Malcolm Gladwell on why mediocre players make better coaches...
"...Top athletes so often make bad coaches or general managers. They often don't really know why they were as good as they were. They can't describe it, which means that they can't teach it and they quickly become frustrated at their inability to lift others up to their own level.
"Mediocre players -or non-athletes- tend to make better coaches because their knowledge isn't unconscious. It's the same thing with writing. I know very little about science. But I think I write about science more clearly than many scientists, because I have to go over every step, carefully and deliberately." [source]
9:05a: I should add that the reason I posted this is that I resonate with being a better coach than a player. Solace to the average.
What a concept! I am sold now, after years of resistance, to learning from coaches who were not all-stars.
I resisted learning from planters and pastors who did not plant or lead "amazing' churches. Now i know better.
It makes sense- I was an all-conference football player in high school and consumed the game- but never played in college. Yet, now that I coach football I tend to smoke the coaches who played in college. Why? I had to learn because I had no natural talent.
Posted by: Geoffrey Mitchell | February 10, 2010 at 07:06 PM
very insightful
Posted by: Daniel Decker | February 10, 2010 at 10:42 PM
Hence, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky.
Although there are exceptions--Brett Favre is known as a great coach-player--what you wrote certainly seems to be the norm.
Posted by: Matthew | February 11, 2010 at 06:25 PM
Is that sort of like, "those who can't do, teach?" LoL. Sorry, it just made me think of that. Great post.
From the coach,
--Terrace Crawford
www.terracecrawford.com
www.twitter.com/terracecrawford
Posted by: Terrace Crawford | February 11, 2010 at 11:05 PM