Throughout the years, leadership has played a significant role in the world of athletics. Whether it is coming from a coach or a player, leadership is no doubt the most important role one can hold; leadership can make or break a team. John C. Maxwell put it clearly when he stated that “everything rises and falls on leadership”. When looking at leadership as it relates to sports one must first define leadership. Barrow (1977) defined leadership as “the behavioral process of influencing individuals and groups towards set goals” (p.232). This definition puts an emphasis on vision of a leader while it also highlights the importance of the interaction between the leader and the group members. Leaders play an important role in the success of the …show more content…
One of the greatest and most influential leaders in sports was Coach John Wooden. Coach Wooden was a basketball coach for the University of California at Los Angeles where he led the Bruins to ten NCAA national championships in a twelve-year period. He is known as one of the most successful and influential coaches. He no doubt epitomized the very best leadership - in and out of sports. Coach Joh Wooden created a famous triangular diagram and named it “The Pyramid of Success.” This diagram listed the twenty-five characters and traits a leader must have to be successful. The bottom foundation of the pyramid listed five important characteristics which were; industriousness, friendship, loyalty, cooperation, and enthusiasm. The next layer of the pyramid includes self-control, alertness, initiative, and intentness. On top of that lies condition, skill, and team spirit. The next layer contains poise and confidence and the top layer hold competitive greatness. Surrounding the period is some other behaviors and traits that one should withhold. These include things such as ambition, adaptability, resourcefulness, fight, faith, patience, integrity, reliability, honesty, and sincerity. This is the “map” Coach Wooden used to form his legacy of success. Coach Wooden stated that “the most powerful leadership tool you have is your own personal example.” Coach Wooden understood that he had to hold those behaviors and traits as a person to set an example and lead the people around him to
Sports management is a really broad field, therefore I decided to focus on my minor and one of my major interests of this field: coaching. In this paper I will be explaining my personal five building blocks that make up a well-rounded coaching philosophy and coach. Those blocks are; leadership, organization, attitude, respect, and resiliency. Each of these five aspects are equally important and balance each other out. Leadership, the action of leading a group of athletes towards a goal. Organization, being able to organize a team and have a plan in order to help the team achieve goals. Attitude, it is very important for a coach to have a winning and positive attitude that is contagious to the players. Respect, there has to be a good
Sport’s are an aspect of life that affect societies across the globe. Athletics affect everyone's life, whether that be playing the sport, watching games, or hearing about a sporting event. There is a big difference between playing an individual sport and players relying on their own athletic abilities versus a team sport when members of the team rely on their teammates to complete each individual's specific responsibility to reach the team's goal. Team sports bring people together in countless ways, and they teach many life skills for the athletes that participate in them. Some of these skills include communication, teamwork, discipline, work ethic, dedication, leadership, and numerous more that will help them in their personal and work
John Wooden is a man that knows what success is. Three of the most important traits from Wooden’s pyramid are competitive greatness, confidence, and enthusiasm. Competitive greatness is being
Being a leader on a sports team meant that I had to be physically and mentally strong in situations where others might be weak. Physically, I had to be an example on my team by never quitting and never giving up when things were tough. That way when my teammates seen me pushing through physically adverse situations they have someone to follow
At their finest, coaches perfect their player’s flaws to push them to their potential ability, improve their skills, and create determination within the team. They can expand the importance of such a sport to intensify motivation and the value of good sportsmanship for the sake of not only their reputation, but the outcome that comes from it. Coaches must not lag when it comes to hardships that comes about; they must stay connected. The closer the connection between a player and a coach the better they are moving forward and continuing on the love of the sport and job.
I will inspire athletes to demonstrate good character. Sports do not have an influence on one’s character; however, coaches can strongly impact athletes’ character, both negatively and positively. For this reason, I will work to coach in ways that support the growth of athletes’ character and create learning opportunities and situations in which athletes can practice and learn from. As a coach, I will lead by example and demonstrate good character because actions speak louder than words. I will do this by embodying sportsmanship and respecting athletes, opponents, other coaches, and referees. I will also show this to athletes by respecting, caring, and being trustworthy. I will also lead by example by staying
The Student-Athlete Leadership Team is a program that was designed in order to develop the leadership skills of our student-athletes and will be facilitated by North Atlanta High School’s own Andre Regan. The student-athletes are nominated by their respective head coaches, most of which are team captains. The basics of the Citizen Leader Framework are leading self, leading with others, and changing your world are the core of the leadership model created by Andre Regan and so many other coaches nationwide. Discussion topics will include accountability, self-awareness, resiliency, communication, collaboration, and empathy with and for teammates and coaches, in hopes that the Student-Athlete can help their team on and off the playing field.
Leadership is one of the biggest and most important characteristics a person can have in life. Some people believe that leadership is what deciphers a child from being an adult. I believe some people are born with leadership and some people observe and breath in the leadership qualities of mentors and become better people. Also, to be successful you either have to be very lucky or have a pure internal beliefs about yourself and only positive outlooks in life. John Wooden is who i have selected to try and form my leadership characteristics around. He is a well spoken and the most "sought out to be" coach in all of basketball. He had many victories on the court but he also formed his players into men with his wisdom.
This paper shows the different leadership styles and how it can affect the team results. both the leaders try to motivate the team, one tries to motivate them extrinsically and the other one intrinsically. The paper says there is no right or wrong style of leadership, but a true leader motivates others to develop those leadership qualities in them and do better. This paper gives a description of the coaches and the team players who showed leadership qualities even in the most difficult situations because they knew that their team needs them. It also describes the contribution on these players in their victory. They forgot their difference and played as a team.There were no
As a mostly pessimistic person who lacks self confidence, Coach Wooden’s maxim of “do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do” (as cited in Nguyen, 2014) inspired me to approach challenging situations with a positive attitude. Even if I think I cannot complete a task as well as I would like I cannot let that stand in the way of making, not just any attempt, but my best effort. Recently, I realized that my “can’t-do” attitude is contagious when my youngest son was disheartened by a homework assignment that seemed too difficult and said that he could not do it before he even tried. His negative attitude made upset me and all it took was for me to ask him a few probing questions about what he had to do so he could get started.
The topic of leadership continues to attract several theoretical arguments as the practice of leadership varies depending on a variety of factors (Loveridge, 2014). However, the contributions made by John Wooden in transforming leadership are impeccable, with his many years as a basketball coach earning him admiration and success in equal measure. John Wooden, therefore, explains how leaders can get the maximum potential out of their followers through enhancing the individual abilities and shaping the personal efforts in a manner that guarantees personal peak performances and subsequent improvement of team or organizational performance.
The way I watched him orchestrate a team through ups and downs over a four year period was something that I will never forget. Even with this being said, we both had our similarities and differences when it came to leadership. Coach Ferrer always had the mindset of winning. This included him looking at goals from a strategic perspective and dream really big. It came with a lot of encouragement, honesty, and an extreme height of pressure. Not to say that it didn't work most of the time, but did have a few let downs in the biggest moments. Due to the fact that I always experienced switch ups when it comes to plans, I tend to not think ahead so much. I rather stay in the moment and let things progress that way. This is very ironic because coach Ferrer was actually the one who taught me how to think of the present task to accomplish and staying in the moment. The two thing we without question have in common is commitment and communication. ‘The author highlights the importance of effective communication, building trust and maintain accountability for effective leadership”. (White, Pg.1). This quote relates to the type of player/coach bond me and Coach Ferrer had but more importantly how we connected as leaders. Our high school was not highly known on the NYC market. This brings up many questions upon why I haven't transferred from that school following my freshman year. I saw something in my coach and my team. I had visioned us as a collective group doing something really special and making history. This was the reason why I stayed and also why my coach stayed as well. This example shows how driven we were to lead this basketball program and help others within a few
The Contributing Factors to Being a Good Leader When Involved in Racket Team and Individual Activities
As managers, one of the biggest challenges we face on a daily basis is that of actually managing our people. One common challenge we discovered among our group was the difficulty of hiring the right people for the right job. Not only does one have to define the technical skills necessary to perform the job, managers need to determine which type of behavioral skills the new hire must possess in order to fit into the dynamics of the existing team. The latter is much harder to identify. Finding the right personalities that will work well and compliment your existing team is critical. Personnel Decisions International (1999) explains, when hiring people it is important to determine the most important competencies for the organization as
I demonstrated leadership when I launched my collegiate tennis team to nationals with an overhead winner to the back corner. The tennis court became a place where I learned that others can depend on me and that my contributions can make a difference. By fighting for every last point through a three-hour match, my team advanced to the national tournament. Being a leader on this team meant leading by example and playing for my teammates, who had already fought for their match. Knowing that they depended on my win to finish the match, I dug deep to continue our season.