Alan Bass: The Hidden Side of Coaching It is well known that Brooks gave his players psychological tests before ultimately choosing his team for the 1980 Olympics. These tests allowed Brooks to understand each of his players, how they thought, what irked them, and what motivated them to perform at their very best. This is why Brooks chose so many players from the University of Minnesota and Boston University for that 1980 team – he was familiar with them and knew that he would have a better chance of understanding these players whom he had histories with in the short amount of time he would have with the team. This, along with his brilliant hockey mind, allowed his team to achieve ultimate success.

I had to take one of those tests about ten years ago when applying for a minimum wage job! One would think there would be more of this in pro sports. Maybe it's a players union thing, and the half the players don't want to be exposed for being complete morons that just happen to be able to skate and shoot a puck. I guess the same could be said of baseball, basketball and football.

Do you think a coach would select a player who did very well on the exam, vs a player who scored very poorly but had more talent?

Excellent piece, Alan. I got to know Herbie pretty well (although certainly not as well as those that played for him) over the years and he was indeed a master psychologist! (I think some of the things he asked me from time to time were meant to figure me out a bit too.) Speaking to some of his Olympic players over the years such as Kenny Morrow or Mike Eruzione also proved your point to me. Whenever I talked to Herbie I could almost see those "wheels turning" in his head!