For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
John Wooden was an unparalleled basketball coach… One of the key’s to the UCLA winning years was that they learned to put their socks on right…
Small actions have large consequences…. Lots of little things one can do to improve the odds of success, whether with an exercise program and/or taking care of the heart…
Coach John Wooden’s lesson on shoes and socks
Claudia Luther
June 04, 2010
(excerpt)
One of Wooden’s most famous players, Bill Walton, speaking by remote video to the crowd at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles, introduced the coach and recalled his first days at UCLA on the basketball team.
Walton related the shock that he and other new players felt when the first thing Wooden did was sit them down and teach them how to put on their shoes and socks. Doing this properly, Walton said, was the initial lesson for “everything we would need to know for the rest of our lives…”
You know, basketball is a game that’s played on a hardwood floor,” Wooden said. “And to be good, you have to … change your direction, change your pace. That’s hard on your feet. Your feet are very important. And if you don’t have every wrinkle out of your sock…”
Now pull it up in the back, pull it up real good, real strong. Now run your hand around the little toe area … make sure there are no wrinkles and then pull it back up. Check the heel area. We don’t want any sign of a wrinkle about it … The wrinkle will be sure you get blisters, and those blisters are going to make you lose playing time, and if you’re good enough, your loss of playing time might get the coach fired…”
“There’s always a danger of becoming untied when you are playing,” he said. “If they become untied, I may have to take you out of the game — practice, I may have to take you out. Miss practice, you’re going to miss playing time and not only that, it will irritate me a little too.”
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