‘To Win You Need To Put In Your Soul’

I’ve recently seen some quotes attributed to Russian coaching great, Vyacheslav Platonov.  There’s something here for everyone.

‘Working in the team try to become a friend and mentor to the players.  The only way to have friends and kindred spirits is to be a friend yourself.”

“Victory formula  =  99% sweat  + 1% inspiration.”

“Victories come when their time comes.  Often later than you wish.  Patience  is an essential quality of a coach’s profession.”

‘There are many who can coach well.  There are only a few who can build and create teams.  Those are the highest level of coaching expertise.”

‘Often you can hear from coach ‘They (players) lost because they did not do what I told them to.’  This is not on!  Never reward yourself for something outside your control.  Never talk about the team as ‘they’  –  always only ‘we’.”

“We won”,  “we lost”.  Try to take most of the blame on yourself.  That does not mean that you cannot criticise individual players, but the team, publically  –  extremely rarely.”

“Players putting into the game mind and strength, is not enough for victory.  It is necessary to put in the soul.  A team that put into the game all its strength, mind and soul cannot leave the court defeated.”

“You, coach are coming into a new team.  Never start work by discarding everything old, even if you are forced to break it.  Those who don’t remember the past, do not have a future.”

‘Do not be afraid to learn from players.  Especially new techniques.  “Stars” become “stars” because they do many things non standard, not by the text book.”

‘It is a well known fact that order and structure will beat brilliance.’

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Read about the great new Vyacheslav Platonov coaching book here.