Top Ten Books You Have Never Heard Of

Make It Stick - This book is a game changer for coaches and teachers. The premise is that learning doesn’t always feel like you are learning. In fact, often when you feel like you are learning, you are not. This book is at the top of a few of my lists because it completely turned what I thought I knew about teaching upside down. Make It Stick shows the research that shows that blocked practice does not allow learning to stick long term. Blocked practice is the kind of practice we are all used to—repitition again and again and again. In the moment, during the actual practice session, it will feel like learning is taking place, but it will not last. When you mix and interleave practice, it will feel like you are not making any progress, but that is the kind of practice that leads to long-term learning. How to apply this research is a large part of this book and imperative for any coaches or teachers trying to make learning stick long term. 

Resilience - Written in the form of a series of letters from a military commander to one of his soldiers who has returned from the war with PTSD, this book is one of my all-time favorites. It is a mix between Ryan Holiday and Mitch Albom. I came away from this book with a reframed view of happiness, friendship, and toughness among other things. I cannot recommend this easy read enough. 

Antifragile - Written by Nassim Taleb of The Black Swan fame, this flips our definition of toughness on its head. We often view toughness as the ability to withstand adversity. Antifragile examines what kinds of things get stronger because of adversity. There are systems in the world that “gain from disorder.” This book dives into those systems and gives a new perspective on what toughness is and how to endure adversity. If you know anything about dynamic systems theory, this book will provide more examples of how environment and action are inextricable linked. I learned a lot from Antifragile about how to create more effective environments that will allow athletes to gain from adversity. 

Sum It Up - Pat Summit might be the best coach you’ve never heard of. If you’ve never heard of her, this is a great book to get you well acquainted with one of the best coaches in sports history. If you have heard of her, this book will give you an unvarnished look at her life and the way she got the most out of her players. Alzheimers took her from Tennessee Women’s Basketball way too soon. Summit Up preserves what made her great and details how courageously she fought the disease the ultimately took her life. 

The Man Watching - Speaking of coaches you’ve probably never heard of but should have, Anson Dorrance is one of them. He is the John Wooden of women’s sports. What he has done at the University of North Carolina with the women’s soccer team will never happen again in any sport. This book details how he did it and a replicable system that can be applied in your coaching to get more out of your athletes. Dorrance found a way to push his players to develop them but also balance the perspective needed to carry that development into his team’s performance. He made soccer mean so much that it drove their development but gave them the distance to drive their performance to 21 national championships. 

What Drives Winning - Brett Ledbetter has developed a system of character development that underlies the premise of the book: Your character drives your process and your process drives your results (CPR). Ledbetter believes that character is what drives winning and that character is not something you are born with or without. He believes that it is something you can develop and that it is a coach’s job to develop it in his or her players. The book outlines the best programs and coaches in the world. They have used the systems outlines in this book and those systems tend to lead to massive amounts of success wherever they are applied. 

Practice Perfect - Written by the man who wrote Teach Like a Champion, Practice Perfect is an encapsulation of the best practices his research has found from the best teachers in the world. There is no detail too small to practice for teachers who want to create great practices. The skills Lemov and his research shows the best teachers in the world have are skills you can practice and get better at. Any coach wanting to run the best practices possible needs to read this book. 

Run to the Roar - This is another book about a legendary coach you’ve probably never heard of. The title comes from the strategy packs of lions use to hunt antelope or zebras. The pack has the weakest, oldest lion hide on one side of the prairie then has the rest of pack wait on the opposite side of the prairie—trapping the animals in between them. The weak, older lion stands up and roars loudly. This scares the antelope or zebras into running the other direction into the waiting pack. The lesson legendary squash coach Paul Assaiante teaches his athletes is that they have to run toward what is scary. They have to run toward their fears. His culture creates the courage he preaches. 

Primal Leadership - This book is the practical application of the landmark book Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. Goleman is one of the three authors of this book. The term “primal leadership” comes from the idea Goleman espouses that great leadership is done through the emotions. How a coach manages and learns from his or her emotions determines his ability to lead and influence others. Primal Leadership teaches the importance of emotional and mood management and how to develop it. 

The Leading Brain - This is an absolute must-read for any leader. A coach’s brain is his or her most important asset. It can be used for good, or it can be overlooked and underutilized—or worse, used to undermine your efforts. The Leading Brain is almost 100 percent research-based. The science presented in the book shows how you can regulate your emotions, use your brain to establish good habits for you and your players, foster learning in a way that will actually get your students to remember long term, and build the right teams that will thrive against adversity.