As a coach, he spends a lot of time helping his athletes improve their technique, conditioning, and skill sets.
You are reading: Best books for coaches
But technical mastery is almost useless if you can’t get your athletes to trust the process, find ways to own their performance, and guide each other.
Ultimately, great coaches are great teachers and leaders.
These books, written by some of the greatest coaches in history, will give you the tools to help your athletes maximize their potential and become better people along the way.
Most importantly, they contain lessons, tips and strategies that coaches in any sport can apply to their organizations and athletes.
Here’s a breakdown of my favorite books for coaches, including some key quotes from each book.
the score takes care of itself by bill walsh
Three-time Super Bowl winner and Hall of Famer Bill Walsh looms large in the sport of football.
walsh was brought to san francisco in 1979 to take charge of a fledgling 49er team that had gone 2-14 the previous year. He took on a small market team that was the joke of the league and in three years, Walsh won the first of three Super Bowls with the 49ers.
His book, The Score Takes Care of Itself, is a distillation of the leadership philosophy Walsh used to turn around a team that was bottom of the standings and in complete disarray from the top down.
walsh emphasizes setting a clear performance standard , a template of expectations and behaviors for his players and his organization. the goal? so that everyone on the team, from the receptionist to the star players, knows their job and does it to the best of their ability.
In addition, Walsh provides templates for dealing with adversity, how to bounce back after crushing defeats, how to lead with positivity, the need to have an edge, and offers a series of ideas and steps to build your own standard of performance.
a nice and surprisingly vulnerable look at what it takes to drag an organization from the recesses of mediocrity to the top.
- “culture precedes results. it’s not added as an afterthought on your way to victory position. champions behave like champions before being champions; they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.”
- “you show a lack of confidence when you constantly speak in negative terms. when trying to help someone reach the next level of performance, a supportive approach works better than a constantly negative or handicap-focused approach.”
- “i would work with [joe montana] on the basic fundamentals that they would bore a high school student to death. Joe had four super bowl rings. How did she get them? Why was she at that practice field? joe montana understands what dominance means.”
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on the line by urban meyer
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urban meyer is a three-time national champion in college football. He won two national titles at Florida in the 2000s and another at Ohio State in 2014. The title race with the Buckeyes provides the examples of Meyer’s leadership philosophy, detailed in his book, Above the Line: Leadership and Life Lessons from a Championship Season.
Unlike many leadership books, which offer many clichés and motivational slogans, Meyer goes beyond mantras and encourages leaders to develop a system and process that makes excellent leadership the standard rather than of something that happens by accident.
meyer emphasizes intentional leadership, tireless effort, and responsibility. more importantly, it provides skills and ideas for implementing excellent leadership.
- “for every goal you pursue, there is a process involved. There is a path you must follow. to reach your goals, you must commit to the process with daily behavior above the line.”
- “you will play as practice. you can’t practice on autopilot and play with a purpose. how you compete in practice will determine how you compete in games.”
- “confidence is earned through behavior, not position. and it is earned through repeated behavior over time.”
where to buy: on the line by urban meyer
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how good do you want to be? by nick saban
Nick Saban, head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, one of the winningest teams in NCAA history, wrote this book after winning their first national championship. Although the book was written when he was still at LSU (after he handed them his first NCAA title), the teachings and philosophy Saban describes have brought him a dazzling amount of success with the tide.
your training philosophy, written in how good do you want to be? and developed while at msu with psychiatrist dr. lonny rosen, it’s about focusing on the process of being great. In other words, focus on executing your task to the best of your ability, one move at a time, without worrying about score or results.
This kind of mindset allows players to stay present and approach their full potential, avoiding the mental highs and lows that come with dwelling on the past and obsessing over the future.
saban is pragmatic and forthright when it comes to offering what it takes to succeed in the field, in the classroom, and in life. a great read from one of the greatest minds in football to set the pace for a bench.
- “you persevere when you can look adversity in the eye and see it as a challenge.”
- “adversity creates opportunities.”
- “your willingness and you Expectations about what it will take to get where you want to go are really at the core of not getting frustrated with the task at hand. expect it to be difficult.”
printed (paperback)
the cultural code by daniel coyle
While most of the books on this list are more motivational in nature and typically tell the story of a team or organization, The Culture Code is a broad-based, scientific look at what makes people tick. world-class organizations are so world-class. .
coyle simplifies what makes teams great and discovers that they all share the same three attributes: psychological safety, shared vulnerability, and a consistent and established sense of purpose.
the culture code contains a ton of examples and ideas for implementation. reading the book a couple of times, I ended up with over 20 pages of notes and countless “ah ha!” moments.
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With the culture code as your guide, you’ll have plenty of tips, starting points, and ideas to use starting today to create a better (and higher performing!) team environment.
- “Culture is a set of living relationships. it is not something you are. it’s something you do.”
- “It’s possible to predict performance by ignoring all the informational content in the exchange [between team members] and focusing on a handful of membership signals.”
- “cohesion does not occur when members of a group are more intelligent, but when they are illuminated by clear and constant signals of connection.”
- “successful cultures [establish and maintain a purpose] by seeking tirelessly ways to tell and retell their story.”
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11 rings: the soul of success by phil jackson
phil jackson is the winningest coach in nba history. A two-time NBA champion as a player, Jackson would lead a pair of star-studded organizations loaded with big egos and all the baggage that went with them to an incredible eleven championship rings in less than twenty years.
His book, 11 Rings: The Soul of Success weaves his coaching philosophy, rooted in Eastern philosophy and Native American spiritual practices, with the big times leading the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers.
jackson’s leadership philosophy is based on compassion, putting the ego on the bench and giving players the opportunity to discover their own destiny. You can also check out my most comprehensive review and set of conclusions for 11 Rings: The Soul of Success here.
- “You cannot impose your will on people. if you want them to act differently, you need to inspire them to change themselves.”
- “foster an environment where everyone plays a leadership role, from the least educated rookie to the veteran superstar. if your primary goal is to bring the team into a state of harmony and unity, it makes no sense for you to rigidly impose your authority.”
- “after years of experimentation, I found that the more I tried to wield power directly, less powerful I became. I learned to control my ego and to distribute power as widely as possible without relinquishing final authority.”
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win forever: live, work and play like a champion by pete carroll
pete carroll, head coach of the seattle seahawks, is a super bowl champion and a three-time ncaa championship winner as a coach at usc. His book, “Win Forever: Live, Work and Play Like a Champion” tells Carroll’s story from young athlete to NCAA champion coach. (The book was written before he won a Super Bowl with Seattle.)
The journey covers how he finally came to his philosophy of winning championships, which came after years of fighting through the coaching ranks. Carroll’s coaching philosophy is broken down into a set of expectations that everyone on the team and in the organization should aspire to.
for carroll, this includes “doing better than ever” and a set of rules, including no complaining, showing up early, and protecting the team on and off the field.
Win Forever is an inspiring guide for coaches who are working on creating their own philosophy and set of principles. for the players (and for the coaches too), the big lesson is to compete to the maximum with everything you do. do that and you’ll be winning forever.
- “if I started changing to please others, I would be miserable.”
- “how we practice defines who we are. it’s not just something we have to do to compete, but our practice is a competitive activity in itself.”
- “A player who is fully prepared on the practice field will feel ready to face whatever come your way on game day and therefore feel more confident and able to minimize the distractions of fear or doubt.”
- “There are no options: either you compete or you don’t!”
- “we never drag the past with us, because the past is not a place where we can compete.”
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more book reviews:
7 things athletes can learn from Roland Lazenby’s “Michael Jordan: The Life”. The definitive biography of The Goat, Lazenby dissects the source of the killer instinct and gives texture and backstory to some of the most important moments in Jordan’s career.
Looking for more reading material? Check out this list of my favorite books on mental toughness for athletes.
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