The Success Pyramid, John Wooden and it’s Application of it to Martial Arts

Who is John Wooden?

Although no martial art specialist, John Wooden was “an American basketball player and coach. Nicknamed the “Wizard of Westwood”, he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period—seven in a row—as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games. He was named national coach of the year six times.”

Though you might not have heard of Coach Wooden yourself (like myself here in Hong Kong), you might have heard of some of his students: among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton.

And… John Wooden, being as great as he is, created the following “Pyramid of Success”.  I can safely say that, not only does his pyramid apply to basketball and martial arts, but also alot of other sports and life generally as well.

The Latest Version of the PoS

Wooden’s definition of success – “Success is a piece of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best which you are capable of.”

We read from the bottom of the pyramid to up top.

Wooden notes that two corner stones of Success are Industriousness & Enthusiasm  – “because to be strong, you have to have a strong foundation.  The cornerstones of success to me, in anything, are hard work and enjoy what you’re doing.  So one cornerstone is industriousness and the other is enthusiasm.”

We look at the foundation tier and how we could tie this back to martial arts:-

1. Industriousness – “Success travels in the company of very hard work.  There is no trick, no easy way.”  – Everyone knows this, “Train Hard, Fight Easy!” There really is no easy way out.  There is always something to work hard on even if you had pure talent in one aspect.
2. Friendship – “Strive to build a team filled with camaraderie (mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together.) and respect: comrade-in-arms.” – these are your fellow students at the gym, your sparring partner, your master and people you train with.  Let’s not even start to think about how bad this would be if you de-friended these people.
3. Loyalty – “Be true to yourself.  Be true to those you lead.“
4. Cooperation – “Have utmost concern for what’s right rather than who’s right.” – like basketball, anything can happen in the ring, there is no ‘correct’ answer for everything.  Take in information from various people and use what’s best for you, discard what isn’t useful but still hold respect for it because what doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for someone else.
5. Enthusiasm – “Your energy and enjoyment, drive and dedication will stimulate and greatly inspire others” – enjoy what you do, enjoy your training, though its mostly blood and sweat.  Enjoy your sparring, enjoy the thrill, enjoy the adrenaline rush.

Tier two:-

1. Self-control – “Control of your organization begins with control of yourself.  Be disciplined.” – Get to training.
2. Alertness – “Constantly be aware and observing. Always seek to improve yourself and the team.” – Observe your own flaws, your opponent’s flaws and strive to improve them.  “Research” goes a long way too.
3. Initiative – “Make a decision! Failure to act is often the biggest failure of all” – “Go Hard or Go Home.”  Don’t wait to be pushed, push yourself.
4. Intentness – “Stay the course.  When thwarted try again; harder; smarter. Preserve relentlessly.” Be wary of your intents, is it for fitness? Is it for faster punches? For more efficient clinches? For competition?

Tier Three:-

1. Condition – “Ability may get you to the top, but character keeps you there – mental, moral and physical.” It’s interesting how coach Wooden takes into account mental AND moral conditioning as well as the standard  strength and conditioning.
2. Skill – “What a leader learns after you’ve learned it counts most of all.“
3. Team Spirit – “The star of the team. ‘We’ supersedes ‘me’.”  Trust your coach. Trust your gym mates.

Tier Four:-

1. Poise – “Be yourself. Don’t be thrown off by events whether good or bad.“
2. Confidence – “The strongest steel is well-founded self-belief.  It is earned, not given.”  – You can do it.  You can.  You just gotta believe in yourself.  (and then train like a horse to achieve it)

Tier Five:-

1. Competitive Greatness – “Perform at your best when your best is required.  Your best is required each day.“

And on the sides of tier five – “Faith & Patience“.

 An Earlier version of the PoS

You might also note in this earlier version, you may find other virtues on the side – connecting each tier together – these are (from the bottom up):-

1. Ambition – properly focused;
2. Sincerity – makes friends;
3. Adaptability – to any situation;
4. Honesty – in all ways;
5. Resourcefulness – proper judgement;
6. Integrity – speaks for itself;
7. Fight – effort and hustle;
8. Reliability – others depends on you;
9. Faith – through prayer; and
10. Patience – good things take time.

Note that Wooden also gives 12 lessons in leadership:-

1. Good values attract good people;
2. Love is the most powerful four-letter word;
3. Call yourself a teacher;
4. Emotion is your enemy;
5. It takes 10 hands to make a basket;
6. Little things make big things happen;
7. Make each day your masterpiece;
8. The carrot is mightier than the stick;
9. Make greatness attainable by all;
10. Seek significant change;
11. Don’t look at the scoreboard; and
12. Adversity is your asset.

Can you apply any of these values to your own sport or do you think these values only apply to coach Wooden’s basketball?   Would you have a more explosive updated formula? (Wooden is now close to a 100 years old).