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The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Podcast with Ben Guest
45. Is Ted Lasso a Good Coach?
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45. Is Ted Lasso a Good Coach?

Andrés Alvarez on what makes a good coach.

Links: Apple/Spotify

The biggest lie we’ve been told is that playing from a place of anger improves performance.

Today’s episode is a conversation with Andrés Alvarez. Dre first came on the show way back in Episode 11 where we discussed meta-cognition, group think, poker, chess, and basketball.

Today’s conversation with Dre started when I posted an article about Ted Lasso. Dre suggested we do an episode where we discuss what makes a good coach and/or teacher, to which I readily agreed.

Like all of my conversations with Dre, on and off-air, this one took us to some fascinating places. We discuss:

-Why do coaches punish players by having them run laps, sprints, etc.?

-If the coach calls a play, and the players don’t execute the play, is it the fault of the coach or the players?

-The teaching philosophy of Dave Berri: Your job is to explain things.

-Chris Yeh’s thoughts on Ted as a knowledgeable soccer coach: Ted Lasso is unprepared to coach football.


Here are some of my favorite quotes from Dre:

-Being stoic when things are going wrong is really good at pissing people off.

-If you’re going to be doing something highly emotional, highly volatile, lots of moving parts, you have to keep yourself calm.

-It’s really hard to grade someone on a task without knowing how difficult that thing is to do.


Dre has a Substack to which I encourage you to subscribe:

If you liked this episode Dre and I are going to record a Ted Lasso Season 2 recap that will drop Monday, October 11, 2021.

Please forward this to the Ted Lasso fans in your life and/or share on social media as that helps bring in subscribers to this newsletter.


Speaking of coaching, my book Zen and the Art of Coaching Basketball: Memoir of a Namibian Odyssey launches on November 1st.

A team of teenagers competes for the championship in Namibia’s professional basketball league... And a basketball coach discovers the power of meditation.

It will be up on Amazon on November 1st. If you’ve enjoyed the content here I hope you will support my work by buying a copy :-)

Drops 11/1/21

Podcast Links: Apple/Spotify

The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Newsletter
The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Podcast with Ben Guest
Conversations about creativity, education, and leadership.