On the surface, Bob Corby and Jordan Stolz have little in common.
But the 75-year-old coach and 21-year-old speedskating sensation have become a formidable duo as Stolz competes in the Winter Olympics in Milan — with Stolz leaning on some decades’-old training strategies that seem to have withstood the test of time.
“Corby’s methods may be dated, but Stolz’s results have been unarguable,” the Wall Street Journal wrote.
“After making his Olympic debut as a teenager in Beijing 2022, Stolz has crushed the World Cup circuit, dominating the 500 meter, 1,000 meter and 1,500 meter distances and winning overall titles in each. He entered Wednesday’s 1,000 meter Olympic final as the world record holder in distance.”
The Corby-Stolz pairing was one of the more intriguing coaching stories I’ve read about in recent weeks.
For this week’s Best of 7, I compiled six other valuable ideas from coaching and leadership articles:
2. Obsessed with the trajectory
Travis Steele has led the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks men’s basketball team to a 25-0 record this year, but his success at the school didn’t come instantly.
In his first season, Steele went 12-20, followed by a 15-17 mark a year later.
“There were days where you felt like you were beating your head against the wall,” Steele told Forbes.com.
But Steele fought the impulse to be overly consumed with what the scoreboard said early on and maintained his convictions in his larger plans.
“That’s so hard to do in this world we live in because it’s results-oriented, which I get,” Steele said. “Maybe people couldn’t necessarily see the result at that time. But I felt like we were doing the right things. And I always went back to, ‘I’m not deviating from this plan.’”
There’s a fine line between conviction and stubbornness, but the ability to be consistent with a larger methodology — and sell that to team members when the results aren’t necessarily there — is an often-overlooked leadership skill.
“Be obsessed with the trajectory, not the result,” Steele said.
3. The most-influential player
Tony Vitello knows he has a lot to prove after making the leap from the University of Tennessee to manage the San Francisco Giants.
So, to cultivate trust and larger credibility, Vitello immediately sought to connect with Matt Chapman, the player most of the team views as its leader.
“When you get buy-in from veterans, it’s a huge deal,” Giants President Buster Posey told The Athletic.
“I was confident after getting to know Tony that even if there was hesitancy or even pushback early on, I felt really confident that Tony would shift that direction pretty quickly because of his personality.”
Finding a connector or liaison of sorts to the larger group can be a valuable initiative when entering an entirely new environment.
4. It worked before
The Athletic also had an illuminating piece this week on soccer coaches who have ascended from a small or mid-sized club to a traditional giant — pointing out how managers accustomed to low-possession games often had difficulty adapting to having more talent.
“Almost everyone else, more or less, has failed to change their identity,” The Athletic wrote.
“Of course, managers don’t go into these bigger jobs blind. They know there are higher expectations, that they must adapt their style of play. But they seem to struggle in a multitude of ways.”
The piece was an important reminder that, even at the highest levels, coaching is hardly one-size-fits-all and that the strategies and methodologies that make a coach a genius at one stage can also contribute to him losing his job at another.
5. The accomplishments in defeat
New England Patriots Coach Mike Vrabel was frustrated watching tape of his team’s Super Bowl loss.
But at the highest levels of the sport, where it’s often viewed as title or bust, Vrabel was still able to find the positives in an otherwise terrific year for his team.
“The biggest thing is we learned how to win,” he said. “You have to understand that sometimes they’re pretty, sometimes they’re not, sometimes you have to come from behind, sometimes you have to make a stop late defensively, sometimes you have to make a kick.”
Vrabel didn’t make excuses for his team’s defeat, but it was refreshing to hear an ambitious coach in a cutthroat league take a big-picture view of a season.
“Still try to enjoy the season, enjoy 17 wins and the opportunity to coach these guys," he said.
6. Do multiple hirings and firings work?
Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League is on its fourth manager of the season after dismissing Coach Sean Dyche this week.
Dyche had been up for the Premier League’s manager of the month in January, but the Forest board still deemed it needed to make another change.
ESPN.com put together a couple of eye-opening graphics on how similar club decisions in the past have panned out.
Not surprisingly, there are few instances where this has actually paid off.
7. Joe Mazzulla’s Gratitude
Joe Mazzulla is known as one of the more eccentric coaches in the NBA, a man who once spent a week in the jungle with a chess prodigy to train his mind to handle the hardships of leading one the most iconic franchises in sports.
But the Boston Celtics coach also recognizes the importance of highlighting the behind-the-scenes workers at TD Garden who make it possible for his team to take the court.
Recently, Mazzulla wore a “Boston Bull Gang” shirt, given to him by arena employees who routinely switch the floor from parquet to rink and vice versa when the Boston Bruins are playing.
“The people in the building are actually much more important than I am, because they see the players first,” he said.
“Whether it's the kitchen, whether it's security, whether it's medical or strength and conditioning. Those interactions play a huge part in making sure that by the time we get to the court, we're ready to go.”