BLACK

I’ve been enjoying an immersion of academia into the strata of meta themas

Whilst exposing my spiritual synapses to paradigms of Dostoevsky proportions, this blog may abide bereft tides of vacuity.




Yeah, man……I’m taking a break for a while.

Selection taken from the coaching canon , "Finding The Winning Edge".

A critical part of the game planning process is to identify the skills each player needs to perform the steps (tasks) involved in a particular play or play sequence. After identifying the skills needed by the player, a team must have a process in place for ensuring that their players develop these skills so that each play or play sequence is productive. Taking steps to develop these skills in every player occurs in two stages: isolating the skills and teaching the skills.

• Isolate the skills. The first step in the game planning process should be to analyze the tasks involved in the assignment of every player. Next, a decision must be made regarding whether the players have the ability to master the necessary skills. If it is determined that the ability of the players does not mesh with the skills required for a specific task. If they do not, the head coach must either discard this part of his offensive plan or alter the play or play sequence to fit the level of talent.
  
  Whatever the head coach’s decision, his decision can be made easier if he strictly adheres to one of the cardinal principles of training – specificity/ Specificity refers to the fact that “an individual gets what he trains for. “ All factors considered, the more specific his players’ preparation for a particular game, the better their performance.
• Teach the skills. Collectively, teaching players the skills they need involves an evolutional process of promoting, enhancing, practicing and refining each facet of the capacity being developed. In this regard, the rudimentary teaching progression of “hear it – see it – do it” is as applicable as it ever was.

Employing the proper teaching sequence is possibly the most viable way a coach can impact the game, certainly at the position level. Accordingly, as the head coach, you must make a decision as to what level of the teaching hierarchy you wish to utilize.

For example, with regard to teaching skills to your players, you must decide whether to rely on having the players learn by rote memorization or to require them to utilize critical thinking skills and acquire a more comprehensive knowledge of the offensive system. You should keep in mind that the more players are taught to critically analyze their responsibilities and to understand the relationship of these responsibilities to the total structure of the offense, the more productive the system will be.


Walsh, Bill - "Finding The Winning Edge", 1997, pg 210 - 211

I've been looking to get back to reading again, but haven't found a substantial resource to delve into. I think I may have found it in the following book by Dr. Ravitch:

I've read nothing but glowing reviews of this practical exposition of our current education system here in the states. Though I AM NOT A TEACHER, being a coach, I am involved quite intimately with how schools operate. Now, that we're beginning to witness the true wake of NCLB on "failing schools", this book seems to address the fundamental errors in its assertion (an inescapable black hole based on economic demographics).

Possibly unrelated (as the book has little to do with teacher critique), I often ask my son at the end of a school day, not "what did you learn (today)?", but "did your teachers try to get you to THINK or BELIEVE today?". A stark difference between the two.

Not to be a downer, as I'm usually rather laissez faire about everything, but a really good book by Michael Lewis (among many) looks to be shat upon.

Yes, that appears to be the long and short of this movie, when you reduce Lewis' book down to Michael Oher's personal story made to play up the sappy "white benefactor" mercy on the "poor black kid". Probably the most disingenuous parts of the book are the depictions of Oher's story (though vital to the conclusion the author presents) and the maudlin under current that the made-for-Lifetime film version of this is hitching its wagon to.

If you enjoy sports, sociology, history, or just football trends....(hey, do you like smartfootball.com?) do yourself a favor and read the book.

The author asserts, and his entire focus, is essentially about the rise of the dominant pass rusher.

The ushering in the era of SPEED into the game that has quickened the pace of Darwinian law in this sport.

Somehow, I don't see Sanra Bullock being able to drive that salient point home. Although, I don't recall Michael Lewis detailing any debased love scenes in his book, I'm more than willing to concede "creative-license" to be taken by John Lee Hancock, the director of the movie. I am not even sure how this movie works out with cameos by Lou Holtz, Nick Saban, Tommy Tubberville, ....Fred Thompson...er...Phil Fulmer,...............but no ED ORGERON!?!

I dunno.....
during my coaching hiatus, these were books I have read in the year "off"...

Mr.Clemens & Mark Twain - Justin Kaplan
The Slave Narrative - Marion Starling
Jefferson's Demons: portrait of a restless mind - Michael Beran
Are We Rome? - Cullen Murphy
Black rednecks and white liberals - Thomas Sowell.
How doctors think - Jerome Groopman.
Predictably irrational : the hidden forces that shape our decisions - Dan Ariely.
Great American Hypocrites - Glenn Greenwald
God is Not Great(How Religion Poisons Everything) - Christopher Hitchens
Negotiation Boot Camp - Ed Brodow
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina - Douglas Brinkley
Rising Tide (Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how it Changed America) - John Barry
The Ape in the Corner Office - Richard Conniff
Ascent of Money - Niall Ferguson
The kingfish and his realm: the life and times of Huey P. Long - William Ivy Hair
Essential Chomsky - Noam Chomsky
Freakonomics - Steven Levitt,
1776 - David McCullough
American Theocracy - Kevin Phillips
No Asshole Rule - Bob Sutton
American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic - Joseph Ellis
Future of the Race - Henry Louis Gates &*Cornell West
Collapse (how societies choose to fail or succeed) - Jared Diamond
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
The Sorrows of Empire - Chalmers Johnson
The Cajuns : from Acadia to Louisiana - William Faulkner Rushton
Are You There Vodka? - Chelsea Handler
Pure Drivel - Steve Martin
The Pity of War - Niall Ferguson
The new American militarism : how Americans are seduced by war - Andrew J. Bacevich.
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky
Fiasco (the American military adventure in Iraq) - Thomas E Ricks
State of Denial - Bob Woodward
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism - Andrew Bacevich
Quiet Strength - Tony Dungy
Meat Market - Bruce Feldman
Plan of Attack - Bob Woodward
Hubris - Michael Isikoff & David Corn
Great War for Civilisation - Robert Fisk
How Good Do You Want To Be? - Nick Saban