Wednesday, November 10, 2010

John Wooden - 13 Important Principles

From the 1975 Medalist Notebook

1. Basketball is a game of habits, and it takes time and patience to develop proper habits and to break bad ones. One of the greatest faults of most beginning coaches is likely to be a lack of patience.

2. The coach and the players must never become satisfied, but must work constantly to improve. Have perfection as the goal though it can never be attained.

3. Remember that it is not so much what you do, but how well you do it. Do not give them too much.

4. Do not tie them down so rigidly that you take away their initiative. They must have some freedom of movement, but must react to the initiative of a teammate in order to keep floor balance.

5. Try to devise a balanced offense that provides each position with an equal number of scoring opportunities over the course of a number of games.

6. Do not overlook the little details as it is the little things that may make the difference.

7. You must prepare to win to be a winner, and you cannot prepare others without being prepared yourself.

8. Convince your players that condition is often the deciding factor when teams are evenly matched and properly prepared. However, if the better conditioned team is able to take advantage of their condition they must keep the pressure on early in the game in order for it to pay off in the later part.

9. Stress offense without the ball and defense before your man gets the ball.

10. Give public credit to your playmakers and defensive men at every opportunity.

11. The coach should do the criticizing, and it should always be constructive. Permit no players to criticize, razz, or ridicule a teammate in any respect.

12. Insist that the scorer acknowledge the passer whose pass led to his score and that all acknowledge any teammate who makes a nice play.

13. Be constantly analyzing yourself as well as your players and be governed by the result of your analysis.

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