This one came across my desk. “Coach awhile back you mentioned a book titled, So Good They Can’t Ignore You” What lessons for racquetball can you draw from that book. The person who read the book plays racquetball I think and coaches it. How could you miss this blurb?
“Chapter four-paraphrasing here: two mindsets-the passion mindset-quite simply says, what value does my job offer me? The craftsman mindset is “what value am I producing in my job?”. This explains the clash of many mindsets in our great sport. When people looking what they can get out of racquetball they will not understand people trying to improve their craft. If you are trying to become better at what you do, and this includes coaches, you are working every day to get better. Now, the title of the book. How do you get recognition? Get so “Good they can’t ignore you”. So rather than focusing on marketing yourself (passion driven) work on getting better at your craft (craftsman driven). Funny the author uses the word craftsman.
Kane Waselenchuk in an interview at the 2013 US Open used this sentence, when asked how he explains his dominance in our sport, “Each day I try to get better at my craft.”
In a conversation one of my athletes relayed to me, an opponent asked “What does Winterton Teach?”
My athlete answered, “He is constantly changing and learning so we never know what to expect in a practice session. He adapts to what we need , so we don’t adapt to one set style of play, but to an all around game.”
Watching matches from Novice to pro, on video and in person, has led me to continue challenging athletes much the way I challenged myself when I played. It works because players who stay with me continue to improve. Of course much of that falls on the women and men I work with. They are motivated, hard-working, athletes and for that I am blessed!