Farewell to Coach Wooden: Simple Reflections

For those that don't know, Wooden was the basketball coach at UCLA for 28 years, from 1947-1975. His last 12 years are what cemented him to sports legend status as his Bruins won the NCAA championship 10 of those 12 years, a feat which will never even come close to being repeated. But he was way more than a basketball coach. He was first and foremost a teacher of English, poetry and basketball, probably in that order. His accomplishments as a coach are only surpassed by how he achieved such success. Before I continue, just be aware that this post will not even come close to painting a real picture of Coach Wooden. It is merely a few thoughts on his impact on me.

I've struggled with trying to write a short, coherent post on his passing. At this point, I feel it's neither but it is reflective so if you're pressed for time and not in the mood to read a long post, now's the time to check out.

I've mentioned Wooden in a number of my posts in the past. In fact, my current tagline "There is nothing you know that you did not learn from someone else" is from him. His passing has prompted me to reflect a bit on how I got to 'know' about Wooden and how I have come to increasingly reference him on so many levels in my life. It started as purely a basketball interest in my high school days and slowly expanded through the years until I began coaching youth basketball 10 years ago, at which point I started to really understand the gem of the human condition that Coach Wooden really was.

Don't Want to Sound All "Al Bundy" But...

Playing basketball in my youth naturally led me to that sport's collective awareness of Wooden and his dominant teams at UCLA through the 60's and 70's. I am too young to recall watching those teams actually play but if you played basketball during the 80's, you at least heard of Wooden. And that was pretty much it. As I went though my playing career in high school, my coach would have occasional references to Wooden but nothing much deeper than throwing one of his many corny quotes up on our practice schedule. The kind of quotes, with not nearly enough context, that often elicited eyerolls and smirks from me and my teammates.

Starting to Coach: The Beginning

Almost a decade ago, I volunteered to coach youth basketball for the first time (10-11 year old boys). As much as I had loved basketball, I had long repressed the 'coaching bug' for the game, figuring there was no real vocational point. At the time, I didn't even have any of my own children. To prepare for my first real coaching experience, I purchased Wooden's book, "Modern Practical Basketball". I knew this was the place to start in order to change my mindset from (former) player to coach. I figured it was dated but what the heck, it would still contain some good drills and concepts. I was wrong. That book was as transformative a reading as I've had in my life. Yes, it had drills but it was so deep in the principles and philosophies behind those drills and other concepts it was amazing. Being a classic basketball 'junkie' for much of my life, it was eye-opening beyond my belief. Before that book, I thought I'd known the basics of why he was a successful coach. The book revealed to me how much I didn't anything as to why he was so successful. Wooden was about life. He was about controlling effort because, try as we might, we do not control outcomes. And he was about pedagogy. Wooden was first and foremost an English teacher and he applied his classroom preparation to the court. Honestly, I hardly used any of the actual drills in the book because they turned out to be bit advanced for the age group I was coaching. But I took to heart the principles of teaching and applied as best I could and developed 'modified' versions of what he demonstrated in the book.

Perhaps my connection to his material was the shared love of basketball and midwestern roots, but it just seemed everything he communicated was well thought out and quite simple in it's approach. In any event, I ended up acquiring more books by Wooden to learn more about, well, everything he had to say. I coached for 6 years in that league and every year, "Modern Practical Basketball" made more sense that ever before. What I found was that I was applying his wisdom not to basketball so much but to life. And especially in my line of work in instructional design. I even began an email correspondence with one of his former players, Andy Hill, to discuss the impacts of Wooden's teaching on him. He had just published a book at the time and I found him very open and responsive. It was further enlightenment for me personally.

The Pyramid of Success and Just a Sample of other Wooden Thoughts

I won't even attempt to layout much of Wooden's artifacts of wisdom, but I can't let this post go without sharing the bedrock of his approach to life, the "Pyramid of Success".

It was given to me as a 17 year-old high school kid and, without context, didn't mean all that much. But now, with a lot more life lived, it is very meaningful. In fact, when I stopped coaching (for now), I truly understood Wooden when after being asked if he missed the excitement of the games, the championships, the hoopla etc. he said "I miss the practices". Boy, do I understand that now.

I'm not even sure how to end this post because there is so much to discuss. I think I'll leave with a few of my favorite quotes of his:

• "Be quick, but don't hurry." (I loved explaining that to 10 year olds for 3 months)
• "Failure to prepare if preparing to fail."
• "The team that makes the most mistakes will probably win" (one of my absolute favorites)
• "Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be."

His definition of success:

"Success is a peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable."

Amen to that, Coach.