John Wooden Essay

John Wooden was not just an incredible player in his time or an amazing coach, he was just an outstanding human being. All of his players in the video looked up to him as a person. Wooden’s definition of success is as described, “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” I really enjoy how in the video he was saying that the player is the only one who knows if they are being successful and giving their best effort or not. The principles in the Pyramid of Success align with the promotion of cooperation amongst players by making the players think about what effort they are actually giving each time they are out on the court. An example was the alertness block in the pyramid. John described alertness as always learning from others. When the NCAA took away dunking, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar thought the rule was aimed towards him. John and Kareem sat down and talked about what they were going to do. Kareem ended up having to learn a new routine for shooting and making baskets without dunking. Another example in the pyramid that stood out was the skill block. …show more content…
When a situation is just for fun or not as competitive, that is when I relax. Once I am relaxed then I tend to be goofy, not focused, and lackadaisical. When I am under pressure in a tense situation then that is when I become more focused and have a higher performance level. Even though that may be backwards from the average person, that is how I am. The free throw shooter that could come in at the end of the game and make free throw after free throw but was about fifty percent at the line in the first three quarters of a basketball game. The thought of all the pressure on me is not a thought I enjoy having nor do I think anybody enjoys having but I thrive on having