“A soccer coach can learn from a volleyball coach, can learn from a musician, can learn from an artist. And it’s the coach’s ability to connect different crafts to how they might enhance their local environment with their team.”
James Wagenschutz
Coach Developer and High School Soccer Head Coach
Charles Darwin is best known for his theory of evolution. But you may not know that he also came up with other theories. His biology peers widely accepted one of these theories until Fleeming Jenkins read it. Jenkins wasn’t a biologist but had expertise across a range of subjects, and when he saw the theory, he could disprove it when the biologists couldn’t.
What’s the lesson that Jenkins and Wagenschutz teach us? That learning and application to our profession can come from anywhere. That story about Jenkins? It came from a book on the history of genetics that I read. Has my (minimal) knowledge of genetics made me a better coach? Not really. But that story has, and I wouldn’t have found it in a book about coaching.
Ask Yourself
Who can I be learning from that I’m not learning from?
Who can be my Fleeming Jenkins and evaluate my ideas from a different perspective?
When did I last read a non-fiction book that was not sport-related?
Excerpt taken from Reflections on the Coaching Life Volume 2.