Wooden John Quotes & Sayings
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Top Wooden John Quotes
No matter how you total success in the coaching profession it all comes down to a single factor - talent. There may be a hundred great coaches of whom you have never heard in basketball, football, or any sport who will probably never receive the acclaim they deserve simply because they have not been blessed with the talent. Although not every coach can win consistently with talent, no coach can win without it. — John Wooden
Never try to be better than somebody else. But most importantly, never cease trying to be the best you can be. — John Wooden
My bench never heard me mention winning. My whole emphasis was for each one of my players to try to learn to execute the fundamentals to the best of their ability. Not to try to be better than somebody else, but to learn from others, and never cease trying to be the best they could be; that's what I emphasized more than anything else. — John Wooden
What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player. — John Wooden
I never yelled at my players much. That would have been artificial stimulation, which doesn't last very long. I think it's like love and passion. Passion won't last as long as love. When you are dependent on passion, you need more and more of it to make it work. It's the same with yelling. — John Wooden
You may be better than the rest, but you are not a success until you have made the effort to become the best you can be. — John Wooden
A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that's teamwork. — John Wooden
As long as you try your best, you are never a failure. That is, unless you blame others. — John Wooden
I do not judge success based on championships; rather, I judge it on how close we came to realizing our potential — John Wooden
If we magnified blessings as much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier. — John Wooden
Condition comes from hard work during practice and proper mental and moral conduct between practices. — John Wooden
Just try to be the best you can be; never cease trying to be the best you can be. That's in your power. — John Wooden
Why do we dread adversity when we know that facing it is the only way to become stronger, smarter, better? — John Wooden
My philosophy of defense is to keep the pressure on an opponent until you get to his emotions — John Wooden
We should never let ambition cause us to sacrifice our integrity or diminish our efforts in other areas. However, we need to remember that we never reach a serious goal unless we have the intention of doing so. — John Wooden
Never try to be better than anyone else, but never cease to be the best you can be. That's achievement. — John Wooden
Approval is a greater motivator than disapproval, but we have to disapprove on occasion when we correct. It's necessary. I make corrections only after I have proved to the individual that I highly value him. If they know we care for them, our correction won't be seen as judgmental. I also try to never make it personal. — John Wooden
If there's anything you could point out where I was a little different, it was the fact that I never mentioned winning. — John Wooden
It is important for us to see that our mentors are human and therefore fallible; it makes our own shortcomings more tenable. — John Wooden
Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who'll argue with you. — John Wooden
Be quick but do not hurry. — John Wooden
Teamwork is not a preference, it is a requirement. — John Wooden
Earlier in life, I put family in front of faith. I've fixed that. But I always tried to keep work fourth on the list. I was proud when [my wife] Nellie told an interviewer, 'I never could tell whether John had a good practice or a bad practice, because he never brought it home' — John Wooden
The goal in life is the same as in basketball: make the effort to do the best you are capable of doing
in marriage, at your job, in the community, for your country. Make the effort to contribute in whatever way you can. You may do it materially or with time, ideas, or work. Making the effort to contribute is what counts. The effort is what counts in everything. — John Wooden
principle, per-sis tence, and compassion - three — John Wooden
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. — John Wooden
You must define success as making the complete effort to maximize your ability, skills, and potential in whatever circumstances - good or bad - may exist. — John Wooden
I had three rules for my players: No profanity. Don't criticize a teammate. Never be late. — John Wooden
How many of us have conflicts with someone else- and how many of us pray for that person? We have individuals with whom we are competitive, or whom we dislike or have a quarrel with; but very few of us have true enemies in the martial sense. And yet if Lincoln could pray fervently- and contemporary reports indicate he did- for the people who were opposing him, how much more can we do for someone we just find a little irritating? — John Wooden
Remember this your lifetime through:
Tomorrow there will be more to do.
And failure waits for all who stay
With some success made yesterday.
Tomorrow you must try once more,
And even harder than before. — John Wooden
You can always look back and see where you might have done something differently, changed this or that. If you can learn something, fine, but never second-guess yourself. It's wasted effort ... Does worrying about it, complaining about it, change it? Nope, it just wastes your time. And if you complain about it to other people, you're also wasting their time. Nothing is gained by wasting all of that time. — John Wooden
When it's over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best you were capable of? If yes, you will probably be ok with the outcome — John Wooden
Cooperation - To get cooperation, you must give cooperation. Always seek to find the best way rather than insisting on your own way. — John Wooden
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. — John Wooden
What you do in practice is going to determine your level of success. I used to tell my players, 'You have to give 100 percent every day. Whatever you don't give, you can't make up for tomorrow. If you give only 75 percent today, you can't give 125 percent tomorrow to make up for it.' — John Wooden
Show me what you can do; don't tell me what you can do. — John Wooden
I think anyone's success depends on working hard, Industriousness and Enthusiasm, enjoying what you are doing. You can't work your best if you're not enjoying what you are doing. No way you can force yourself to. — John Wooden
Everything we know, we learned from someone else! — John Wooden
You must be interested in finding the best way, not in having your own way. — John Wooden
Don't let the things you can't do get in the way of the things you can. — John Wooden
Too often, we just ask for help instead of really giving thanks for the many things that we've had and are so helpful to us that we did nothing to deserve, so we should give thanks each and every day and pray for guidance in helping us along the proper path. — John Wooden
Discipline yourself so others won't have to. — John Wooden
Constantly be aware and observing. Always seek to improve yourself and the team. — John Wooden
If you do enough small things right, big things can happen — John Wooden
Be at your best when your best is needed. — John Wooden
Practice self-discipline and keep emotions under control. Good judgment and common sense are essential. — John Wooden
It is impossible to attain proper physical condition without being sound both mentally and morally. — John Wooden
I think permitting the game to become too physical takes away a little bit of the beauty. — John Wooden
If you spend too much time learning the 'tricks' of the trade, you may not learn the trade. There are no shortcuts. If you're working on finding a short cut, the easy way, you're not working hard enough on the fundamentals. You may get away with it for a spell, but there is no substitute for the basics. And the first basic is good, old fashioned hard work. — John Wooden
Make friendship a fine art. — John Wooden
Stubborness we deprecate,
Firmness we condone,
The former is our neighbors trait,
The latter is our own. — John Wooden
Happiness begins where selfishness ends. — John Wooden
Losing is only temporary and not encompassing. You must simply study it, learn from it, and try hard not to lose the same way again. Then you must have the self-control to forget about it. — John Wooden
We may not be the best conditioned team in the country, but our players think they are. — John Wooden
I don't believe in looking back. If you make a decision that you think is the proper one at a time, then that's the correct decision. — John Wooden
The purpose is to help, to prevent, to correct, to improve, rather than to punish. Criticism is not meant to punish, but rather to correct something that is preventing better results. The only goal is improvement. — John Wooden
The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team. — John Wooden
I believe we are most likely to succeed when ambition is focused on noble and worthy purposes and outcomes rather than on goals set out of selfishness. — John Wooden
Promise yourself that you will talk health, happiness, and prosperity as often as possible. — John Wooden
The man who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success. — John Wooden
Its what you learn when you know it all that counts — John Wooden
Nobody is defeated until he starts blaming somebody else. My advice to you is don't fix the blame. Fix the problem. — John Wooden
Be prepared and be honest. — John Wooden
I always stress condition with my basketball players. I don't mean physical condition only. You cannot attain and maintain physical condition unless you are morally and mentally conditioned. — John Wooden
Loyalty is very important when things get a little tough, as they often do when the challenge is great. Loyalty is a powerful force in producing one's individual best and more so in producing a team's best. — John Wooden
Promise to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit trouble to press on you. — John Wooden
Growing up, my parents were very, very strict. And then I went to UCLA with John Wooden, who was just off the charts. — Bill Walton
I don't think I was a fine game coach. I'm trying to be honest. I think I was a good practice coach. — John Wooden
Only Esmeralda was not weeping. Instead she wore that wooden look that whites mistake for churlishenss or indifference. Woodrew knew it was neither. It was familiarity. This how real life is constituted, it said. This is grief and hatred and people hacked to death. This is the everyday we have known since we were born and you Wazungu have not. — John Le Carre
The most powerful leadership tool you have is your personal example. — John Wooden
School. I never tried to talk a student into coming to UCLA. I tried to show him what was there and what to expect, and I never told him he was going to play; I told him he would have the opportunity to play, and if he was good enough, then he'd be able to. Rosy forecasts during the "courtship" of a player can only lead to disappointment and distrust if anything fails to meet that student's expectations. — John Wooden
You have to work hard, and you have to enjoy what you're doing. If you don't enjoy it, no matter how hard you seem to work, you're not going to be working as hard as you can because you're not enjoying it. — John Wooden
The courageous struggle for a noble cause should be considered success itself. — John Wooden
We will begin by learning how to tie our shoes. — John Wooden
When I was teaching basketball, I urged my players to try their hardest to improve on that very day, to make that practice a masterpiece.
Too often we get distracted by what is outside our control. You can't do anything about yesterday. The door to the past has been shut and the key thrown away. You can do nothing about tomorrow. It is yet to come. However, tomorrow is in large part determined by what you do today. So make today a masterpiece. You have control over that.
This rule is even more important in life than basketball. You have to apply yourself each day to become a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, you will become a lot better. Only then will you will be able to approach being the best you can be. It begins by trying to make each day count and knowing you can never make up for a lost day. — John Wooden
If you let social activities take precedence over your academic activities, then you will soon lose your basketball activities. — John Wooden
There are three things an athlete must do. You must be in physical condition ... You must execute properly and quickly the fundamentals ... and you must have eagerness to sacrifice personal interests or glory for the welfare of the team. — John Wooden
I talked to the players and tried to make them aware of what was good and bad, but I didn't try to run their lives. — John Wooden
A leader in sports, business, or any other field of endeavor should possess and provide the same qualities inherent in a good parent: character, consistency, dependability, accountability, knowledge, good judgment, selflessness, respect, courage, discipline, fairness, and structure. — John Wooden
The choice you make, makes you. — John Wooden
The two hardest things to handle in life are failure and success. — John Wooden
There is a choice you have to make in everything you do. So keep in mind that in the end, the choice you make, makes you. — John Wooden
Defense is a definite part of the game, and a great part of defense is learning to play it without fouling. — John Wooden
The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching. — John Wooden
Passion is temporary. It doesn't last long. Love is enduring. And that's the important thing. If we all had love in our lives to the degree that we should, it would be much happier. — John Wooden
The great mystery is why robots come off so well in science-fiction films when the human characters are often so astoundingly wooden. — John Podhoretz
Generally speaking, individual performances don't win basketball games — John Wooden
There are certain people in our business that you don't replace - Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzyewski, and you don't replace John Wooden, either. — Steve Alford
Winning and losing aren't all they're cracked up to be, but the trip to the destination is. — John Wooden