Legendary, infamous perhaps, Hoosier’s basketball coach, Bob Knight: “Improvement, especially toward perfection, comes only if the practice is demanding, well thought-out, and constructive, by a coach who realizes that absolute perfection is unattainable - but is always the objective."“ Read more in Coach Knight’s book, The Power of Negative Thinking.

I experienced the greatest coaching from the most negative people - my music teachers.

In lessons, my teachers stopped me to correct hand position, interpretation, or would show me ways to practice. They said, “No, don’t do that, you’ll get this result… Instead, try this…” I learned quickly what worked and what didn’t work. My teachers reinforced behaviors I did well too.

“Yes, that’s exactly how to do this thing… when you do that, you get this result…” Catching me in the act, and helping me identify the behavior to repeat.

I am told that I coach well. I don’t know if I do or not, that’s in the eye of the person being coached. I do know that my style of coaching comes from the beautifully negative music teachers in my life. Teachers who never stopped to give me some false hope; but, teachers who were realistic in helping me build on what I had.

Your improvements will not come from the eternal well of optimistic thought; no. Instead, expect the greatest improvement from your ability to learn from failure.

A special shout out to the music teachers out there. Your students don’t know yet know how valuable you’ll be in their lives.