by Tim Crothers

"The biggest concern with female athletes is they don't naturally compete. And so I think a part of what we do here exceptionally well that separates us from other programs is we train them to compete." ~ Anson Dorrance

This book about North Carolina women's soccer is one of the best books I've ever read. It's has changed the way I see my job, and to some extent my life.

The main idea is that female athletes want to get along. It's our job as coaches to push them out of their comfort zones to get them to compete with their teammates. He wants them to put aside their friendships on the practice field for two hours and be ruthless competitors instead.

Tim Crothers does an amazing job getting inside the mind of one of the most brilliant coaches in the NCAA, Anson Dorrance. Some of the scenes portrayed on the North Carolina practice field are downright savage in their intensity.

Dorrance's idea is that if you want your players to compete, give them something to compete for. So he created a system he calls, "The Competitive Cauldron," in which every player is statistically ranked in every drill of every practice. At the end of every week, the results are posted in the locker room.

The genius of the system is in it's ability to increase motivation and intensity, while getting players more comfortable with competition (because some will hate it at first).

The competitive cauldron has been adapted to almost every team sport by now, including volleyball.

2) Wooden - A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on and off the Court, by John Wooden

"I wanted to win every single game I ever played in or coached. But, I understood that ultimately the winning or losing may not be under my control. What was under my control was how I prepared myself and our team." ~ John Wooden

Beautiful in it's simplicity, Wooden, is the most impactful book legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden wrote.

His ideas about winning have stayed with me over the years, that it's largely out our control. We only control our preparation. Wooden said in the book that during his 27 years at UCLA, his players never heard him mention winning... not once.

Even knowing this, when we lose a match I still get upset. It helps to turn my focus somewhere else, one what went well, on what we need to do to prepare better, or if we reached our team's statistical goals.


3) Linchpin - Are you Indispensable?, by Seth Godin

"Perhaps your challenge isn't finding a better project or a better boss. Perhaps you need to get in touch with what it means to feel passionate. People with passion look for ways to make things happen." ~ Seth Godin

This one isn't directly related to coaching, but has instilled a sort of "philosophy of work" that emphasizes taking action for the greater good.

I used to think that to be passionate in my career, I had to find the perfect job. After I read this book I realized that I could step up and be passionate right now.

Do you really need a college degree before you start making positive change in the world? A piece of paper that says you're now "qualified?"

Instead of complaining, take action. We adapted Godin's ideas, asking players what they're doing to become irreplaceable.


4) The Messiah Method - The Seven Disciplines of the Winningest College Soccer Program in America, by Michael Zigarelli

"If there's something that's not going well in your program, it's your fault." ~ Dave Brant

The former head coach of Messiah men's soccer made this plea to coaches around the country to take ownership of their programs, to stop complaining.

Things coaches can complain about:

• Their bosses
• Their school's location
• The players on their team
• Their budgets
• Etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

There's a ton more gems about building a successful athletic team in this book, but my big takeaway was this lesson in holding yourself accountable as a coach. If you want to change something, change it (even if it's scary).

5) A Program with Purpose - Thoughts on building a successful volleyball program, by Johan Dulfer

"Purpose is the reasoning behind your decision-making. It's your goal, your ideal outcome - your master plan. The key to purpose is to know why you make the decisions you make and standing by them."

It's hard not to put this book on the list. It doesn't have the popularity of the other four, but I'm almost certain it's the only book written about Division III volleyball in New York.

Dulfer writes with candid honesty about building a successful volleyball program in our region. I use this book in my teaching almost every day. It's inexpensive, simple, and impactful.