Wooden as a Teacher: The First Lesson Was Shoelaces

Wooden as a Teacher: The First Lesson Was Shoelaces

Start at the bottom. Since that is the way John Wooden initiated his basketball players, it is also a good way to study the life of this early 20th-century man who died Friday at age 99.
Coach Wooden did not start with layups or defense. That was too far advanced. He started with shoelaces.
Think about it. He won 10 championships in 12 years with U.C.L.A. and is remembered for an Indiana inner-directedness that was so much from another time that he might have come from the moon. But he started with shoelaces.

nytimes.com
6/4/10