2025 Recommended Reading for Coaches
Every December, I do the same thing: I ask coaches what they’re reading. I build a list. I try to get to every book—but I also trust the recommendations of coaches and administrators who are living this stuff in real time.
Why I share this list every year
I don’t send this list to sound well-read. I send it because coaching can feel isolating, even when you’re surrounded by people. You’re making a thousand decisions, trying to develop humans, and getting judged by a scoreboard that rarely tells the full story.
This list is a reminder that coaches everywhere are wrestling with the same questions:
How do we build confidence that holds up under pressure?
How do we build culture that survives adversity?
How do we lead this generation without losing the edge that makes teams great?
How do we coach the whole athlete without turning coaching into therapy?
If you’re thinking about those things, you’re already doing the job right.
And if you’ve got a book that belongs on next year’s list, send it my way. The best coaching resources are still shared the same way they always have been: one coach helping another coach get better.
The List
Some of these books I’ve read cover-to-cover. Some I’ve skimmed and stolen a few gold nuggets from, and some are simply on the list because enough brilliant coaches said, “This one matters.” When the same title keeps popping up across different programs, sports, and levels, I pay attention.
I also hunt for new resources the old-fashioned way: I go on and listen to podcasts, I hang out in locker rooms and coaches’ offices, I hear coaches talk shop, and add anything that makes me stop mid-walk and say, “Yep—saving that.”
The problem is that there just isn't enough time to get to them all.
Between seasons, practices, families, recruiting, travel, and the daily emotional roller coaster of leading humans… nobody has time to read 40 books like it’s their job. (Even when it is their job, it still isn’t.)
So this list is part reading log, part recommendation engine, and part “coaches helping coaches.” It’s not a curriculum. It’s a menu. Grab what you need for the season you’re in.
The trend I can’t ignore: coaches are coaching the whole athlete now
If you look at this year’s recommendations, the loudest theme isn’t “strategy” or “X’s and O’s.” It’s the human side of performance.
There are mental game staples like The Confident Mind, The Pressure Principle, Peak Performance, Mindset, and Rotella’s Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect. Those books are all trying to solve a problem every coach recognizes immediately: the athlete who looks great on Tuesday and disappears on Friday night.
You know that one kid… Smooth in practice. Confident in drills. Then the game starts, and suddenly their decision-making slows down, their body tightens up, and they’re playing like they’re trying to avoid mistakes instead of making plays. That’s not a lack of skill. That’s a nervous system issue. That’s pressure, attention, and self-talk in a trench coat pretending to be “performance.”
Coaches aren’t shrugging and calling it “mental toughness” anymore, like it’s a trait someone either got blessed with or didn’t. More coaches are treating mindset like it’s trainable—because it is.
When a basketball player turns the ball over and immediately drops their head, many programs used to treat that as an attitude. Now coaches are building reset routines: next play language, breathing cues, body posture, quick re-anchoring.
In other words, they’re coaching the moment after the mistake, not just the mistake itself.
That’s growth.
Culture books are everywhere—because talent isn’t the problem
Another pattern: culture and team dynamics books keep showing up. The Culture Code. Legacy. The Hard Hat. The Captain Class. Team of Teams. Eleven Rings.
Even when the sport changes, the message stays the same:
Culture is what shows up when you’re not in the huddle.
Culture is how your team reacts when a kid gets pulled and the bench gets quiet.
Culture is what happens when the ref makes a call so bad that it should come with an apology letter.
Culture is whether your best player celebrates the role player… or acts like the role player is stealing oxygen.
I’ve worked with enough teams to tell you this: most teams don’t lose because they don’t care. They lose because they don’t know how to handle emotion, momentum, and adversity together. They get individual when the game gets hard. They start coaching themselves inside their own head. They start blaming. They start protecting ego and thinking about how they will spin it for thier next social media post.
And then you see the other kind of team—the one that gets punched in the mouth and somehow gets louder. Not obnoxiously louder. Connected louder. The type of louder that says, “We’ve been here. We know what to do. We will pull this off.”
That doesn’t happen by accident. That’s standards. That’s leadership. That’s culture.
Leadership is evolving: less “rah rah,” more clarity and ownership
This year’s list also leans heavily into leadership: Turn the Ship Around!, The Coaching Habit, Drive, Thinking in Bets, The Scout Mindset, Good Leaders Ask Great Questions.
That’s coaches looking for something more durable than motivation.
Because motivation is like Wi-Fi, it’s fantastic when it’s strong, but the second you get in the wrong room, it disappears, and everyone starts blaming the router.
Leadership that works is built on clarity, expectations, and ownership.
You see it in simple moments. A team comes out flat, and the coach has a choice: deliver the classic halftime monologue (“Do you even want it?!”) or do what modern leadership books teach—bring the team back to standards and solutions.
“What standard are we not meeting right now?”
“What do we need to do for the next five minutes?”
“Who’s willing to lead it?”
That shift changes the whole environment. Now the athletes aren’t waiting to be rescued. They’re participating in the solution. You’re building leaders, not dependence.
Coaches want science… but they still crave stories
Strength and conditioning resources are a big part of the list too—High-Performance Training for Sports, Periodization Training for Sports, Becoming a Supple Leopard, and even a book I hadn’t seen for years came back around: Strength Training Anatomy.
That makes sense. The sports world is louder, faster, and more year-round than ever, and coaches are trying to keep athletes healthy while still developing them. Everyone wants performance, and nobody wants the constant injury carousel.
At the same time, the list is always full every year of biographies and story-driven books—Shoe Dog, Man’s Search for Meaning, Tyson Fury’s autobiography, David Goggins and the intense perspective he brings, and insights from legendary coach John Wooden.
That mix matters. Because the deeper you coach, the more you realize performance is not just physical. It’s belief. It’s identity. It’s meaning.
I’ve seen athletes come back from injury “cleared” by every test… and still play scared. They hesitate on contact. They avoid situations. They don’t trust their body yet. That’s not a mobility issue. That’s fear doing what fear does: protecting the person.
This is why stories keep showing up on coaching lists. Stories teach what data can’t: perspective, resilience, character, and the invisible part of competing.
Coaches want tools that work tomorrow
A lot of these recommendations are practical in a way that coaches appreciate. Atomic Habits shows up because coaches are trying to build consistency. The Checklist Manifesto shows up because coaches are trying to reduce chaos. Make It Stick shows up because coaches are trying to help athletes actually learn—not just “go through reps.”
You can feel the real-world problem behind those books.
Every coach has watched a team have a great Monday practice, a solid Tuesday, a weird Wednesday, and a flat Thursday—then show up on game day looking like they met each other in the parking lot. That’s not just effort. That’s structure, routine, and preparation.
Systems beat moods.
If you can build simple habits and routines that survive stress—pregame cues, reset routines, leadership behaviors, communication rules—you start getting the same team more often. Not perfect. But consistent.
And consistency wins seasons.
Your turn
I’m always building my podcast rotation while I train, drive, and recover.
What’s your favorite sport coaching podcast right now—anything from mindset to coaching, youth sports to the collegiate athlete? Let me know, I am making a list :)
