Just recently there was a “60 Minutes” segment on CBS about Nick Saban, the highly successful football coach at the University of Alabama. The story put an emphasis on his philosophical approach of perfection and how he drives his teams to achieve the goal of flawlessness.
This is not a new philosophy. Coach Saban is not the only coach in the world of sports who has had a focus to teach the game of football in a perfect world.
Coaches and people like Nick Saban are so driven in their lives that they sometimes forget they are as human as the rest of mankind. There will be times that they find it difficult to accept the possibility that they were wrong about something that relates to their knowledge of what they do best.
The infallibility of perfection can be overwhelming to driven people. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I am totally impressed with this man and his achievements. I have, somewhat of a similar philosophical approach to coaching (notice I said similar).
I do believe in the human aspect that there is more to be learned through our failures than our successes. What I mean is simple. When we were babies/toddlers, in order to learn to walk, we had to fall.
Life has its problems of balance with trips and falls and most of the time these lessons are not complicated.
In my career as a basketball coach and teacher, I have learned what is meant by human error. It became a big part of life and I was able to accept that mission. Life is like a school exam. No matter how prepared we think we are there will always be questions that stump us. After all, the concept of learning is filled with stumbling blocks.
When coaching a sport, success is measured by number of wins compared to number of losses. In reality, it isn’t always about wins, losses, championships and trophies.
It’s what’s learned by the team from the coaches to the players.
Coach Saban is the measuring stick, or poster child if you will, for what it takes to implement an extremely successful college football program. He is to be admired on how his philosophy has brought the University of Alabama back to its gridiron limelight of old that it had under legendary football coach Bear Bryant.
Notice that Coach Saban does have his own hat, which is made of straw with a Crimson Tide band. It has become part of his practice attire and legacy, but he doesn’t wear it during the games. Coach Bryant was known for his iconic headgear, a hound’s-tooth (plaid) hat that became his calling card during his 24-year tenure with the Crimson Tide, and he did wear it during games.
Coaches like Saban become god-like figures. My friend Bobby Knight, who brought Indiana University back into the NCAA basketball limelight from the 1970s through the year 2000, had his share of worship at IU. Unfortunately he was fired by the university after some controversy that involved the treatment of his players. Later he moved on as the basketball coach at Texas Tech. He’s now retired and is a featured commentator for ESPN. Coach Knight was also a coaching mentor who believed in striving for perfection. Realistically, his view was the fact that he knew he could never get his teams to play that perfect game but focused on a goal to aim for the bull’s-eye of perfection. As an added note, when Coach Knight was the Hoosiers’ coach, his players had a 98 percent graduation rate. That’s near the bull’s-eye of perfection.
What’s to be learned from coaches like Nick Saban and Bobby Knight?
When I was coaching I used an old cliché that I lived by: “In order to get to the moon, you have to shoot for the stars!”
I also believe in accepting that athletes, especially the younger ones, don’t make mistakes on purpose. I’m not a proponent of coaching with the use of fear tactics, especially at the scholastic levels. Success comes as respect and appreciation develops between the players and their mentor. The respect from the athletes will grow from the coach’s knowledge and what he or she has to offer as the coach respects the players for their willingness to try to get better, along with their understanding of what is being taught in the learning process.
The Saban/Knight philosophies can be misunderstood by parents, the media and the fans. Some of the incidents that became the demise of Bobby Knight were blown out of proportion and even wrongly interpreted. His frustration of getting his teams to perform beyond their own expectations might have caught up to his profile.
A Coach Knight quote sums up some of his character: “The will to succeed is important, but what’s more important is the will to prepare.”
Like Coach Nick Saban said on “60 Minutes,” his belief is that the process is never-ending.
There is no doubt in my mind that in the sports world genius is misunderstood, especially by those who question the coach and his or her motives of what it is that drives goal-oriented coaches. What happens is the people who are on the outside don’t see the process (or even understand it) for getting to a place that’s beyond the viewer’s scope.
In a simpler explanation, most outsiders, like the fans and media, have a foggy view of what this process is and the mechanics of all of the little things needed to be put into place in order for the whole thing to function. It’s the methodology of teaching (part vs. whole).
I have always appreciated coaches like, Saban, Knight and, not to exclude retired women’s basketball coach of Tennessee, Pat Summitt, for what they have accomplished in their careers. These iconic coaches are people of genius and, in truth, a rare breed.
