Doug Lemov's field notes

Reflections on teaching, literacy, coaching, and practice.

06.09.17 For Coaches: On Correcting Instead of Critiquing

I’ve spent a lot of time watching coaches this year.  One of the common ideas I find myself noticing is the difference between critique and correction.  I took the section on this idea from Practice Perfect and adapted and simplified it slightly. Here it is. Critique involves telling a participant how to do it better. Correction…


06.28.16 Icelandic Lessons: Reflections on the Youth System that Produced a Triumph

Even before Iceland took the Euros by storm, miraculously qualifying from group F (above Portugal and Austria), and then stunning England yesterday in the round of 16, they were the story of the tournament. With a population of 330,000 or roughly that of Bakersfield, California, their qualification was considered a minor miracle. This caused journalist Jonathan…


06.08.15 Tools for Coaches: Resources on the Teaching Side of Coaching

A year or so ago I posted a rubric I was working on to help define the key aspects of teaching for coaches… I’ve been doing some work with US Soccer on this front. I thought I’d share some updates that I’ve made and some other useful coaching materials. First, click the link below to see…


05.22.15 Coaching to Develop Players vs Coaching to Win: Some Examples

For a coach, the goal, unless you coach both at the elite level and with kids, say, 17 years old or older (e.g. college program or just maybe a HS varsity team) should be to develop players. We want them to be the best player they can be somewhere down the road–when they are 17 or…


04.07.15 Guest Post: Kim Frusciante on Training Rookie Teachers

Kim Frusciante is the Director of Rookie Teacher Development at Collegiate Academies, a charter organization that supports three high schools in New Orleans, Louisiana (Sci Academy, Carver Collegiate, and Carver Prep). In the past four years, Sci Academy has consistently achieved the highest statewide exam scores in the Recovery School District, and the highest among non-selective high schools…