CAHA 501

How Good Do You

Want To Be?
Midterm 2013
Nick Pesik

Introduction
When it comes to college football there is no name more recognizable than, Nick Saban. As an
inspiring young coach myself, it would only make sense to learn from the best and with his team
winning three of the last four national titles I think he would qualify. The thing that makes him
special is that, he is winning on the field and off. There are a lot of coaches that studied under
him that have furthered their career because they studied under him. We have a coach on our
staff that last year was at Alabama and can attest to many of the points that he makes in his book,
he can also provide some of the negatives that get overlooked when you author a book. The
book, How Good Do You Want To Be?, is one that Nick Saban co-wrote with Brian Curtis giving
some background information on what he believes and some of the structure that he instills when
he goes to a program. When you can get the core beliefs of someone that has had so much
success educating young adults and molding them into better individuals, it would be insane to
not learn what motivates and makes him stay passionate for his job. Many people may get
complacent after they reach their goal 3 out of 4 years and rest on their laurels but he keeps
pushing and that takes a special individual. He titles the book, How Good Do You Want To Be: A
Champions Tips On How To Lead And Succeed, and he does give a lot of tips on how he got
where he is today but in my mind it was more of, here are my experiences and how I got my
beliefs take of it what you may. I believe there is a lot of merit doing it like that because
everyone comprehends things differently and if you try to force your belief on to someone else
they may resent it and miss the overall point. By letting them formulate their own interpretation
of the experience it gives them a better chance to not miss the bigger picture. To relate this to an
educator, to me, he is teaching the subject instead of teaching to the test. So by preparing the
athletes on and off the field for life experiences they may encounter with first hand experiences,

Nick Saban, has taken an approach to education that everyone can model. Even though he does
reach everyone and there are still a few athletes, in his case, that dont completely buy into the
process the team as a whole reaches their goal.
Summary of Content
There are many anecdotes in this book, mostly because Nick Saban has been in football as a
player or coach for over 30 years. In that time he has been with a lot of good coaches but more
important good people and they taught him a lot. There are four main things that he made
mention of that stick out: organization, motivation, ethics and values, and lastly personal
reflection. By creating an environment where everyone knows his or responsibilities and each is
responsible to the group as a whole it shows that the more organized you can be as an educator
the better than chances are for success. Motivation is one of the most important things we, as
educators, have to figure out. If we can understand the psychology of the classroom and the
individuals in it we can give them a sturdy foundation to build off of. No other way than right,
is the way Nick phrased it and the explanation is-practice ethics and values and demand the same
from your classroom. If we can get people to buy into that our society would be taking a step in
the right direction. If we are not the people as educators to take that first step than who will be?
Being able to look at yourself and knowing your strengths and weaknesses and being able to
maintain that understanding is a good thing. You cannot learn about others until you know
yourself, that is where a lot of people make the mistake they find someone they would like to
model their style after and they just adopt what that individual does. What they should do is take
their mentors technique and make them their own and adapt them to their own style. If you
cannot teach yourself with someone elses methods how can you expect to teach other students?

Analysis and Evaluation of the Book

One of the titles of one of the chapters is Developing the Product, which in my interpretation is
developing a personal plan. In life, your road map is knowing what you want to accomplish
then committing yourself to doing the things necessary to reach that destination. You cannot get
there without hard work and perseverance. (29, Saban:Curtis) The way that I interpreted that
statement is that you have to find out what you are passionate about and put in your time to get
there. Every teacher or mentor that I have had thus far has always talked about goals: short term
and long term. Short term was considered one to five years and long-term was considered 10+
years. So you could have multiple short term goals that would help you stay on track to reach
your long-term goal. To reiterate the point I made earlier if you have organization, a routine or
schedule, that you can follow it will help you attain whatever you want.
The next three chapters of the book is the downfall in relation to academia. It is based on how to
develop competition and utilize teamwork, which has its place in the classroom but the advice
that was given did not relate to andragogy. Teaching and educating college football players, may
have the proper age range, does not always translate to the classroom. The book brought up
many good points that I may use as a coach but not if I were teaching in a classroom setting.
Another point that Saban brought up is how to be a great leader. By definition, a leader is-a
person who rules or guides or inspires others. (125, Saban:Curtis) Saban goes on to disagree
with the statement because you may be an appointed leader due to birth right or military regime
but just because you call the shots that does not make you a leader. It makes you in charge. This
is one of the points that is made in the book that can carry over from sports to a classroom, being
able to lead and have the trust of those that you are standing in front of is immeasurable. This

football season that was really put to the test for me because I recently acquired a position with
the football team as a graduate assistant and many of the players were hesitant and did not trust
my ability as a coach; so what I had to do was earn their trust so they could look at me as a
leader and I could be the crutch they could lean on when things got tough. The defensive line
coach was new as well and he had some trying times as well but since I was here last year as an
equipment manager I had built a rapport with some of the players and it helped make the
transition easy.
There is much more information shared in the book and most of it translates from classroom to
the practice field and vice versa but one thing that really stood out is that Coach Saban dedicated
a whole chapter of his book to education, strictly for the players in a classroom setting. There
were six beliefs that were presented in relation to education: learning never ends; education does
not promise success, but it makes it easier; emphasize education with your actions; dont judge
ability simply by statistics; remember that progress in education takes time; education can be the
great equalizer. For someone, in his position, to have that much focus on education is a great
thing. There is a stereotype that comes with being a jock and that is, academics take a back
seat to the playing field; so for somebody that has been a jock for over 30 years and still put
that much emphasis on academia it is more than coincidental that he has experienced so much
success.
Even though the book was based on the trials and tribulations of a football coach and his
perspective as he went through life, coaches and educators have a lot in common. Coach Saban
has done a great job preparing the student athletes for life on and off the field and that is why he
has experienced so much success. He came back to the college level after being in the NFL as a
head coach because he missed the bond that was created by helping mold these teenagers into

adults. If we want to succeed teaching mature adults it helps when we can learn from someone
that teaches how to be an adult. If you can take immature adolescents and make them great
members of society you are someone that I will follow and would gladly model when it comes to
education.

Reference
Saban,Nick. Curtis,Brian, HOW GOOD DO YOU WANT TO BE?A CHAMPIONS TIPS ON
HOW TO LEAD AND SUCCEED Ballantine Books:Randomhouse Inc.2007