Title:
How the Great Coach John Wooden Defined Success
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Education Report.
See text below
Text:
John Wooden died in June at the age of ninety-nine.
He was one of the greatest twentieth-century
Americans in sports. He was an excellent college
basketball player. He led Purdue University to a
national championship in nineteen thirty-two. After
college he was a high school coach. He also taught
English for nine years. But where he really made his
mark was at the University of California, Los
Angeles. He was head coach of men's basketball for
twenty-seven years. His teams won a record ten
national championships. These included seven in a
row during the late nineteen sixties and early
seventies. The Bruins have won just one other
championship since then. He coached famous players
like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, known then as Lew
Alcindor, and Bill Walton.Several years ago, Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar spoke at a ceremony honoring John
Wooden. He said many top athletes worry they will be
exploited for their skills by their coach. But that
was not the case with John Wooden. The coach was
praised for how he taught the basics of the game,
like passing, defense and moving without the ball.
But he also offered life lessons as a speaker and
author. His books included the self-improvement
guide "Pyramid of Success." At a speaking event when
he was already in his nineties, he explained that
his father had taught him a few things about
success. He said: "I was raised on a small farm in
southern Indiana. Dad tried to teach me and my
brothers that you should never try to be better than
someone else. Always learn from others and never
cease trying to be the best you could be. That's
under your control." Those words later helped him
with his own definition of success. He said: "Peace
of mind attained only through self-satisfaction and
knowing you made the effort to do your best. I
believe that is true. If you make the effort to do
your best, trying to improve the situation that
exists for you, I think that is success and I do not
think others can judge that." His wife of
fifty-three years, Nell, died in nineteen
eighty-five. At U.C.L.A. the man known simply as
"Coach" had a record of six hundred twenty wins and
one hundred forty-seven losses. Current coach Ben
Howland calls John Wooden "the greatest coach in the
history of basketball."And that's the VOA Special
English Education Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
