The Sergeant and the Teacher
Swen Nater

In the book, Wooden: A lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court, by John Wooden, Coach says:

Those who dispense discipline must remember that its purpose is to help, to prevent, to correct, to improve, rather than to punish. You are not likely to get productive results if you antagonize. Punishment antagonizes.

When I was redshirting (practicing but not playing in order to save a year of eligibility) my first year at UCLA , I was still allowed to go to the pre-game meals when we had a home game. On one occasion, our very best player was seven minutes late. Coach Wooden said nothing. However, before the game when he announced the starting lineup, that player wasn’t mentioned. When the team was dismissed to go out on the court and warm up, he talked to Coach privately and asked why. Coach said, “You were seven minutes late for the pre-game meal so you won’t play for at least the first seven minutes of the game.”

Two Types of Disciplinarians
There are sport teachers that would have approached the situation differently than Coach did. Many of them believe in punishing players for breaking rules, by making them run or do pushups, for example. In respect to discipline, I have found there are two types of coaches.

Coach A: The Sergeant
The coach who operates like a sergeant punishes because he believes the player must pay for his mistake. He wants that player to remember the pain, discomfort, and embarrassment that resulted from the infraction and believes that will motivate him to not do it again.

Coach B: The Teacher
The coach who operates like a teacher disciplines by taking away a privilege. Coach Wooden said, “The bench is a coach’s greatest ally.” He believed practicing and playing in games was a privilege and that taking something away was more effective, in the long run, than punishment.

Punishment vs. Taking Away a Privilege
At this point the question may be asked, “Isn’t taking something away, punishment too?” Not at all. Let’s say, your family is planning on going to the movie this afternoon. You haven’t cleaned up your room nor done your chores. Consider two scenarios.

Scenario 1: Your dad yells at you, “What is wrong with you? I’m going to let you go to the movie because we’re a family but, afterward, you’re not only going to clean your room and do your chores—you’re also going to mow the grass, do all the weeding, and wash my car.”

Scenario 2: Your dad tells you, “If you don’t clean up your room and do your chores, you can’t go. We were really counting on going as a family.”

Punishment is a personal thing. You made the mistake and you pay for it. Taking something away involved the entire group, such as a family. More on that later.

Another question could be asked. “By punishing, aren’t we teaching a child about the real world? When you break the law, you get thrown in jail.” This question couldn’t help drive the point home better. Putting someone in jail is taking away the privilege of being free. On the job, when we don’t do our work, we lose the privilege or working; we get fired. So, Coach Wooden’s strategy is in line with helping young people prepare for the real world. Those coaches that punish are preparing young people for the army.

Team Above Player
Finally, far more important than doing what is best for the player is doing what is best for the team.  A player’s unacceptable behavior hurts the unity and progress of the group (i.e. going to the movies). Punishing a person by making him pay may seem like it sends a message not to disrupt the team, and it does. But there is something far more effective. By taking away the privilege of practicing or playing, the coach is telling the player, “You made the choice to violate a rule; therefore, you have made the choice to hurt the team by not being part of practice or a game.” In other words, by taking away a player’s team function or role, the coach is showing that player the damage he is doing. Punishing is between the coach and the player and when the debt has been paid, it’s over. Not participating gets the entire team involved. The peer pressure lasts a long time and it will take some time to prove a change has been made.

The teacher’s humane-based tact results in a more permanent, intrinsic, and genuine change. The sergeant may cause change, but at what cost?

“Discipline must come through liberty….We do not consider an individual disciplined only when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute and as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated, not disciplined.”
Maria Montessori

Conclusion
By the way, after Coach told that player he would not play for at least the first seven minutes of the game, the player responded, “Well, I may not play at all.” Coach told him, “That’s your choice but, if you don’t go into the game when I tell you, you won’t play for UCLA.”

Surprisingly, when he was called to go in, he sprinted to the scorer’s table.