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Be Quick--But Don't Hurry

I just finished the book: Be Quick--But Don't Hurry: Finding Success in the Teachings of a Lifetime by Andrew Hill.

This was a great book to read and really inspired my to make some adjustments to my own coaching style. I am excited to see what the 2025 season brings as I hope to put many of these ideas into practice!

"Be quick, but don't hurry, and always be in balance."

John Wooden's Pyramid of Success

  1. Enthusiasm: Passion and excitement for one’s work or pursuits are essential.
  2. Loyalty: Trust and commitment to oneself and others are crucial.
  3. Friendship: Building strong relationships and a sense of community is vital.
  4. Industriousness: Hard work and dedication are essential for success.
  5. Intentness: Staying focused and committed to one’s goals, even in the face of obstacles, is necessary.
  6. Initiative: Taking action and being proactive is essential for achieving goals.
  7. Alertness: Being aware of one’s surroundings and willing to learn from them is vital.
  8. Self-control: Avoiding temptations, emotionalism, and peaks and valleys of effort is necessary for sustained success.
  9. Team Spirit: Putting the needs of others before one’s own and working towards a common goal is essential.
  10. Skill: Mastering the skills necessary for one’s profession or pursuit is vital.
  11. Condition: Maintaining mental, moral, and physical well-being is essential for overall success.
  12. Poise: Remaining calm and composed, even in challenging situations, is necessary.
  13. Confidence: Having faith in oneself and one’s abilities is essential for success.
  14. Competitive Greatness: Striving for excellence and being willing to push oneself to achieve more is the pinnacle of the Pyramid.

John Wooden's Coaching (Leadership) Secrets

  1. Secret 1: The team with the best players almost always wins
    • Quickness was the one ingredient that Coach prized over everything else.
    • Quickness under control and team attitude were the two attributes that he always put at the top of his shopping list.
  2. Secret 2: Be quick, but don't hurry
    • Is the byproduct of the effort made to get there? Now you're probably asking, is this guy serious? Better than you. You've got to accept that. But you should never accept the fact that you didn't make the effort to do the best that you can do. Young Johnny wouldn't listen closely to his dad and pass that lesson on to a lot of other young men. Coach would even go so far as to say that the general view of winning is not something he necessarily shares.
    • He liked to cite Cervantes who said, "The journey is better than the end."
  3. Secret 3: Focus on effort not winning.
    • Winning is a byproduct of effort, not an end product
  4. Secret 4: Keep it simple
    • "Every day, all year, every year, bank shots took up 15 to 20 minutes of practice time at UCLA. Not only did we focus on shooting bank shots, we focused extensively on going to the likely rebounding spots in case the shooter missed. So instead of a fast break that featured the risky passes, offensive fouls, and multiple turnovers that can result from taking the ball to the basket, the UCLA fast break was beautifully designed to get us a shot we practiced over and over and over. It was also amazing how often the Lucky Bruins were able to rebound their missed bank shots."
    • Other teams knew exactly what they were going to do, but UCLA also knew that it wouldn't matter.
    • *Confidence is an essential ingredient in any competitive environment, since it not only bolsters your chances of winning, but also keeps your organization steady and focused when you're confronted with adversity.
    • Simplicity and success go hand in hand.

      “The more you make things complicated, the more there is to learn.”

  5. Secret 5: Make your yes mean yes
    • Ambiguity and lack of clarity are unhelpful to any organization.
  6. Secret 6: Balance is everything
    • There were never any tantrums, no lockers kicked, no objects thrown. Wins were pleasing and losses were disappointing, and Coach clearly viewed basketball as a part of life, not life itself.
    • Balance on a team has many facets:
      • must have offensive balance
      • defensive balance
      • squad balance
      • emotional balance
      • mental balance
      • balance
      • balance
      • balance
    • Even balance in one's personal life: Keeping perspective on things is a way to keep your balance
  7. Secret 7: A good leader is first and foremost a teacher
    • He broke down teaching into a set of 4 core four principles as the key to effective teaching:
      1. Demonstration
      2. Imitation
      3. Correction
      4. Repetition
  8. Secret 8: Game time is when the coach's job is almost over
    • Coach Wooden did very little coaching once the game started
    • Concentrate on preparation
  9. Secret 9: A great leader cannot worry about being well liked
  10. Secret 10: Great leaders give credit to others, but accept blame themselves
    • Players, not coaches, win games, and he always deflected the press's attention away from himself and onto us.
    • Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.
      • Character is what you really are.
      • Reputation is what you're perceived to be.
  11. Secret 11: Seek consistency, avoid peaks and valleys.
  12. Secret 12: Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve.
  13. Secret 13: The team that makes the most mistakes, wins.
    • The man who was afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success.

      "You're going to make mistakes. We're all imperfect. We are going to make mistakes, but learning from them, that's what's important. Hopefully, you won't repeat the same mistake over and over."

  14. Secret 14: Surround yourself with strong, opinionated people
  15. Secret 15: Teamwork is not a preference, it's a necessity.
    • Star players expect to make big things happen. Coach depended on people like me to be arrogant enough to think we could have made a difference. So when the horn sounded and the loss was in the books, I felt as responsible for those losses as any guy in the room. How brilliant of Coach to understand that it's good to win as a team, but absolutely essential that you lose as a team. Because of this attitude, our post-loss players-only meetings were helpful, healing, and crucial to the eventual development of the powerful bonds that hold every successful team together.
  16. Secret 16: Rules are made to be followed, not broken.
  17. Secret 17: Concentrate on your team, not the opposition.
  18. Secret 18: Adjust to your players. Don't expect them all to adjust to you.
    • Many leaders have developed a clear sense of how they like to do things.
    • Certain players require you to adjust your own behavior rather than expecting them to get used to the way you like to do things.
  19. Secret 19: Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.
  20. Secret 20: Practice doesn't make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
  21. Secret 21: Be honest, direct, and willing to risk it all for your beliefs.
    • As he is fond of saying, it is what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.

Ideas for coaching ORD:

I was inspired to make many changes in ORD coaching from this book and the life of John Wooden, who I always looked up to.

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