There are nuggets of wisdom to be gleaned from Berra's malapropisms, and some of these can be applied to Bible Quiz. So I now present five coaching tips from Yogi Berra.

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.

Now, on the surface this makes no sense. Think about it this way, though often we approach quiz as the product of an equation of practice drills, studying, and simply doing things like you practice. I do think there is an element of "game speed" that is impossible to replicate in practice. Especially with young quizzers, you simply can't always predict what they are going to do in a game. That's why it's important to get to as many tournaments as possible before official competition.

If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.

I'm a planner. I freely admit that I can't stand to start a practice without having a clear direction. For every practice, I figure out where I want my team to be at the end, and do everything I can to get them there. That way we don't waste time and we don't end up somewhere else.

There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell 'em.

This perfectly described my least favorite attribute in a quizzer. If a quizzer isn't teachable, there isn't a lot I can do. Some quizzers think they know it all, and that's quite annoying to those of us that have been doing this for awhile. I have 20 years experience in this, and there are still things I am learning to do better. I certainly don't want to hear that a fourteen year old thinks they have it all figured out.

You can observe a lot by just watching.

One of the things I like to do as a coach is watch my team while someone else reads. That allows me to watch their reactions, make sure they have good mechanics, and see their quizzing from a different perspective. It really helps me to coach them better.

I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.

This one's more for fun, but the truth is that there are some pretty heavy records out there right now. Obviously, the Nationals individual scoring record set by Kent Piacenti is technically unbreakable, as it's now not possible to score more than 152 points per game. I remember my senior year, I broke the previous record for forward quiz-outs by a considerable margin, and people were pretty excited about it. Of course, I understood that it was much easier to break that record since we played 22 games that year, which was more than at any previous Nationals. With more games, it's easier to get more quiz-outs.

So that's some coaching wisdom from Yogi Berra. I'll have a little more toward the end of the week.