Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 85 - Wisdom, Like the Wind, Blows on Unused, Except for Those Who Know the Art of Sailing


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 2	Issue 85
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WISDOM, LIKE THE WIND, BLOWS ON UNUSED, EXCEPT FOR THOSE WHO KNOW THE ART OF SAILING This quote from Coach Wooden reflects great advice he received from his father Joshua: You'll never know a thing you didn't learn from someone else. Coach Wooden received much wisdom from his deep study of Abraham Lincoln. It was gained by reading over 40 books about Lincoln. His curiosity about Lincoln was inspired by his admiration of his father who was a keen admirer of Lincoln and well read on the subject. President Lincoln gained much of his wisdom from his own in depth study of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. John Wooden gained his insight on conditioning, skill and team spirit by observing and studying his college coach Piggy Lambert. Piggy Lambert wrote a detailed book on coaching basketball entitled Practical Basketball. John Wooden wrote a detailed book on coaching basketball entitled Practical Modern Basketball. John Wooden learned how to structure a detailed, well executed practice plan when he was a high school coach by observing the practices of the great Notre Dame Football Coach, Frank Leahy. The Wisdom of Joshua Wooden, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Piggy Lambert and Frank Leahy were only valuable to Coach Wooden because he sought it out and used it. Just like the wind is only valuable to the sailor who seeks it out and knows how to sail. In the wonderful book, You Haven't Taught Until They Learned, John Wooden's Teaching Principles and Practices by Swen Nater and Ronald Gallimore, Coach’s pursuit of basketball wisdom is described this way: Coach Wooden employed an organized research and development system, which allowed him to make substantial improvements each year on how he taught basketball. At the conclusion of each basketball season, his self improvement research began. He chose only one topic for each off season study (e.g, defensive rebounding, free-throw shooting, etc.) The goal was to uncover all he could learn about a specific subject, draw conclusions, and apply it to his teaching. Coach Wooden's premise was the assumption that all the essential truths about each topic existed “somewhere,” but scattered across many sources. Some of the truths were in books, some in the thoughts of successful coaches and athletes, and others were, perhaps, in places he never considered. Some ideas were his own but needed testing, refinement and elaboration. What follows in the book is a detailed description of this process including, but not limited to, reading all the material available on the subject, researching and contacting the coaches of teams and players who had the most success in the particular area, developing and sending them a survey to express their ideas and processing the data to reach conclusions which could be applied to help his team. Coach did all of this before the Internet existed. Imagine how much wind is available in your area of interest today. Happy Sailing! Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Twitter: @woodenswisdom	COACH'S Favorite Poetry AND PROSE The Coming of Wisdom With Time THOUGH leaves are many, the root is one; Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun; Now I may wither into the truth. William Butler Yeats The Road to Wisdom The road to wisdom? Well, it's plain And simple to express: Err and err and err again, but less and less and less. Piet Hein Wisdom W - wise to be I - insight to see S - soundness of mind D - discernment O - open to thought M - mind calm. Where there is calmness of mind there is wisdom. Wisdom - a search and solve think tank on experience and knowledge bank. E. Ruth Anderson Gossage
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