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Wooden’s Wisdom — Volume 8 Issue 324
March 05
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Vince Lombardi is
considered by many to be the greatest coach in football history. He
is more significantly recognized as one of the greatest coaches and
leaders in the history of any American sport.
In 1959, Lombardi became the head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
The year before his arrival the Packers were 1-10-1. In his nine
seasons as head coach, Lombardi’s Packer’s won six conference titles
and five NFL championships, including three in a row which included
the first two Super Bowls.
Some of Lombardi’s key ideas have been misunderstood and taken
out of context. In his biography, When Pride Still Mattered,
David Maraniss gives two good examples:
The most famous saying attributed to Lombardi — "Winning
isn’t everything, it’s the only thing." did not originate with
him. He said it a few times but it did not reflect his
philosophy. To Lombardi, it was the pursuit of excellence that
mattered most. He was often harder on his teams when they played
poorly but won than when they played well and lost.
Lombardi actually said: "Winning is not everything — but
making the effort to win is". Lombardi was certainly a task
master in pursuit of perfection. He said: "You don’t do things
right once in a while; you do them right all the time."
Maraniss explained how Lombardi’s leadership style also got
mischaracterized:
There is a myth of Lombardi’s leadership methods. It was
Henry Jordan, a defensive tackle for the old Packers, who
uttered the oft-repeated phrase "Lombardi treats us all alike,
like dogs." Memorable, but inaccurate.
L ombardi was an adept psychologist
who treated each of his players differently. He rode some
mercilessly but stayed away from others, depending on how they
responded. He did not mind oddballs-his teams were full of them-as
long as they shared his will to excel.’
Lombardi was a master motivator and teacher. He described it this
way:’
You can’t coach without criticizing, and it’s essential to
understand how to criticize each man individually. … Football is
a pressure business, and on my teams I put on most of the
pressure. The point is that I’ve got to learn 40 ways to
pressure 40 men.
They call it coaching, but it is teaching. You do not just
tell them it is so, but you show them the reasons why it is so
and you repeat and repeat until they are convinced, until they
know.
The most valuable lessons I learned from my study of Vince
Lombardi were:
- Pursue a goal that you are excited about.
- Build a team of people with a good work ethic that share
your enthusiasm. Get rid of the bad apples as quickly as you
can.
- Build a system that is based on the most important
fundamentals, Keep it simple and demand the perfect
execution of those fundamentals every time.
- Give your team the flexibility to innovate within the
execution of those fundamentals.
- Be clear that the team will only be inspired if you are
inspired.
What are you excited about?
Yours in Coaching,
Craig
Impelman
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