The Samurai, the Gamer and the Birthday Boy

You can blame David Letterman perhaps. His Top Ten lists were a staple of his quirky comedy and lead to books, videos and oft imitated staples of our society. While some can be inane and self promoting, some can be useful in our lifelong endeavor to be better at our craft. 

To that end, please partake in these three distinctive lists drawn from three random sources, all offering up nuggets of wisdom for coaches winding their way through the path. 

Musashi 

A mere 660 miles southeast from the site of the (now) 2021 summer Olympics is a small deserted island that is only accessible by boat. It’s called Ganryujima and it is home to one of the most famous statues in the history of Japanese sword art, also more commonly referred to by its age of the culture, the Samurai. 

The master was Miyamoto Musashi, (1584-1645). In this statue, he is battling his final duel, which he wins when he brings his wooden sword made from the oar of a boat down upon his foe just seconds before he was to be slashed. 

Musashi finished his life with a perfect 61-0 record in duels and is widely considered the greatest Samurai of all time. At the end of his life, he wrote a book called the Five Rings where he diligently records his 21 Rules of Life. 

In his disciplined world of life and death struggles, Musashi would never fall in love, never eat good food and never have possessions that weren’t useful. But some of these rules resonate with the ideas that we as coaches both need and should help disseminate toward our athletes. 

1. Accept everything just the way it is. 

3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling. 

4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world. 

6. Do not regret what you have done. 

7. Never be jealous. 

9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself or others. 

21. Never stray from the way. 

While we are not in literal life and death struggles as we face off across the net from another team, Musashi’s rules do remind us that some principles are forever and can help us through our own days of obstacles and help guide our athletes through their life as well.

Gamers 

Watch a player throw themselves into the stands for a loose ball and they are described as “gamers.” But in the 1970’s and 80’s this moniker hbegan to hold a different meaning. Pong turned into Galaga which morphed into the Brother's Mario into the next generation of home entertainment. 

James Paul Gee is considered the Godfather of “Game based learning.” In other words, he sees video games as great learning and teaching methods and recently came out with a list of the 16 principles of good game based learning. While this list has an obvious bias toward video games, some of his principles could be plucked from Coaching handbooks and webinars quite easily. 

1. Players build a sense of identity throughout the video game, either through direct input or an on-screen character they inherit. 

2. Communication occurs between the player and the game.

4. Failing in a game holds few consequences in comparison to real life, empowering players to take risks. 

6. Players have control over the gaming environment. 

7. The gaming environment contains problems that naturally lead into one another, allowing a player's mastery to grow and evolve. 

8. Games offer a problem that challenges students assumed expertise. 

9. Players receive information as they need it, not before, which teaches them patience and perseverance and improves critical thinking abilities. 

11. The game should frustrate the student enough to challenge them but be easy enough that they believe and can overcome the problems faced. 

13. Games force players to expand their situational knowledge and consider courses of action other than linear ones. 

15. In multi player environments, players have different skills, forcing them to rely on each other- a needed soft skill for students. 

16. Competency occurs through taking action in the game, reversing the typical model in which students are required to learn before being allowed to act. 

According to the Entertainment Software Association, 3 out of 4 households have a gamer under their roof and 65% of American adults play video games. While the numbers for Youth Sports continue to disappoint, this faction of society is blooming. Perhaps Gee’s list can help us understand how to better coach this generation and help kids blend the on court with the online. 

A 68th Birthday 

Kevin Kelley turned 68 last month. The founding executive editor of Wired magazine who adds author, photographer, conservationist and other wide ranging interests to his resume’, jotted down his 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice as a birthday present to all of us. 

As you will see, much of his advice would be considered chapter and verse for coaching our chosen sport. 

· Learn how to learn from those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe.

· Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points. 

· Being able to listen well is a superpower. While listening to someone you love keep asking them “is there more?” until there is no more. 

· Gratitude will unlock all other virtues and is something you can get better at. 

· Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes. 

· Don’t be the smartest person in the room. Hangout with, and learn from, people smarter than yourself. Even better, find smart people who will disagree with you. 

· The purpose of a habit is to remove that action from self negotiation. You no longer expend energy deciding whether to do it. You just do it. Good habits can range from telling the truth to flossing. 

· Promptness is a sign of respect. 

· The more you are interested in others, the more interesting they find you. To be interesting be interested. 

· To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and then fixing them fairly. If you mess up, fess up. It’s astounding how powerful this ownership is. 

· You can obsess about serving your customers/audience/clients or you can obsess about beating the competition. Both work, but of the two, obsessing about your customers will take you further. 

· Separate the processes of creation from improving. You can’t write and edit, or sculpt and polish, or make and analyze at the same time. If you do, the editor stops the creator. While you invent, don’t select. While you sketch, don’t inspect. While you write the first draft, don’t reflect. At the start, the creator mind must be unleashed from judgment.

· If you are not falling down occasionally, you are just coasting. 

· There is no limit on better. Talent is distributed unfairly, but there is no limit on how much we can improve with what we start with. 

· When crisis and disaster strike, don’t waste them. No problem, no progress. 

· Acquiring things will rarely bring you deep satisfaction. But acquiring experiences will. 

· How to apologize: Quickly, specifically, sincerely. 

As with any venture in life, there are clues and ideas that surround us, now more than ever. Sometimes they aren’t in places we would expect and we have to secure the miners helmet to find nuggets of wisdom, but they are out there. 

If you have some you would like to share, please e mail us at outreach@azregionvolleyball.