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Quotes from John Wooden

I recently was given a book entitled "How March Became Madness" by Eddie Einhorn.  This is probably old news as it came out in 2006, but I still found his interview with Wooden to be facinating, besides that he almost ended up coaching at Minnesota, but didn't because they called him back late.

 

"I always felt my job was done during the week, and if I'd done a good job I could go up in the stands and let the players handle the game.  Except for a few instances, I think a coach should be able to do that.  I don't think you have to be on the sideline walking up and down and yelling and giving signals.  I think that promotes insecurity amoung the players, makes them feel you don't have confidence in them.

I never yelled at the players at halftime.  I didn't see any point to it.  I didn't want them to come charging onto the floor.  We'd come in and talk things over technically.  I didn't want them to get too excited.  I think that's artificial, like the difference between passion and love.  Passion is temporary, while love is more enduring.  I didn't want a lot of rah-rah stuff.  I didn't want them to get tired.  I wanted them to save their energy, not go around bemping into people."

- John Wooden

"'OK, men, gather round,' he's [Wooden] say, and we'd sit down and be ready from some unbelievable speech.  But he'd just look at us and say, 'Men, I've done my job.  The rest is up to you.  When the game starts, don't ever look over to me at the sideline.  I can't do anything for you.'  And that was that.  Every game.  It was like, 'I've taught you how to play, now go and play.'"

- Bill Walton

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They Call Me Coach

My favorite Wooden book of all. I got him to autograph my copy at a UCLA event back in 1999.

by FortyYearCatFan on Feb 20, 2009 6:35 AM EST reply actions  

I haven’t read the book,

But, I did see an interview with Bill Walton a couple of years ago (on ESPN, I’m sure, I just can’t remember exactly) and Walton was asked (I’m paraphrasing here, of course) — "What was one of the most important things about basketball Coach Wooden ever taught you" and Walton replied, "Coach Wooden didn’t teach us about basketball, he taught us about life". I thought that was pretty special. : )

by BigSkyCat on Feb 20, 2009 11:40 AM EST up reply actions  

I've heard him say that too

Of course its difficult, its a shortcut... if it was easy it'd just be "the way."

by chirop1 on Feb 20, 2009 2:08 PM EST up reply actions  

Soccer

My son played on a highly ranked international club team up here in Chicago. The coaches never left their seat during games and rarely gave in-game directions…and that was as far back when he was 10 yrs old. Of course, I also saw many a practice and it was entirely the opposite…yelling, on the field, emotion, etc. You can make the same claim in football, but that’s different…there is a huddle after every play and therefore, play is not as free flowing.

It’s interesting to see that all the high level professional soccer teams and coaches practice this same philosophy…you do your coaching at practice. I wonder what makes basketball so unique?

'..when they bring a knife, you bring a gun...that's the Chicago way..'

by HozeKing on Feb 20, 2009 8:42 AM EST reply actions  

Baseball

Baseball is the exact opposite… You work on only fundementals in practice and all the coaching is done during the game (at least in the National League)…

There is more then one way to get it done for sure…

ShagOnSports - "people should know when they are conquered"

by ShagOnSports on Feb 20, 2009 10:32 AM EST up reply actions  

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