Seven must-read books for coaches and athletic directors in 2026

Books are great resources to teach coaches and athletic administrators about philosophy, leadership, and team building. We regularly speak with athletic administrators who assign books to their coaching staff or coaches who require their captains to read about becoming role models.

But what books are best?

Coach & Athletic Director compiled a list of recommendations for books that all coaches, athletic administrators, and other sports professionals must read to become a true leader for their programs.

Below is a synopsis of the seven book recommendations.

1. Coaching with Purpose: The Game Plan That Helps Coaches Build Winners on and Off the Field by Keith Madison

   

   Coaching today is more challenging than ever. From tight budgets, long hours, and overzealous parents to the NCAA transfer portal, NIL deals, and social media, today’s coaches are faced with high expectations and little thanks. Too many coaches find themselves burned out, worn down, and wondering if all the stress and pressure is worth it.

   After 28 years of coaching on the field, including 25 seasons as head coach for the University of Kentucky, and 20 years mentoring coaches both one-on-one and through his work at SCORE International and the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), Coach Keith Madison has a plan to help you be successful.

2. Champion Mindset: Coach Yourself to Win at Life by Patrick Mouratoglou

   Superstar coach Patrick Mouratoglou knows what it takes to win. An international icon in the world of tennis, he coached Serena Williams for a decade at the height of her career. Now he currently coaches four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka and has worked with numerous top players over the years, including Holger Rune, Coco Gauff, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and many more. In Champion Mindset, Mouratoglou distills his lifetime of coaching excellence into ten commandments applicable to achieving success in all aspects of life, not just the court.
   

3. Coaching Women Athletes to Excellence by Katherine Lord

   If you have coached both men and women athletes, you probably have noticed that some motivational approaches that worked great with the guys didn’t connect as well with your women athletes. Coaching Women Athletes to Excellence will help you build and enhance team unity and motivate your athletes to even greater heights.

   The book offers proven practice solutions to get better every day and penetrating insights on how to enhance mental toughness with your women athletes as related by the greatest women’s coaches of the last generation.

4. The Crooked Rim by Pam Norton

   The Crooked Rim motivates, inspires and empowers all readers with practical tools and strategies to master their own mindset, strengthen personal resilience and develop resilient teams, and perform like a corporate athlete to manage elevated expectations and insurmountable stress.

   Through The Crooked Rim, Pam Borton inspires hope, confidence, and a powerful belief that resilience and mental toughness are attainable. For more than 30 years, she has coached these principles and guided elite NCAA players and now corporate athletes to their own Final Fours…and she shows readers that they can do it, too.

5. Management – The Misunderstood and Unappreciated Process and Skill Sets by Dr. David Hoch

   Many books about professional development focus on what it means to lead — a team, a business, and those aspiring to be where you are. But in order to do more in leadership, first you must take care of day-to-day operations. After all, there’s no time for motivational speeches when you have budgets to balance and events to coordinate.

   In this comprehensive guide to the realities of this work, Dr. David Hoch draws upon his lifetime of experience in sports management to encourage you to perfect your skills in how to manage work responsibilities. These include personnel, budget, emergency protocols, and one’s mental health, among others.

6. Changing Lives: The True Legacy of a Coach by Scott Garvis with Dennis Parker, &  Larry McKenzie

   Drawing from decades of leadership and coaching experience, Scott Garvis, Larry McKenzie, and Dennis Parker share their invaluable lessons they have learned in building a championship culture rooted in character education. This book goes beyond X’s and O’s, offering a blueprint for coaches at every level who want to make a lasting impact on their athletes both on and off the field.

   Through real-life stories, proven strategies, and the Changing Lives Curriculum, the book demonstrates how instilling core values such as discipline, accountability, and resilience leads to both personal growth and team success. Whether you’re a seasoned coach, a new leader, or simply someone passionate about mentorship, this book will inspire you to embrace coaching as an opportunity to change lives — because the true legacy of a coach isn’t measured in trophies but in the legacy they leave in shaping our future leaders.
   

7. The Seven Commitments of a Great Team by Jon Gordon 

   In The 7 Commitments of a Great Team, we follow the journey of Tim, a struggling leader facing declining business performance, low team morale, and self-doubt. While visiting his old college coach who is on his deathbed, Coach Richie reminds him of a lesson from years past: “Teammates are forever.”
   

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   This poignant moment triggers a powerful flashback to Tim’s past, where his team defied all odds and achieved something remarkable. As Tim reflects on that experience, he realizes that the same seven commitments that led to success back then can be applied to his current team ― and to any team striving to achieve extraordinary results together.