Pre Practice Coaches Prayer/Study

www.coachesoutreach.org/

Best deal going for coaches IMO.

Coach, feel free to help yourself to any of the stuff in my links. In particular, check out my"Friday Focus" e-book (Free motivational material link) and my 11 commandments of character. If you need anything else, let me know. Best thing about it, it's all Free!!

I also have a video on you tube



I would also recommend these books

The Handbook to Coaching Perfection by Wes Neal

The Handbook to Athletic Perfection by Wes Neal

The Athletes' Topical Bible by Gordon Thiessen

Hope this helps you!

Coach Weaver

Coach Warner, yes I have read it.

DC Ohio please do not hijack this thread, Im looking for what the Original Post asked for, Study Points for Coaches.

There's actually a Jewish proverb about this: "One who guards his mouth and his tongue guards from troubles of his soul." (Presumably it's snappier in Hebrew.)

That doesn't just refer to swearing, though-- there's a whole body of Jewish theology about what is and isn't acceptable to say. The gist of this is that it's never acceptable to lie about or slander others (not surprising, right?), but that it's /also/ not acceptable to gossip or spread rumors -- even when the things you're gossiping about are absolutely true.

In fact, the term for truthful gossip is lashon hara, the evil tongue or evil speech, and indulging in lashon hara is strictly prohibited by the sages time and time again. Of course, the probable /reason/ for all these prohibitions is that no matter how many times you tell people not to gossip, they'll go right on doing it -- it's a part of human nature that seems harmless, and besides, it's frequently enjoyable. Plus it serves a bunch of social functions (keeps you up to date on how acquaintances are doing, for example) that seem utterly benign.

But lashon hara is prohibited for a very good reason. The point is twofold: first, even a truthful remark can become exaggerated and distorted in the retelling, so you may accidentally be starting a harmful rumor; and second, if you're curious about someone else's deeds or thoughts or motives -- or, on a more serious level, if you have a problem with what someone else is doing-- then the right way to address that is by going to the other person and asking, man to man, what's going on, instead of gossiping and guessing.

Now, it's true that there are exceptions to the rule -- sometimes it /is/ permissible to publicly speak out against a person's negative behavior, but even then, it's generally preferred that you deal with the behavior at its source instead of gossiping about it and hoping that peer pressure will make the other person change his ways.

Now, I'm Jewish, so this is obviously a lot more directly relevant to me than it is to most of you. But I do find that the concept, and the principles behind it, are a good guide to how I should conduct myself. I also find it's very, very hard to live up to -- trying to guard against lashon hara is more or less a constant struggle for me, because it requires that I be a whole lot more discreet and private than is naturally the case. But that's useful -- it builds and changes my character in a positive way, and it's gratifying to see that happen, even if the progress IS much slower than I'd like.

So, uh... sorry for the hijack, folks, and carry on.

Dave, Thanks for getting me motivated. I updated the FCA/Devotional link on my webpage. Also, Paul Wulff, the new Wash. St. coach had a quote I liked that equated leadership to serving your teammates and making them better. Also, the book Cane Mutiny talks about how the U of Miami did this, even if it meant that someone else would take your job. Here is the link:
sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3327062

This has been one of the best threads I have read in a long time. Thanks to all who posted, a bunch of great ideas.