Wizard of Westwood

How could we have The Daily Coach without mentioning the late great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden and everything he has mastered when it comes to teaching. Wooden's principles on teaching, leading, and serving have withstood the test of time, regardless of sport, gender, or generation. One of the best Wooden stories ever told is a tremendous reminder for all coaches, teachers, leaders, and change agents.

Coach Wooden was always generous of his time. If young coaches invested energy and resources to learn from the Wizard of Westwood, he would grant them an audience. During one occasion Wooden was meeting with a first-time head coach. They went through different conversations regarding his job, and this coach filled two notebooks of information he learned that day from Coach Wooden. When the meeting ended, Coach Wooden thanked this young coach for spending time with him and said: "I am thrilled we had a chance to bond today. It was a delightful time. But you could have saved your school money and yourself time, because out of all those pages of notes there are only three things that matter." 

1. Define and recruit talent that fits your system.

2. Make sure you always recruit players who put the team ahead of themselves.

3. Don’t try and become a coaching genius, or guru. Understand the variables a player must preform and practice simplicity with constant repetition. 

Coach Wooden saw himself as a teacher first. He spent time working on the finer details of the game. His ego never got in the way of being a servant leader and winning with grace. He also understood the value of time for preparation.

Read that sentence again. He never let anyone bother him when he was planning and preparing. Do you? Is your phone nearby? Can anyone interrupt you during a strategy meeting? You need to rethink your preparation meetings even when you are planning your day—limit all your potential distractions!

Wooden’s method of simplicity with constant repetition allowed him to create game plans specifically for the opponent. He never needed a massive play sheet in front of him to remind him of the million calls, just a rolled-up piece of paper.  His complexity on coaching were in the finite details. And that strategy enabled him to be complicated from the outside, but simple enough for his players as well as staff to understand and comprehend. 

All great teachers seem simple, yet their ability to coach the details of the game allows them to appear complex.

Today, streamline what you want from your employees/students/players and start spending more time coaching the details with constant reps.  The rewards will be great.

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