John Wooden
John Wooden
John Robert Woodenwas an American basketball player and coach. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood," as head coach at UCLA he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period, including a record seven in a row. No other team has won more than two in a row. Within this period, his teams won a men's basketball-record 88 consecutive games. Wooden was named national coach of the year six times...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth14 October 1910
CountryUnited States of America
Ben has really embraced the tradition of the program, and growing up in Southern California, he understands what it really means. To see him teaching those same principles to his players just gives me a lot of pride.
In the end, it's about the teaching, and what I always loved about coaching was the practices. Not the games, not the tournaments, not the alumni stuff. But teaching the players during practice was what coaching was all about to me.
Effective leaders are, first and foremost, good teachers. We're in the education business.
Not everyone is equipped to be a leader, but in a sense, everyone is a leader to someone, even though you're not equipped. I think parents are a leader to youngsters, teacher are leaders, coaches are leaders, businessmen are leaders.
I'd be satisfied just coaching in high school. I turned down a number of colleges when I was teaching in South Bend, Indiana, before I went into the service. I honestly believe that if I hadn't enlisted in the service, I would never have left high school teaching. I'm sure I would have never left.
Winning and losing aren't all they're cracked up to be, but the trip to the destination is.
I discovered early on that the player who learned the fundamentals of basketball is going to have a much better chance of succeeding and rising through the levels of competition than the player who was content to do things his own way. A player should be interested in learning why things are done a certain way. The reasons behind the teaching often go a long way to helping develop the skill.
There are little details in everything you do, and if you get away from any one of the little details, you're not teaching the thing as a whole. For it is little things which, together, make the whole. This, I think, is extremely important.
The coach must never forget that he is, first of all, a teacher. He must come (be present), see (diagnose), and conquer (correct). He must continuously be exploring for ways to improve himself in order that he may improve others and welcome every person and everything that maybe helpful to him.
The outstanding coach is a teacher that gets all his squad to accept the role that he considers to be the most important for the welfare of all.
Since the most important responsibility of a coach in regard to the actual playing of the game is to teach his players properly and effectively to execute the various fundamentals of the game, he is first of all a teacher.
It matters not the subject taught, nor all the books on all the shelves, What matters most, yes most of all, is what the teachers are themselves.
If we, as coaches, aren't teachers, we are nothing
When everyone has good players, teaching will be a telling difference.