There are few teachers who cross the boundaries and are relevant in all walks of life: whether coaching basketball, hockey, football, strength and conditioning, or a business leader looking for better ways to allow others to attain their potential for greatness. All professionals can grow and become more complete individuals/teachers when acting on Coach John Wooden’s wisdom. I had the opportunity to read Coach Wooden’s book: “Wooden On Leadership” and my highlighter almost ran out before I finished the first chapter. Below are his important bits of advice that transcend the word “Coach”. When applied correctly, this information can bring us one step further in our quest for personal greatness.

There is a pre-determined path for success that few strength and conditioning coaches decide to take on a daily basis.  Small, yet important decisions that separate the good from the great, the mediocre from the magnificent.  There is no secret that the best coaches in the world practice “deliberately”, constantly pushing their boundaries and growing their horizons, never afraid to fail, only afraid of not trying.  It is not by chance or luck, it’s by sweat, time and energy. Robin Sharma states: " Lucky breaks are nothing more than unexpected rewards for intelligent choices we've chosen to make.  Success does not happen because someone's stars line up.  Success, both in business and personally is something that's consciously created.  It's the guaranteed result of a deliberate series of acts that anyone can perform."

The bedrock of success is hard work. I’m not talking about force x distance or any other quantitative calculation. I’m talking about good old-fashioned roll your sleeves up, pack your lunch box and hard hat WORK!

It’s truly sad that in this day and age we have not set a firm bar/measure of strength in the weight room.  Bench press, front squat, trap bar dead lift maxes have all been inflated to show unrealistic numbers with sub par form.  The truth behind the reality is that coaches inflate their own egos just as much as their athletes’ bench press numbers. The results are arbitrary.  Want to get your athletes strong?  WORK!  The Wikipedia definition of work states: “In physics, mechanical work is the amount of energy transferred by a force acting through a distance.” In the strength and conditioning world, work is defined as the weight (gravity acting on the bar/object) multiplied by the distance the object travels.  If we as coaches don’t set the distance the bar travels, how can we accurately measure our athletes’ strength gains?  The truth is we can’t!  In fact not only do we set inaccurate standards, we guess, which further sets our profession back. 

I have had the privilege of learning from some of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the world.  Attending mentorship programs from Coach Michael Boyle, listening to Alwyn Cosgrove and Gray Cook lecture, reading books from the likes of Stuart McGill, Shirley Sahrmann, Hoppenfield and Myers, and becoming a member of StrengthCoach.com, a web site leader in strength and conditioning information and research.  Some may say that I spend a lot of money on continuing education.  I would disagree wholeheartedly! I choose the word invest!  In fact, my business (2,700 sq foot facility in Columbus, Ohio) has prospered enormously from the valuable information that I have gathered from these coaches and put into practice.