A Game Plan For Life: The Power of Mentoring

My husband is a HS girls basketball coach. He gives this book as a gift to his senior players as a parting gift.

I learned from this book that being a mentor is a lifelong process. the important factor in being a mentor is seeing good in each person. A good Mentor never stops learning.

When it's all said and done and the maker calls us home, the real measure of a successful life has to have a lot to do with how much you improved the lives of those around you. With that in mind, few people come close to the life of John Wooden. There are untold vast numbers of people who have become better people and lead better lives because of the coach. Through his books, many of those people, like myself, never even met him.In his newest book, and quite possibly his last, A GAME PLAN FOR LIFE, Coach Wooden teaches about mentoring. I really like the way the book gives mentoring from two different approaches, but giving and receiving. The first half of the book profiles seven people who mentored Coach Wooden. The last half profiles seven people who were mentored by him, either directly or indirectly.I found the mixture to be very interesting, and yet probably very similar to most other people. Among his mentors, coach lists his father, 3 former coaches and two people from history he never met but spent hours reading about. Among the mentees, who each wrote their own chapters in the book, we find 3 former players at UCLA, 2 other coaches, a teacher who had never met the coach, and his great-grand-daughter.It's interesting to see how mentoring is both given and received in different ways to meet the needs of the recipient. The book is filled with sage quotes and life lessons that will touch readers ina variety of ways.While as always, I loved what the coach wrote, I particularly enjoyed the chapter written by Dale Brown, coach of the LSU basketball team. Coach Brown knew Coach Wooden, but only because they had played against one another when Coach Brown was an assistant coach at Utah State. When he accepted the head coaching job at LSU, he turned to Coach Wooden for advice.Detailed in his chapter are some of the many questions he asked coach. This really gave a good structure on how to proceed when seeking out a mentor and how to best learn from someone you don't know well.I took a lot away from this book. I think you will too.

A coach is the person that people turn to when they need guidance, to be inspired or to be coached for a specific reason or goal. Great coaches hold a mystic about how they get things done or get people or teams to do amazing things. Usually their books, biographies or autobiographies have many parallels that you can use in your life or business. This book is not an exception to this rule.This book is filled with knowledge from one of the greatest coaches ever. I could not put the book down. It is written from a first person narrative from John and he starts out by explaining what people have had the most impact on his life. It may sound cheesy but he started wit his father. I have a tone of respect for mine so I think that I would have done the same if it were me. It is interesting to see why he acted as he did while he was a coach and how John has taught other people to live. Treating everyone as an equal no matter what their position in life is one of the cornerstones of the lessons in this book.Even though I am in sales and not a basketball player I was able to reinforce that fundamentals are the most important item to practice, yes that trick shot that may be needed once ever is fun to practice but the basics and fundamentals are the most important.It does not matter whether you are a coach, manager or just looking for a great book to read there will be something in here for you. To gain knowledge you must get different perspectives, and this book will leave you with some.What I really got form this book was that in order to be a leader you yourself first must be the type of person that everyone would like to follow by giving others their respect first. It goes back to what my mother taught me "Always act like someone else is watching".

Every so often, a great man or woman walks the Earth. Many times we don't realize or understand how great they were until they are gone. Such was the case with John Wooden. There have been many books written about John Wooden. This one ranks as one of the best--not just because it was the last one written before he died but because of the topic he addresses--the power of mentoring.We are just starting to realize how important mentors are in the lives of our young people. The research and evidence regarding the power of mentors to help children break through poverty barriers is staggering.The book covers seven people that were mentors in his life, and seven people that he mentored. His mentors include Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, and his father who gave him this advice when he was young that he tried to live by his whole life: 1. Be true to yourself. 2. Make each day your masterpiece. 3. Help others. 4. Drink deeply from good books. 5. Make a friendship with fine art. 6. Build a shelter against a rainy day. 7. Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.John Wooden was faithful, consistent, and committed. His priorities were in order, and he never deviated from those priorities. In this day and age when a new thing comes along every 60 seconds and gets our attention off the main thing, it is nice to see an example of someone who kept their "hands on the plow" and achieved things in his field that are still unmatched. There are no shortcuts. Achieving greatness in any field takes time, effort, and persistence.

Excellent Product and Amazing service ........

education

must read for all coaches and teachers