Sue Enquist on Lessons Learned from Coaching

Sue Enquist is a legendary softball coach who coached the UCLA softball team for 27 years. She has won 11 National Championships, 1 as a player and 10 as a coach. However, this conversation is not about anything related to her impressive resume. Sue is much more interested in talking about her failures, what she would have done differently, coaching today, and how coaching has evolved through the years. In this episode, we discuss why Sue doesn’t like talking about winning (5:00), how she thinks about her legacy (5:45), if she thinks winning can get in the way of growth or if there’s a downside to winning (8:32), how she has adapted in her ways of thinking (10:30), why she does what she does today and how that’s evolved over the years (14:02), how she saw polarity show up in other legendary coaches she was around at UCLA (17:52), how she thinks about expectations (24:52), how vulnerability plays a role in coaching (32:25), focusing more on the process than the results (38:06), coaching coaches (43:36), watershed moments in her life (47:07), what chasing excellence means to her (50:12), rest, recovery, and mental health (58:19), why she hates the word confidence (1:00:12), how she remains both curious and convicted (1:04:32), how she feels about being called a legend (1:10:20), and onesoftball (1:14:30). Thank you so much to Sue for coming on the podcast! I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers. Thanks for listening. -Brian