not a sports academy, we want our coaches to emphasize “mastery of skills” over “coaching to the scoreboard.” Hence our program stresses skills development. We feel it is the most appropriate way to teach sports at this age level. Our boys should develop a love of sports without the added dimension of playing to the scoreboard. When coaching to the scoreboard with a focus on winning the game, the coach ends up concentrating on the star players, and not on whether all of his players are improving, enjoying what they are learning, or whether they enjoy playing the game. We fast-forward a few months: It is a bright sunny day, and the referee blows the whistle, ending the lacrosse game, which this time sets off an explosion of happiness and fulfillment. The same boy who just months earlier was full of tears and disappointment, is jumping on top of his teammates, celebrating the completion of an undefeated championship season! When you closely examine the basketball team example at the start of this article and the lacrosse team mentioned here, and consider how they were trained, you see a constant theme: the idea of embracing the process of getting better each day. Despite the emotional upset at not winning the basketball championship, the results in reality were extremely rewarding for both teams: the lacrosse team won a championship and the basketball team advanced from next to last place the previous season to one win away from a championship. To quote the great coach John Wooden, “Little things done well are probably
Pedro Morales teaching basketball skills to eighth graders.
the greatest secret to success. If you do enough small things right, big things can happen.” Webster defines competition as “the process of trying to win or do better than others.” The key word in that definition is process. While winning is important, we want both our coaches and boys to embrace the rigorous process of getting better each and every day, no matter what the sport or activity. During that process, whether games are won or not, the boys learn that the love of getting better each day is the goal that matters the most.? M
Pedro Morales is Director of Athletics at Saint David’s School.
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