They Call Me Coach | Forward Notes

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)