John Wooden and Perfect Socks

Harsha Bhogle wrote a very good article on the need to ‘sweat the small stuff’. He wrote it in the wake of India’s crushing defeat in cricket at the hands of England.
The point he makes reminded me of this story..

John Wooden, the coach who won 10 basketball championships for UCLA in 12 years, is rightly considered among *the* greatest coaches of all time.

At the start of every season, the best young basketball players in the US would show up for practice. And guess what Wooden would start with?

He would show them how to put on their socks!

Why? Because if they couldn’t put their socks on just right, they might get a blister. Get a blister and they might miss practice time. Miss practice time and their game-time performance would suffer.

The equation was simple: Blister = No championship.

Often, when we see blisters (anxiety, fatigue), we ignore the fundamental causes (lack of exercise, inspiring goals) and reach instead for band-aids (remote control, doctor).

This week, let’s remember to take a look at how we’re putting on our ‘socks’.

(John Wooden with Kareem Abdul Jabbar)