#409 The Creative Genius of Rick Rubin

The first thing I would show players at our initial day of training was how to take a little extra time putting on their shoes and socks properly. The most important part of your equipment is your shoes and socks. You play on a hard floor, so you must have shoes that fit right, and you must not permit your socks to have wrinkles around the little toe where you generally get blisters or around the heels. I showed my players how I wanted them to do it. Hold up the sock. Work it around the little toe area and the heel area so that there are no wrinkles. Smooth it out good, then hold up the sock while you put the shoe on. And the shoe must be spread apart, not just pulled on the top laces. You tighten it up snugly by each eyelet, then you tie it, then you double tie it so it won't come undone. Because I don't want shoes coming untied during practice or during the game. I don't want that to happen. That's just a little detail that coaches must take advantage of. Because it's the little details that make the big things come about. Now Rick Rubin comments on this passage. The sentiments above are John Wooden's, the most successful coach in the history of college basketball. His teams won more consecutive games and championships than any others in history. It must have been frustrating for these elite athletes who wanted to get on the court and show what they could do to arrive at practice for the first time with this legendary coach only to hear him say, today, we will learn how to tie our shoes. The point Wooden was making was that creating effective habits down to the smallest detail is what makes the difference between winning and losing games. Each habit might seem small, but added together, they have an exponential effect on performance. Just one habit at the top of any field can be enough to give an edge over the competition. I'm going to interrupt Rick Rubin for a second and quote Napoleon because when Rick Rubin just said this sentence, one of my favorite sentences of this entire section, just one habit at the top of any field can be enough to give an edge over the competition. This is what Napoleon said. It's very similar. Napoleon said, all great events hang by a single thread. The clever man takes advantage of everything, neglects nothing that may give him some added opportunity. The less clever man, by neglecting one thing, sometimes misses everything. Back to Rick Rubin, just one habit at the top of any field can be enough to give an edge over the competition. Wooden considered every aspect of the game where an issue might arise and trained his players for each one repeatedly until they became habits. The goal was immaculate performance. Wooden often said the only person you're ever competing against …