John Wooden's "Pyramid of Success"

Enthusiasm-Your heart must be in your work. Stimulate others.
Cooperation- With all levels of your co-workers, help others and see the other side.
Loyalty- To yourself and to all those dependant upon you. Keep your self-respect.
Friendship- Comes from mutual esteem respect and devotion. A sincere liking for all
Industriousness- There is no substitute for work. Worthwhile things come from hard work and careful planning.
Intentness-Ability to resist temptation and stay with your course. Concentrate on your objective and be determined to reach your goal.
Initiative- Cultivate the ability to make decisions and think alone. Desire to excel.
Alertness- Be observing constantly. Be quick to spot a weakness and correct it or use as the case may warrant.
Self-control- Emotions under control. Delicate adjustment between mind and body. Keep judgment and common senses.
Team Spirit- An eagerness to sacrifice personal interests or glory for the welfare of all. The team comes first.
Skill- A knowledge of and the ability to properly execute the fundamentals. Be prepared. Cover every detail.
Condition-Mental-Moral-Physical. Rest, exercise and diet must be considered. Moderation must be practiced. Dissipation must be eliminated.
Confidence-Respect without fear. Confident not cocky. May come from faith in yourself in knowing that you are prepared.
Competitive Greatness- "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." Be at your best when your best is needed. Real love of a hard battle.
Success- Success is a piece of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

These notes were taken by Dean Lockwood of the University of Tennessee. He had the opportunity to do what many of us coaches out there would have enjoyed doing.....picking the brain of Coach Wooden.
Coach Wooden on Teaching:
1. What he misses most about being out of basketball is teaching. He loved the teaching. He also misses practice; the planning and the organization.
2. When asked what he felt was the single most important element that made him a great teacher, Coach Wooden quickly responded, "Listening. Listening is so important to teaching well."
3. Teach quickness; allow players time to learn but keep it moving quickly.
4. Coach Wooden said he learned to say less and be brief as the years went by. (when teaching)
5. Be SUCCINCT
6. In practice, keep stops to a minimum. Pull 1 player out to talk to if you have to or need to; he did not like to continually stop and talk to entire team for something 1 or 2 individuals were doing.
7. He likes fundamentals, teaching, and philosophy more than X's and O's.
8. Believe in what you are doing and be able to teach it.
9. Never expect perfection, but keep working for it.

What Type of Player Are You?

1. "Winners"
A. Make big plays
B. Turns tide of game
C. Can't afford to play without

2. "Won't get you beat"
A. Consistent performer
B. Makes few errors
C. Plays well enough to beat the majority of our opponents

3. "Will Beat us"
A. Makes mistakes
B. Not executing
C. Just don't play well
D. We dont want these!!!

Notes from Don Meyer Basketball Camp: Treasury of Time

If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400 that carried over no balance from day to day-allowed you to keep no cash in your account-and every evening canceled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day-WHAT WOULD YOU DO? Draw out every cent, of course, and use it to your advantage.

Well you have such an account-and its name is INDIVIDUAL IMPROVEMENT. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night, it rules off as lost whatever of this you have failed to invest in improving yourself as a player and a person.

It carries over no balance. It allows no overdrafts.

Each day, it opens a new account with you. Each night, it burns the record of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposit, the loss of a chance to improve is yours. There's no going back.

There is no drawing against the "Tomorrow." It is up to each one of you to invest this precious fund of hours, minutes, and seconds in order to get from it the utmost improvement. Both in your individual performance as a player and in helping others or influencing them in a positive way. ONLY YOU AND TIME WILL DETERMINE YOU DESTINATION IN THE GAME OF BASKETBALL AND THE GAME OF LIFE.

May each day's journey be filled with attitude, effort, concentration, communication, demonstrated ability leading to the confidence that builds improvement daily.

Don Meyer: Team Building

T.E.A.M.S. Toughness, Effort, Attitude, Motives, Servant Leaders
Team Building Requirements--Shared Ownership-Players must invest in the team.
Shared Suffering-You must have tough practices.
Individual Responsibility
Collective Pride-WE, OUR, US
"Never sacrifice toughness and attitude for size and quickness."
"You can pick captains, but you cant pick leaders."

Don Meyer: Building a Championship Program

1. Everybody takes notes. Everybody is courteous say "Please and Thank You" Everybody picks up trash! Leave the locker room better than you found it (even on the road). Everybody do the dirty jobs.

2. Wise people are humble. Arrogant people are not wise.
3. Make fun of yourself.
4. Leadership starts at the top.
5. A person who lives their life focuses on revenge must dig 2 graves.
6. It pays to be a winner.
7. Your best player needs to be your hardest worker.

Six of Life's Puzzlers

Something to think about from Coach Wooden's Book.

Why is it easier to criticize than to compliment?
Why is it easier to give others blame than to give them credit?
Why is it that so many who are quick to make suggestions find it so difficult to make decisions?
Why can't we realize that it only weakens those we want to help when we do things for them that they should do for themselves?
Why is it so much easier to allow emotions rather than reason to control our decisions?
Why does the person with the least to say usually take the longest to say it?