Coach Wooden Quotes

Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.

John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, says you aren’t a failure until you start to blame. What he means is that you can still be in the process of learning from your mistakes until you deny them.

I believe ability can get you to the top,” says coach John Wooden, “but it takes character to keep you there.… It’s so easy to … begin thinking you can just ‘turn it on’ automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, ‘More than ability, they have character.'

• "If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.

A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.

Coach Wooden didn’t treat everybody the same; he treated people the way they deserved to be treated.

Remember, results aren't the criteria for success — it's the effort made for achievement that is most important.

A coach’s primary function should be not to make better players, but to make better people.

Sincerity may not help us make friends, but it will help us keep them.

Coach Wooden never mentioned winning. It was always, “Fellas, we’ve got to play to our best. Let’s do that.” That’s a lot different from saying, “Fellas, we’ve got to win.” A lot different.

John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, says you aren’t a failure until you start to blame.

During the toughest challenges in my life I’ve come to most appreciate all Coach Wooden means to me. The things he would say—“Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal, don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses; worry about the things you can control, and not the things you can’t”—were endless. Yet there is an appropriate one for every situation. The real

Coach Wooden once said, “Be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way.

Don’t mistake activity for achievement. To produce results, tasks must be well organized and properly executed; otherwise, it’s no different from children running around the playground—everybody is doing something, but nothing is being done; lots of activity, no achievement.

I wanted to win every single game I ever played in or coached. Absolutely. I wanted to win. But, I understood that ultimately the winning or losing may not be under my control. What was under my control was how I prepared myself and our team. I judged my success, my “winning,” on that. It just made more sense.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Coach Wooden nailed it: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Many building custodians across the country would tell you that UCLA left the shower and dressing room the cleanest of any team. We picked up all the tape, never there soap on the shower floor for someone to slip on, made sure all the showers were turned off and all towels were accounted for. The towels were always deposited in a receptacle, if there was one, or stacked nearly near the door. It seems to me that this is everyone's responsibility-not just the mangers's. Furthermore, I believe it is a form of discipline that should be a way of life, not to please some building custodian, but as an expression of courtesy and politeness that each of us owes to his follow-man. These little things establish a spirit of togetherness and consideration that help unite the team into a solid unit.

When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens—and when it happens, it lasts.” —John Wooden, one of the most successful coaches in the history of college basketball

I looked down the line of the wonderfully successful people on either side of me and wondered if each of them had a Coach Wooden who, to quote President Obama, “helped make me who I am.” I hoped so, because without Coach, my life would have been so much less. Less joyous. Less meaningful. Less filled with love. Later,

when coaches or parents make consistency their foundation, everyone around them becomes more comfortable and everyone around them has a greater opportunity to grow.

SEEK SIGNIFICANT CHANGE       • Never be content with performance or results.       • Remove all excuses for getting to the next level. Don’t say “no”; ask

John Wooden focused almost entirely on improvement in the present moment. He let the score—winning—take care of itself. Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.

I tried to teach them [his sons] that about the importance of self-discipline, and that the culture of yes is built on a foundation of no.

My opponent now is myself, my inclination toward laziness.

The wheels where enormous wooden affairs, the back ones rounding up over the windows of the coach.

If you get yourself too engrossed in things over which you have no control, it’s going to adversely affect the things over which you have control.” His

Don’t hope. Hope is for people who aren’t prepared.

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

While I made my living as a coach, I have lived my life to be a mentor, and to be mentored! Constantly. Everything in the world has been passed down. Every piece of knowledge is something that has been shared by someone else. If you understand it as I do, mentoring becomes your true legacy. It is the greatest inheritance you can give to others. It is why you get up every day—to teach and be taught.

In game play it was always my philosophy that patience would win out. By that, I meant patience to follow our game plan. If we believed in it, we would wear the opposition down and would eventually get to them. If we broke away from our style, however, and played their style, we would be in trouble. And if we let our emotions, rather than our reason, command the game we would not function effectively.

John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, says you aren’t a failure until you start to blame. What he means is that you can still be in the process of learning from your mistakes until you deny them. When

Ninety percent of the time, the game is going to be decided in the final five minutes. When two teams are evenly matched, the better conditioned team will usually execute better when fatigue set sin, and will probably win.

I remain convinced to this day that compassion like that—sincerely caring for your players and maintaining an active interest in their lives, concerns, and motivations—is one of the most important qualities a coach can have.

Learn from others and never cease trying to be the best you can possibly be...If you get yourself too engrossed in things over which you have no control, it's going to adversely affect the things over which you have control.

The past cannot change what is to come. The work that you do each and every day is the only true way to improve and prepare yourself for what is to come. You cannot change the past, but you can influence the future by what you do today.” —

At times when I am feeling low, I hear from a friend and then, My worries start to go away, and I am on the mend. No matter what the doctors say, and their studies never end, The best cure of all, when spirits fall, is a kind word from a friend.

I like to think about that story sometimes because it reminds me that, although we like to think of our heroes as perfect, the harsh truth is that they became heroes by making mistakes and learning from them. To me, that makes them even more heroic.

One of the ways Coach Wooden used to do that was to ask his players to acknowledge the skills and contributions of others. He told each player that if a teammate made a great pass or set a pick that allowed him to score, he should acknowledge the teammate on the way back down the court. One time a player asked, “Coach, if we do that, what if the teammate that made the assist isn’t looking?” Coach Wooden replied, “He will always be looking.” Coach knew that people look for and thrive on acknowledgment and appreciation.

Coach John Wooden [UCLA] taught me that sports wasn’t just about making us better athletes, but about making us better people. Compassion, kindness, and morality were more important than a championship season. Fame wasn’t an accomplishment, it was an opportunity to show our gratitude to the community that we are a part of by changing it for the better.

If any one premise typifies my teams in all the years I've coached, it is this concept. Often as a player, I'd tell myself, "I may play someone better than I am, but I'll never run against one who is going to be in better condition" And I never played against a man in my life I felt was in better shape, and Lambert often cited me as an example of top conditioning.

Whenever the story of John Wooden’s life gets told, his years at UCLA before he started winning championships are usually characterized as a period of struggle. Wooden didn’t view them that way. He was a diligent, persistent man. He enjoyed developing his craft, one small lesson plan at a time. “Little things add up, and they become big things. That’s what I tried to teach my players in practice,” he said. “You’re not going to make a great improvement today. Maybe you’ll make a little bit. But tomorrow it’s a little more, and the next day a little more.

I had a firm policy never to charge up my team on an emotional level. I believe that for every artificial peak you may create there is a valley, and i don't like valleys. Games can be lost in valleys. The ideal is an ever-mounting graph line that peaks with your final performance. There will be difficulty and adversity to overcome, but that is necessary to become stronger. Other coaches believe in charging a team up. I never did and never will. I sought a calm assurances in our dressing room, and a calm assurance warming up on the floor, and ad calm assurance in my final remarks before going out to play.

He shook hands. With greening faces, with eyes full of sparks, his two friends leaned upon their canes. One had on a crushed bowler (why?)... Both were weary. Both knew that what was approaching was the end. Both had spent the day in their offices and when they interrupted their work with an indiscreet nod, when they turned the conversation toward that end, both broke in "Lord, we have strayed from our business." And ever deeper sunk their eyes, a deathly shadow was descending. The words of his friends had been bought with blood, but they were stolen. Someone, listening, recorded them on a phonograph and thousands of cylinders began to twang. A new enterprise opened, on sale a bronze throat, a screaming cavity; an experienced mechanic installed the throat phonograph. The purchased throat squealed day and night and his friends grew exhausted and one day he said to them both "Lord, I am going." He grinned. And they grinned: they understood everything. Now they stood on the platform, stood with him and saw him off. Someone long and dark with the face of an ox, shoulders crooked as a sorrowful cemetery cross and wrapped up in a frock-coat, swept into the coach. And then the bell rang, and then they waved their bowlers; three wooden arms swung in the air. ("Adam")

The worst fault of a beginning coach is he expects too much and doesn’t have enough patience.

The coach who continually tells his players they are rotten is sure to make them so.

UCLA basketball coach John Wooden told players who scored to give a smile, wink, or nod to the player who gave them a good pass. “What if he’s not looking?” asked a team member. Wooden replied, “I guarantee he’ll look.” Everyone values encouragement and looks for it.

In the face of all this evidence, Wooden continued to insist that whatever violations had occurred on his watch were minor. “There’s as much crookedness as you want to find,” Wooden said. “There was something Abraham Lincoln said—he’d rather trust too much than distrust and be miserable all the time. Maybe I trusted too much.

if you do the following three things, you will be successful in major college basketball. If you don’t do them, it will be most difficult.” He didn’t say it would be impossible—typical of John Wooden—but he said it would be difficult. I was scrambling for my pen when he said, “Those three things are fairly simple: Number one, make certain, Dale, you always have better players than anybody you play. Now, with that locked up, make sure you always get the better players to put the team above themselves. And number three—this is very important, Dale Brown,” he said, “don’t try to be some coaching genius, or give the guys too much information, or too much stuff; always practice simplicity with constant repetition.

Wooden often said a coach only made four or five real decisions during a game. “It disgusts me to see all these cartoons of raving maniac coaches,” he said. “There is far more overcoaching than undercoaching in basketball. It’s a great game, an intricate game, but we should not make it complicated.

Wooden was a very good fundamental coach. He was very good at planning practices. He was very good at the relationships with the players,” Norman said. “But he didn’t have much in the way of strategy. His whole attitude was you play the way you practice.

It would not be easy to whip the hoops program into shape. UCLA had posted a winning record just twice in the previous seventeen seasons and at one point had lost thirty-nine consecutive games to its crosstown rival, the University of Southern California.

He was, in short, a hard-to-please, detail-obsessed, hyper-organized taskmaster and control freak—which made it all the more jarring when he adopted a hands-off approach during games. Wooden believed it was his job to prepare his team to play. Once the game began, it was their job to show what they had learned. Don’t look over at the bench when the game starts, he told them. Just do what you’ve been taught to do. “Practice was Mr. Wooden’s domain. The game was the players’ domain,

As Coach Wooden once said, “Be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way.

Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference.” - John Wooden

The great dividend is not necessarily outscoring an opponent. The guaranteed dividend is the complete peace of mind gained in knowing you did everything within your power, physically, mentally, and emotionally, to bring forth your full potential." – John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach

A healthy character means developing a positive outlook on life no matter what serious situation you’re facing. Well-respected basketball coach John Wooden said, “Be more concerned about your character than your reputation. Your reputation is how others perceive you; your character is who you really are.” Character means having a healthy, positive attitude in the wake of job loss or any life challenge. Clement Stone said, “There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.” Thomas Jefferson said, “Nothing can stop a person with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; but nothing on earth can help the person with the wrong mental attitude.

It’s what you learn after you know it all that really matters. —JOHN WOODEN, LEGENDARY BASKETBALL COACH

There was, however, one aspect to teaching that bothered him—the parents.

Hall of fame college basketball coach John Wooden said, “A leader who is through learning is through. And so is the team such a leader leads. It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

Ethics and Attitude Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Character is what you really are. Reputation is what people say you are. Character is more important.

As Coach John Wooden once said, “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.

There are coaches out there,” Wooden says, “who have won championships with the dictator approach, among them Vince Lombardi and Bobby Knight. I had a different philosophy.… For me, concern, compassion, and consideration were always priorities of the highest order.” Read

people like John Wooden, maybe the greatest coach of all time in any sport, or Mike Krzyzewski, who is the modern-day John Wooden, sustain success for so long. You can readily see their humility.

Coach John Wooden would not have asked, “Why is it so difficult to realize that others are more likely to listen to us if first we listen to them?

In Coach Wooden’s case, the term “drill” does indeed refer to making execution automatic, but it also means more. He designed lessons so that players could execute the fundamentals so well that they were able to, as the opportunity presented itself, take initiative and exercise imagination. “Drilling created a foundation,” he likes to say, “on which individual initiative and imagination can flourish.

Coach Wooden’s philosophy is for players and students to improve a little every day and make perfection the goal. His method for improving conditioning included one painful demand—each player, when reaching the point of exhaustion, was to push himself beyond. When this is done every day, top condition will be attained over time.

Coach Wooden’s approach succeeded: Setting challenging expectations appropriate to each individual; getting to know each individual well and caring for each as a person; tailoring his instructions and support to individual differences; and treating everyone with respect and fairness. It succeeded for him in the classroom, on the court, and in life.

Coach Wooden preached against comparisons and external rewards, and for focusing on becoming your best.

High quality programs require and foster a norm of continuous teaching improvement.

First, demonstrate what you want. Second, allow the person learning to imitate with the trainer coaching until perfect execution is achieved. Last, build repetition until it becomes second nature.

After that first season, I wondered if I had what it took to be a successful coach. I know the people who hired me were wondering as well.” “You obviously turned things around after that,” I said. “I did indeed,” Wooden said. “I learned some hard lessons quickly and changed my approach. Of course, it took me decades to develop the coaching philosophy that I would become known for. “People now see me as the coach who won those ten national championships, had the four undefeated teams, had the 88-game winning streak, and coached those All-Americans. They forget what a long and difficult journey it had been before I started seeing those kinds of results.

Things aren’t always fair in this world,” Coach Wooden said calmly. “Things aren’t always going to go your way. That’s life. I see so much self-inflicted pain and stress caused by people who think they’re entitled to having everything go their way. They think everything should always be fair. But that’s not the way this world works. “It’s actually quite liberating when you accept this fact,” he added.

The moral to this story is that consistent effort yields predictable success.

I think parenting and coaching or teaching are the same thing. And they are the two most important professions in the world.

I was hoping to talk to you, Nic.” Oh? “You have to do something about that dog.” Oh. “Tiger?” “What other dog roams this town at will and always manages to get in my way? This must be the last town in America not to have leash laws on the books.” “Actually, I agree with you about that. It’s not safe for the animals, and it’s something Eternity Springs will need to address once we have more visitors to town. What did he do now?” “I had a breakfast meeting at the Mocha Moose this morning. He was sitting at the door when I left, and he followed me back here. He’s been hanging around all day. You were supposed to find a home for him. That was the deal, was it not?” “Yes, and I’m still trying.” She licked her lips, then offered a smile just shy of sheepish. “Dale Parker has agreed to consider taking him.” Gabe jerked his stare away from her mouth as he asked, “So why is he underfoot every time I turn around?” “I explained that to you before. He’s adopted you.” “He’s a dog. It’s not his choice!” “Oh, for crying out loud,” Sage said. “Give it up, Callahan. I saw you slip that dog a hunk of your sandwich earlier. Way to chase him away.” Gabe didn’t bother defending himself, but watched Nic for a long minute before asking, “And where might I find Dale Parker?” “He owns the Fill-U-Up.” “That grumpy old son of a gun? No wonder the mutt has taken to hiding out with me. Is he the best you could do?” She watched it register on his face the moment he realized the mistake. Nic decided to take pity on him, mostly because her embarrassment lingered and she needed distance. “Where’s Tiger now?” “Here, at the foot of the stairs.” “He can stay with us.” She lifted her voice and called, “Tiger? Here, boy. C’mere, boy.” Four paws’ worth of nails clicked against the wooden floor. The boxer paused in the doorway and rubbed up against Gabe’s legs. “Awww,” Sage crooned as Sarah said, “He’s so cute. Gabe is right. He’s too sweet to hang with Dale Parker.” Nic dropped her hand and wiggled her fingers. Reluctantly the boxer approached. “You willing to take him home, Sarah?” “I can’t. Daisy and Duke are all I can handle. You know that.” She referred to the three-year-old golden retrievers who refused to leave the puppy stage behind. Nic scratched the boxer behind the ears and said, “What about you, big guy? Wanna watch the basketball game with us?” When the boxer climbed up on her knees and licked her face, she smiled and looped a finger through his leather collar. “We’ve got him. Sorry for the trouble, Callahan.” Gabe nodded, then glanced at the television and fired a parting shot. “You do know that Coach Romano has a twin brother who coaches at Southern Cal, don’t you?” Seated

Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books – especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day.

What is the book (or books) you’ve given most as a gift, and why? Or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life? Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. He introduces the insights that he learned from surviving imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp. He outlines methods to discover deep meaning and purpose in life. The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. His 81 Zen teachings are the foundation for the religion of Taoism, aimed at understanding “the way of virtues.” Lao Tzu’s depth of teachings are complicated to decode and provide foundations for wisdom. Mind Gym by Gary Mack is a book that strips down the esoteric nature of applied sport psychology. Gary introduces a variety of mindset training principles and makes them extremely easy to understand and practice. What purchase of $ 100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)? A book for my son: Inch and Miles, written by coach John Wooden. We read it together on a regular basis. The joy that I get from hearing him understand Coach Wooden’s insights is fantastically rewarding.

Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty (Proverbs 21:5).

Even at 94, I want to be the best I can be, and hard work is the only way to make this happen.

A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. —Coach John Wooden

She was about to touch one of the large wooden wheels of the coach when a more sinister image flashed before her – a coach full of children being driven away from the mission, crying for their mothers. Odette turned her back on the carriage.

Integrity matters • Think like a customer • Spirited fun •   Be quick, but don’t hurry (borrowed from legendary basketball coach John Wooden) • Employees are critical • Small details are huge • Take care of each other

Neutral thinking, I think, is very parallel to what coach Wooden talked about,” Cori said, “because coach Wooden never talked about the endgame. It was sort of inconsequential. It really had nothing to do with what we were doing in the moment.

It’s been said that when one of Wooden’s players asked, “Coach, what happens if I point to the player who gave me the assist and he isn’t watching?” Coach Wooden replied, “He will always be watching.” People desire validation and encouragement. It’s human nature.

As former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden said, “Things turn out the best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

More than thirty years ago I memorized a quote that has shaped the way I live: “My potential is God’s gift to me. What I do with my potential is my gift to Him.” I believe I am accountable to God, others, and myself for every gift, talent, resource, and opportunity I have in life. If I give less than my best, then I am shirking my responsibility. I believe UCLA coach John Wooden was speaking to this idea when he said, “Make every day your masterpiece.” If we give our very best all the time, we can make our lives into something special. And that will overflow into the lives of others.

The most powerful leadership tool we all have is our own example. —John Wooden

Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

Solid respect without fear is what I was after. I wanted them to believe in themselves without being self-centered, intimidated or naive.

We’d all be a lot wiser if we listened more,” Wooden said, “not just hearing the words, but listening and not thinking about what we’re going to say.

UCLA basketball coach John Wooden said, “Things turn out the best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

Heavenly Father, help me to view the effort I give in every aspect of my life as a gift to You. Lord, teach me to work for You and not for people. I want to fulfill the plans You have for me—for Your glory. Thank You.

We need to enter classrooms each day with one purpose in mind that comes from Coach John Wooden20, one of the best basketball coaches and teachers of all time. To be effective teachers, he tells us “we have not taught students, until they have learned.” We shouldn’t judge our effectiveness by how much we teach, what we teach, and how we teach. Rather, we make a positive judgment if we’ve approached students every day knowing that our success depends on how well students learn. I suggest that applying the Student

Coach John Wooden20, one of the best basketball coaches and teachers of all time. To be effective teachers, he tells us “we have not taught students, until they have learned.” We shouldn’t judge our effectiveness by how much we teach, what we teach, and how we teach. Rather, we make a positive judgment if we’ve approached students every day knowing that our success depends on how well students learn.

As a final tribute to Coach Wooden, let me share with you his suggestions to help build poise and confidence: The Eight Keys to Succeeding: 1.        Fear no opponent. Respect every opponent. 2.       It is the perfection of the smallest details that make big things happen. 3.       Hustle makes up for many a mistake. 4.       Be more interested in character than reputation. 5.       Be quick, but don’t hurry. 6.       Understand that the harder you work, the more luck you will have. 7.       Valid self-analysis is crucial for improvement. 8.       There is no substitute for hard work and careful planning. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

Regarding faith, my adherence to Islam had not diminished over the years since my conversion, but I had modified it from the intense orthodoxy I had followed at first to a more streamlined version that I felt was more progressive and inclusive. I practiced quietly on my own without the need to proselytize. I had been able to separate my faith in the theology from using it to make a cultural statement about black Americans. My only interest in Islam was spiritual and ethical guidance, not politics. In

Reputation is not, in fact, the most important thing. As famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once explained: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

As Hall of Fame basketball coach John Wooden said, “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.