EXISTENTIAL IGNORANCE: CAUTION FOR COACHES
EXISTENTIAL IGNORANCE
A Coach's Worst Enemy by Coach Fred Crowell
The overcoming of ignorance, and in particular, "existential ignorance" is one of the most noble and significant achievements in the life of a coach.
Father Bernard Tyrrell, one of the world's finest scholars defines existential ignorance this way, "Existential ignorance is a mere passive ignorance or an active ignoring of those meanings and values which are essential for the achievement, or rather active reception, of the gifts of wholeness and enlightenment."
It is my conviction, forged on the anvil of a basketball-filled life covering a span of more than 50 years, that coaches do not exercise active ignorance but fall prey to passive ignorance.
In Dr. Tyrrell's definition of existential ignorance the concept of "active and receptive" brings about wholeness and enlightenment. Obviously terms like wholeness and enlightenment are uncommon in the jargon of basketball coaches but it is safe to say synonyms could be balanced, focused, team work and execution.
Existential ignorance is a basketball coach's worst enemy because it brings light to the notion that ignorance can be both passive and active. My experiences as a player, coach, parent and sports business leader of over 200,000 youth emphatically tell me coaches do not actively choose to be ignorant. No, the ignorance they fall into is passive ignorance.
Passive ignorance means you think you know something when you in reality do not know what you think you know. The best illustration I can give to support this logic is the following example. You are driving to a location you have been to many times but it has been a long while since your last visit. You call the host for directions, but because you think you know, you don't listen well. At each direction you say, "yes" but you aren't listening. You get lost. The reason is clear, "You were," as Father Tyrrell says, "existentially ignorant."
In what ways are you existentially ignorant? What is there in your coaching life that you think you know but in reality you don’t? The genius coach is actively and receptively seeking wholeness and enlightenment.
By nature, all of humanity is defensive. Being competent in defending oneself is paramount to survival. The sheer nature of coaching dictates, to some degree, the necessity to be defensive; especially in the sport of basketball.
Basketball is the most difficult game to coach for three reasons. First, it's a team sport that permits only five players to compete at one time. Second, basketball has the least amount of time per game of any team sport. Third, spectators are close to the action. Every move from a slight hand gesture to a blink of an eye is in clear view. Many people in the stands adopt the belief that they can coach basketball.
As a college coach in the 1979, I vividly remember my first grade daughter challenging me as her mother was evaluating my most recent game, "Dad, why do you start (name withheld)? He's terrible!" See, if a first grader can coach, anyone can.
If all humanity tends to be defensive in order to survive how much more defensive must a basketball coach be to survive?
Too many basketball coaches can dish out the criticism but are too defensive to take any. It is a rare coach who has the confidence to be able to say things like this to players on the team. "How am I doing as your coach?" and "Are there any ways I am preventing you from being your best?" or "Please tell me some ways I can be a better coach for you."
Just as you challenge your players to compete position by position with their opponent the same goes for you. Say for example matchups pair your player averaging 9 points per game with the opponent averaging 19 points. If your player can reduce this 10-point deficit to five points, your team has a better chance of winning.
In some games the coach on the other bench is worth more points to their team than you are to your team. I recall back in the '60s. I am 26 years old coaching against Dean Smith at North Carolina, Don Haskins at UTEP, Hank Iba at Oklahoma State and Press Maravich at LSU (Pete scored 48 against my box and one). I clearly was outcoached. If those coaches were worth 20 more points to their team was it possible for me to find a way to cut the advantage to 10 points.
Passive ignorance implores one to just go on their merry way whereas active ignorance says, "They're better than me, so what?"
The coach who chooses wholeness and enlightenment attacks existential ignorance with focused intent to grow, to learn, and to get better.
For the past 25 years I have closely watched thousands of teams and coaches at NBC Camps. I know for sure one important thing about kids. They hate to play for coaches who are lazy, who don't seek to actively get better and who do not clearly demonstrate an eagerness to work hard and learn from others, including them as players.
Coaches who come to camp and seldom attend teaching stations, who race to the espresso stand,
play golf, very often are the ones who at nearly every opportunity say things like, "I tell my players over and over but they just don't do it," or "My kids aren't disciplined enough to learn it," or "We work on that all the time," are existentially ignorant and fall prey to their worst enemy.
If you actively wish to focus on ways to eliminate existential ignorance look for my next letter on DEFEATING EXISTENTIAL IGNORANCE by being active and receptive as opposed to being intellectually and emotionally passive.
A Coach's Worst Enemy by Coach Fred Crowell
The overcoming of ignorance, and in particular, "existential ignorance" is one of the most noble and significant achievements in the life of a coach.
Father Bernard Tyrrell, one of the world's finest scholars defines existential ignorance this way, "Existential ignorance is a mere passive ignorance or an active ignoring of those meanings and values which are essential for the achievement, or rather active reception, of the gifts of wholeness and enlightenment."
It is my conviction, forged on the anvil of a basketball-filled life covering a span of more than 50 years, that coaches do not exercise active ignorance but fall prey to passive ignorance.
In Dr. Tyrrell's definition of existential ignorance the concept of "active and receptive" brings about wholeness and enlightenment. Obviously terms like wholeness and enlightenment are uncommon in the jargon of basketball coaches but it is safe to say synonyms could be balanced, focused, team work and execution.
Existential ignorance is a basketball coach's worst enemy because it brings light to the notion that ignorance can be both passive and active. My experiences as a player, coach, parent and sports business leader of over 200,000 youth emphatically tell me coaches do not actively choose to be ignorant. No, the ignorance they fall into is passive ignorance.
Passive ignorance means you think you know something when you in reality do not know what you think you know. The best illustration I can give to support this logic is the following example. You are driving to a location you have been to many times but it has been a long while since your last visit. You call the host for directions, but because you think you know, you don't listen well. At each direction you say, "yes" but you aren't listening. You get lost. The reason is clear, "You were," as Father Tyrrell says, "existentially ignorant."
In what ways are you existentially ignorant? What is there in your coaching life that you think you know but in reality you don’t? The genius coach is actively and receptively seeking wholeness and enlightenment.
By nature, all of humanity is defensive. Being competent in defending oneself is paramount to survival. The sheer nature of coaching dictates, to some degree, the necessity to be defensive; especially in the sport of basketball.
Basketball is the most difficult game to coach for three reasons. First, it's a team sport that permits only five players to compete at one time. Second, basketball has the least amount of time per game of any team sport. Third, spectators are close to the action. Every move from a slight hand gesture to a blink of an eye is in clear view. Many people in the stands adopt the belief that they can coach basketball.
As a college coach in the 1979, I vividly remember my first grade daughter challenging me as her mother was evaluating my most recent game, "Dad, why do you start (name withheld)? He's terrible!" See, if a first grader can coach, anyone can.
If all humanity tends to be defensive in order to survive how much more defensive must a basketball coach be to survive?
Too many basketball coaches can dish out the criticism but are too defensive to take any. It is a rare coach who has the confidence to be able to say things like this to players on the team. "How am I doing as your coach?" and "Are there any ways I am preventing you from being your best?" or "Please tell me some ways I can be a better coach for you."
Just as you challenge your players to compete position by position with their opponent the same goes for you. Say for example matchups pair your player averaging 9 points per game with the opponent averaging 19 points. If your player can reduce this 10-point deficit to five points, your team has a better chance of winning.
In some games the coach on the other bench is worth more points to their team than you are to your team. I recall back in the '60s. I am 26 years old coaching against Dean Smith at North Carolina, Don Haskins at UTEP, Hank Iba at Oklahoma State and Press Maravich at LSU (Pete scored 48 against my box and one). I clearly was outcoached. If those coaches were worth 20 more points to their team was it possible for me to find a way to cut the advantage to 10 points.
Passive ignorance implores one to just go on their merry way whereas active ignorance says, "They're better than me, so what?"
The coach who chooses wholeness and enlightenment attacks existential ignorance with focused intent to grow, to learn, and to get better.
For the past 25 years I have closely watched thousands of teams and coaches at NBC Camps. I know for sure one important thing about kids. They hate to play for coaches who are lazy, who don't seek to actively get better and who do not clearly demonstrate an eagerness to work hard and learn from others, including them as players.
Coaches who come to camp and seldom attend teaching stations, who race to the espresso stand,
play golf, very often are the ones who at nearly every opportunity say things like, "I tell my players over and over but they just don't do it," or "My kids aren't disciplined enough to learn it," or "We work on that all the time," are existentially ignorant and fall prey to their worst enemy.
If you actively wish to focus on ways to eliminate existential ignorance look for my next letter on DEFEATING EXISTENTIAL IGNORANCE by being active and receptive as opposed to being intellectually and emotionally passive.
posted by NBC Camps at
12:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home