What has a book on assertiveness have to do with coaching in any sport? Quite a bit actually. How many athletes have the potential to make contributions to their team and enjoy their sport but fail to do so due to a lack of aggressiveness or assertiveness?
Elizabeth Janice’s short book, Being Assertive: A How To Guide, is an interesting and helpful look at what assertiveness is, and is not, and contains numerous ideas on developing the skills needed to become assertive.
Janice does not teach ways to create players with a take no prisoners personality. In fact, Janice advocates being assertive includes being firm, but polite, considerate of others and not backing down. I found the information eye opening and wish I had known about these concepts years ago. I have had many players who possessed passive personalities that limited their athletic potential. I do not believe most of these individuals could have been made to be aggressive, it simply was not a part of their personality.
I do believe they could have learned to be assertive! I also believe this would have been a skill that would have served these players well in their adult life.
Being Assertive: A How To Guide is available only as a Kindle book on Amazon. I strongly suggest obtaining a copy! The price is a mere .89 when I obtained my copy so there is really nothing to lose. If you do not have a Kindle eBook reader, no problem! Simply download a FREE Kindle app for your PC, Mac, Blackberry, etc, and if you have an Amazon account, you are in business!