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I have just decided
to re-read John Wooden’s autobiography They Call Me Coach, and to complete it
before the start of our basketball season.
Our first official practice is October 19th, so I have to get
moving. Here are excerpts from the
forward to this book, written by Bill Walton.
There are so many gems in this forward about Coach Wooden, the type of
man he is, and what he believed in, from the eyes and experience of one of his
most accomplished players.
Coach Wooden is a humble, private man who has selflessly devoted his life to
make other people's lives better.
With John Wooden, there is never an end to
anything. His ability to always be about what's next, always about the
future, enables him to lead an incredibly active, constructive, positive and
contributing life to this very day.
Today, John Wooden is still our coach in so
many ways. He there with us each and every day, pushing, shaping,
molding, challenging, driving us to be better, faster. Now, as then, this
is not done in an overbearing fashion, but always in the lowest key imaginable.
John Wooden teaches by example. He never asks or expects anyone to
do anything that he hasn't already done himself. He
teaches by creating an environment that people want to be a part of, where we
want what he has to give.
That is what John Wooden teaches: the
ability to learn how to learn. Wooden didn't promise basketball,
material, and individual success; he talked about the chance of
coming to UCLA and being part of something special: the opportunity to train
your mind, to learn how to think, to develop skills, to make decisions, to
dream, to achieve peak performance.
And teach he did: his pyramid, his belief
that basketball, like life, is not a game of size and strength but a game of
skill, timing, and position. And that it's not how tall you are, but how
tall you play. It's not how high you jump, but where you are and when you
jump.
He taught us to find a source of motivation
to inspire us to ever high levels of preparation and work. He taught us
how to be in balance so we could quickly get to what's next and that quickness
is a mental skill based on anticipation, not a physical skill based on
athleticism. He taught us that confidence is an integral part of
achieving peak performance but that confidence must come from a lifetime of
preparation that ensures deliverance to the championship level.
He knows that the strength of the team is
the strength of the individual and that when everyone thinks alike, no one is
thinking. That is what and how he teacher: rarely telling us the what or
why but rather showing us how and letting us come to the rest of the answer on
our own. He never talks about winning and losing, but rather about the
effort to win. He rarely talks about basketball but generally about life.
He never talks about strategy, statistics, or plays but rather about people
and character. And he never tires of telling us that once you become a good
person, then you have a chance of becoming a good basketball player or whatever
else you may want to do.
John Wooden also represents the
conquest of sacrifice, hard work, and commitment to achievement over the pipe
dream that someone will just give you something or that you can take a pill or
turn a key to get what you want.
At 92, Wooden is happier, more positive,
and more upbeat than ever. There is not a bit of cynicism, not an ounce
of bitterness, absolutely no jealousy or envy.
Wooden represents the conquest of substance
over hype, the conquest of discipline over gambling, and the triumph of executing
an organized plan over hoping that you'll be lucky, hot or in the zone.
The joy
and happiness in John Wooden's life comes today, as it always has, from the
success of others. He regularly tells us that a life not lived for others
is not a life.
Bill Walton
- They Call Me Coach (Forward)
- They Call Me Coach (Forward)
