I've always admired Coach Wooden for his accomplishments with his teams, but as I grow older, he ... as a person is becoming more and more impressive. I would even say has become sort of a small hero to me. His lifetime winning percentage is 804. The last twelve years of his career with UCLA basketball his record was 335 wins to 22 losses.
Even more impressive is his last nine years as a coach, where his teams accomplished 259 wins to only 7 losses.
Mind Boggling.
When I was younger I only looked at the numbers but as the years go by, the reasons behind his accomplishments are becoming even more impressive.
Coach Wooden taught character over flash. He taught that what is most important is not what one can gain outwardly in fame and possessions, but the inward gains of character that no one can ever take away from you. Have as your goals only those ideals of the inward no can ever take from you and the outward material life will always take care you and of itself.
His disciplined ideas of playing with "Absolutism", where one always plays to the best of his ability and always, 100% of the time, exercises the fundamentals of the game, on and off the court, is spot on. In this way, it didn't matter who the next opponent was, one didn't have to spend extra time thinking about how to play against their style, because if one always, 100% of the time, displays character, plays with hands up, draped on your opponent defense, the absolutism of playing as a team offense, this ... "absolutism style" would build character, confidence, self credibility and winning ways into the teams and individuals that used it. The absoulutism of practice, the fundamentals, the organic decision to build one's inner character first, before putting one's feet on the court, was the secret to his success.
Besides his coaching, his ethics in life, his loyalty to his players, especially to Clarence Walker, his loyalty to Mel Taube, his loyalty to his deceased wife, his humility, it appears that every decision Coach Wooden made in his life was for the betterment of his character. These are the reasons I'm growing more impressed as I learn more about his life and why Coach Wooden has become somewhat of a living icon to me.
Thanks for visiting my blog and reading this far,
Gregory Yodis
Greg's Blog / ParamountSilks.com
BTW. If anyone reading this has a story about John Wooden, please share it below in Comments.
