John Wooden Rare Lecture Coaching Notes

John Wooden Rare Lecture Coaching Notes
The following notes were taken from a video recorded by Coaches Choice.  It is a John Wooden lecture where he speaks for a little over 1 hour and 13 minutes on his coaching philosophy.  It is a great video where you get to hear one of the greatest coaches ever speak candidly about coaching and his experiences.  It is filled with nuggets on coaching, and it touches so many different topics.

Below Is A Video Link To The Entire Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xYDoa6FX_s

He begins the lecture by asking the crowd to move up.  I thought that was something interesting about who he is and the way he commands certain things from the people he works with.

“Quite frequently, my minister has to ask people in the congregation to move up if they have sat too far in the back.  How about moving up a little those of you in the back because I, I like to watch you.”

His Philosophy On Coaching

“It’s been some years since I have actively coached, but I don’t think philosophy has changed.  Some of the things have changed, but I don’t think the basic things have changed at all.  I think that the most important things that were basic before I started to coach and the basic things that were basic when I coached are still basic today, and I think that they will be basic when I am gone and you are gone.”  

The Three Basics Of Coaching Basketball

1 – Conditioning

Physical conditioning
- I tried to get them in the best possible physical condition.  

- It is a dual responsibility – yours and the players.  

- You have the responsibility of getting your ideas across to them and to get them to understand the importance of what you do as a team [from a conditioning standpoint].

- The players must believe in you and help you to get the things that you believe in across and working.

- Every drill was a conditioning drill and a skill drill.

- You have to plan your practice schedules so that you have drills that would accomplish your conditioning needs.  

- Didn’t run for conditioning but used his drills as conditioning; they were always running in practice.

Mental and Moral Conditioning

Physical conditioning must be preceded by moral and mental conditioning.

            - How are we going to condition are athletes mentally and morally?

2 - Being Able To Execute Skills Properly and Quickly

- If you can’t do them quickly, you may not be able to do it at all [in games with a defense on you].

- Proper and quick execution of fundamentals
- They worked on fundamentals every day, and every drill in which they worked on fundamentals was also a conditioning drill.

3 - Playing Together As A Team
- You must get them to take their individual talents and get them to work for the group as a whole; it is up to you to teach that.

He taught things, not by push-ups and running laps, but by denial of privileges.

Style Of Play

We tend to complicate a relatively simple game; it doesn’t make difference what offense and defense you use as long as you have balance; you have movement on offense and you keep your balance and disposition on defense.

What To Look For In Athletes
1 - Quickness Under Control

All Coaches Want Them Big and Quick

The first thing I looked for in an athlete was quickness under control.  If you have quickness with no control, you have activity but you don’t have achievement.  We want achievement.

He would give up size for quickness.  He wanted his guys to be quicker than their matchups, but they must be under control; you can’t have activity and not achievement.

2 – Balance
Physical, Mental, and Moral

“Love is most important in life, and if we all truly have it like we all should have it, we won’t need anything else.”

- Need mental balance to maintain your self-control and to keep things in proper perspective.

- Physical balance is maintained by keeping your head directly above the mid-point between your two feet.  When you lean your head too far over, you will lose balance and fall over from the weight of the liquids in your head.

- You should keep your arms from extending out too far in front of your body.  When they extend too far out in front of you, you will lose your balance.  If I reach, I lean and the offensive player should be clapping because I no longer have balance.  

- As a shooter, if I am leaning forward, I lose my balance and I am no longer shooting – I am pecking and I will be inconsistent.

On Practice

Says that one of his strengths and the part he loves and misses was practice and planning, organizing and conducting practices.  He used it to get to know his players and build relationships with his players.

He spent more time planning a practice than the actual practice.  He would carefully plan, and he wanted no interference during his practices.  He kept a record of every practice that they have ever had.  He even looked at what they did exactly a year before to gauge their current progress.

“Don’t complicate a simple game.”

“The X’s and O’s aren’t what make the game.  It’s all about how the players perform and keep the floor balanced, how good of condition they are in, whether they are team players, and how quickly and appropriately they can execute the fundamentals.”

“As a coach, you must make the players feel like they are working with you to accomplish a goal.  You won’t get nearly as much out of people if they feel like they are working for you than if they feel that you are all working together.”

70% of practice every day was on individual fundamentals.  They would have offensive and defensive, with and without the ball, drills, but very little scrimmaging after the first week or two.  They wouldn’t scrimmage after the first week or two until the Friday before the last game.  They would have a scrimmage with a paid referee there for that day.

His 5 on 5 work was done in the half court.  His first five was on the court, and the other 2 rotation players would be on the side shooting free-throws with managers keeping track of their makes and misses.  The players would sub on their own.

When he worked on defense, he made sure that they always worked their fast break with it; anytime they got the ball, they ran their fast break.

“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail and its practice where you’re preparing.”

He said that he felt that he could have started games in the stands because of the way that they prepared in practice.  He mentioned that there were two guys that he coached that he believed that he didn’t even need to be there in the games because they could run the team.   They couldn’t run the practice because that is where they prepared, but they were prepared to run themselves in games.

On Teaching

He believed in the ‘Whole Part Method’ of teaching.  He believed in showing them the whole picture, then working on and drilling the smaller parts, then bringing it all back together.

The Importance Of Establishing Roles Roles

Players have to understand that everybody has a role to fill on the team.  On a car, a powerful engine is no more important than the wheel, and the wheel is no more important than the nut that holds it on.  He had to pat guys on the back a little when they weren’t getting the playing time or getting their names in the paper and let them know that they are important.  

“They don’t have to like their role, but they have to fill it because if they don’t, somebody else will and you have to make that clear to them.”

As a Coach, You are Responsible for the Team, Not The Individual

Sydney Wick sophomore year was the best physical forward on the team and he sat on the bench for the most part.  Sydney said to coach one day, “Coach, you know darn well that I’m better than Shaq and Curtis.”  Coach said back to him, “Yes you are Sydney, too bad you are letting them beat you out.”  He was the better individual, but they were a better team without him, and you are responsible for the team, not the individual.

“You have to love all of your players.  You might not like them all the time, but you have to love them.”

On Emotions

He stressed that you have to keep your emotions under control.  He felt that he need to model that for the players because if he expected it out of them, they would expect it out of him.  You have to work on this.

On Good Shots

He tried to determine from where each player would shoot.  They practiced shooting every shot, and they practiced using the backboard every day, but each player knew from he wanted his shots to come from.  

As a general rule, he wanted his shots to come from a pass and not a dribble.

Teach Them How To Read The Defense

He wanted guys to read the defense and read how they are being guarded.  If they are being overplayed, then of course he wants you to use the dribble to attack, but if somebody rotates to pick you up, you should be able to read the defense and make the right play and take advantage by getting the ball to the guy he left open.

Its starts when guys catch the ball.  When they catch, as they get that pass, they should know where they are going to look 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd.   They know what they are reading and they know what kind of pass to make to make the play; they have to know the best pass for each particular situation.  

“They have to know these things in advance and we have to teach the players these things in advance.”

On Decision Making

 “Its okay to disagree, just don’t be disagreeable.  You won’t agree on everything [with your assistants, your players, your spouse, or your own kids].  Be thankful when you have disagreements because without them we would live in a dull and monotonous world; but understand though, that somebody has to make the decision.  Decision-making is a lonely job; suggestion making is simple because everybody has a suggestion.  But, decision-making is very hard, especially when your decision affects others.”

“Disagree without being disagreeable.”

Before You Make Your Decision You Must …

1 – Have Courage

2 – Listen to those around you

3 – Make the decision

Make the Decision With …

1 – Reason

4 – Self-Control

5 – Reference to your past experiences that are relevant

- Don’t be hesitant or scared to make a mistake because you are going to make them; just learn from your mistakes.

“I’ve never met a person from which I haven’t learned something, although most of the time, it was something not to do.” - Abraham Lincoln

- Listen to your players and your coaches.  Don’t make decisions just because you are the coach because who wants to play for somebody like that?

His Rotation

“The load should be carried by 7 or 8 players.”  

He would have 3 guards that he can rely on, and he would have 2 of the 3 on the court at all times.  He would have 4 or 5 bigs.  He would have 1 center and 2 forwards.

Strength and Conditioning

He didn’t believe in having a weight program.  He would use stretching and exercises, but not a weight program because he didn’t want his players having artificial bulk.

His players got their conditioning in through their drills.  Every shooting drill is a conditioning drill.

Avoid Peaks and Values

Work to Control Your Emotions

Model avoiding peaks and values.  For every peak, there is a valley, and if you get carried away with prosperity, you won’t be able to handle adversity.  Try to keep things in proper perspective at all times.

“You must do the things in which you believe if you expect your players to do and believe in them.”

Selfishness on Offense and Defense

It’s just as easy to be selfish on defense as it is on offense.  Its not about you stopping your man from scoring; its about stopping the other team from scoring.  He thought Larry Bird was one of the best defenders in the NBA because he’s floating, he’s watching, he’s alert, he gets deflections, he gets interceptions, and he was a great team defender.

He learned a lot about coaching basketball and being a leader from the book, “The Art of Living” by Wilfred A. Peterson.

- As a coach authority alone is not enough to demand respect.  You cannot demand respect, but you must command it.

- The leader sees things through the eyes of his followers; he puts himself in their shoes and helps them make their dreams come true.

- Its better to trust and get let down that to not trust and walk around bitter all the time.

- The leader doesn’t say, “Get going;” he says, “follow me.”

- The leader is not behind with a whip, he is out front with a banner.

- The leader assumes that his followers are working with him and not for him.  He sees them as partners and he sees that they share with him all of the rewards.

- The leader glorifies the team spirit.

- - The leader has faith in people, and he makes them understand that he has faith in them.  He believes in them, trusts them, and this draws out the best in them, and then they’ll try to live up to the highest expectations.

-  Lincoln says – Its better to trust and be disappointed once in a while than to distrust and be miserable all of the time.

- A leader uses his heart as well as his head.

- A leader never laughs at others, but he laughs at himself.

- A leader can be lead; he is not interested in having his own way, but a leader is interested in having the best way.

- A leader keeps his eyes on high goals.

"There is so much more to the game than just X’s and O’s because you are working with people.  Learn how to work with people and how to draw out the best in them."

You don’t want assistance who just agree with you all the time.  You don’t want yes men or no men, because it only inflates your ego (anybody who is willing to work in the public eye already has an inflated ego).  You want people who aren’t afraid to disagree with you, but they must understand that you are the only one who has to make the decisions.  You have to listen to them because if you expect them to listen to you, you must listen to them?  You can learn a lot by listening.

Do not permit the things over which you have no control to affect the things over which you have control or it will be adverse.

Equal Amount of Scoring Opportunities On Offense

Have an offense that over the course of the season will give each position on the floor an approximately equal amount of scoring opportunities.  That should be the framework of the offense, but don’t make it so restrictive that it takes away the individuality of the players.    

He taught a lot of one-on-one early in his career and moves and cuts, but he stopped doing that because of the help side defense and the fact that that would slow them because there is nowhere to go.  He started teaching how to read mistakes made by the defensive players.  He wanted his players to make individual moves only when his defender makes a mistake.  He wanted them to be able to read the mistakes.   In the post, he taught guys how to feel the defense pressure and move away from the pressure.

Rebounding

1 – Assume that every shot will be missed.  If you wait to see if it’s missed, you will be slow/late.

2 – Get your hands above your shoulder

3 – Go get the ball

When offensive rebounding, get your arm in a 90-degree angle, try to get a step on him and take a straight path to the basket while making him go in an arc in trying to get back in position on you.  If your defender is in your way, give him a quick fake and get by him.  Once you get a step on him, cut off his path by getting in front of him.

When defensive rebounding, take a step back watch the defense, make contact with the rebounder, then attack the ball.  Use either the ‘crossover and go’ or the ‘reverse and go.’

He never had a team at UCLA that was outrebounded over 6 times throughout the season.

“Stubbornness we deprecate; firmness we condone.  The former is my neighbor’s trait; the latter is my own.”

Coaches Choice. (Coach’s Choice).  2013, June 7.  John Wooden - UCLA Coach Rare Lecture - Coaches Choice Classic DVD's Full Video!  Retrieved from:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xYDoa6FX_s