Although you wouldn't always recognize it in today's game, the role of coaching in basketball is all too important.  There is more to playing this great game than just playing.
Nothing improves an athlete's hearing as much as praise.

Use your words to build confidence in others.

Leadership is action, not position.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

"It's not what you tell your players that counts.  It's what they hear."
-- Red Auerbach

Perhaps once in a hundred years a person may be ruined by excessive praise, but surely once every minute someone dies inside for lack of it.

A great coach has a knack for making players think they are better than they think they are.

"Spread the seeds of encouragement far and wide, and delight in the bountiful harvest that they will surely bring."
-- Ralph Marston

"The things which hurt, instruct."
-- Benjamin Franklin

"You cannot manage men into battle.  You manage things; you lead people."
-- Grace Murray Hopper

"The coach is first of all a teacher."
-- John Wooden

The mediocre teacher tells.  The good teacher explains.  The superior teacher demonstrates.  The great teacher inspires.

"Other people go to an office.  I get to coach.  I know I've been blessed."
-- Jim Valvano

No written word nor spoken plea
Can teach our youth what they should be
Nor all the books on all the shelves,
It's what the teachers are themselves.

"When you handle yourself, use your head; when you handle others, use your heart."
-- Donna Reed

Young people need models, not critics.

When we are out of sympathy with the young, then our work in this world is over.

"Kindness in words creates confidence,
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness,
Kindness in giving creates love."
-- Lao-Tse

"Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.  They make the impossible happen."
-- Dr. Robert Jarvik

Sport doesn't teach character, coaches teach character.

"It doesn't matter where you coach, it matters why you coach."
-- Don Meyer

"Leadership:  The art of getting someone else to do something that you want done because he wants to do it."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"If you keep too busy learning the tricks of the trade, you may never learn the trade."
-- John Wooden

"A soft answer turns away wrath, but harsh words cause quarrels."
-- Proverbs 15:1

Criticize the performance.  Not the performer.

"Discipline and demand without being demeaning."
-- Don Meyer

A real leader does not lead...he is content to show the way.

Help people reach their full potential.  Catch them doing something right.

"Flatter me, and I may not believe you.  Criticize me, and I may not like you.  Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.  Encourage me, and I may not forget you."
-- William Arthur

"The secret of discipline is motivation.  When a person is sufficiently motivated, discipline will take care of itself."
-- Sir Alexander Peterson

"How do you want to be remembered?"
-- Ed Bunio, Football Coach

"You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself."
-- Galileo

"Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."
-- Robert Fulghum

Praise is habit forming.

Although the distance between the two is roughly 12 inches, the response from a pat on the back and a kick in the pants is noticeably different.

"Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition."
-- Jaques Barzun

Children are a great deal more apt to follow your lead than the way you point.

"I got a fortune cookie that said, 'To remember is to understand.'  I have never forgotten it.  A good judge remembers what it was like to be a lawyer.  A good editor remembers being a lawyer.  A good parent remembers what it was like to be a child."
-- Anna Quindlen

"Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you, and be silent."
-- Epictetus

"Treat the other man's faith gently; it is all he has to believe with.  His mind was created for his own thoughts, not yours or mine.
-- Henry S. Haskins

"Keep cool and you command everybody."
-- Louis de Saint-Just

"Be gentle with the young."
-- Juvenal

"The first duty of a leader is to make himself be loved without courting love. To be loved without 'playing up' to anyone - even to himself."
-- Andre Malraux

"To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak."
-- C. Kent Wright

"A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

“You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.”
-- Zig Ziglar

"Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is.  Treat him as he could be, and he will become what he should be."
-- Jimmy Johnson
Coaching and Leadership Quotations[Page 1]
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