Moxie: Move Fast, Live Slow

"Be quick, but don't hurry."


("SpEEd 79" Photo by Ralf Κλενγελ.)

ONE STORY

John Wooden was the greatest coach in the history of college basketball.

Not because he won.

Though he did.

Ten national championships.
Seven in a row.
Four undefeated seasons.

Not because he recruited the best talent.

Though he did.

Kareem.
Walton.
Goodrich.
Wicks.

With conviction, clarity, and a plainspoken wisdom that carried deep weight.


(John Wooden won 10 NCAA championships in just 12 seasons at UCLA, including an 88-game winning streak that still stands today.)

He was a teacher disguised as a coach. A philosopher with a clipboard.

His influence stretched far beyond the court, into classrooms, boardrooms, locker rooms, and lives.

And at the center of his leadership was a single phrase:

"Be quick but don't hurry."

It wasn't just about basketball.

It was about how to move through life.

How to lead with urgency without panic.

How to act fast without losing your mind.

Wooden didn't want slow players. He wanted composed ones. He believed chaos is contagious. But so is calm.

Here's what he meant. Three moments tell the story:


(Sidney Wicks (pictured far right) with John Wooden. Wicks would go on to become a key player in UCLA’s championship run, a three-time All-American, and an NBA Rookie of the Year.)

The Freshman Who Moved Too Fast

When Sidney Wicks arrived at UCLA in the late 1960s, he came in hungry. A junior college transfer with elite athleticism, he was fast, intense, relentless.

In his first practices under John Wooden, Wicks treated every drill like a sprint.

He dove for loose balls, flew down the court, fired risky passes, always trying to make something happen.

But the result wasn’t precision. It was chaos.

One day, Wooden blew his whistle. Walked over. No yelling. No lecture. Just a calm correction:

"Sidney, you’re quick… but you’re hurrying.”

Wicks would later say that sentence changed everything.

Because Wooden wasn’t critiquing his speed. He was teaching him how to lead with control, presence, and poise.

That one moment shaped the player he became and the man he eventually grew into.

 


(Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then known as Lew Alcindor, led the Bruins to three consecutive NCAA championships (1967-1969), was a three-time All-American, and twice named College Player of the Year (1967, 1969).)

Kareem's Fast-Break Decision

In a close game during his sophomore season at UCLA, Lew Alcindor (who would later become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) snagged a rebound and took off.

At 7’2”, he moved with uncommon speed and grace. He was an unstoppable force in transition. With a clear path to the rim, the crowd rose in anticipation of the inevitable: a thunderous dunk.

But Alcindor didn’t go up.

Instead, he slowed for half a second and dropped a bounce pass to the trailing guard, who laid it in untouched.

After the game, a reporter asked why he didn't dunk. Wooden's answer: "He made the right decision. He was quick. But he wasn't hurrying."

Speed and poise. Together.

The Jazz of Practice

Wooden's practices were famously fast-paced. Every drill timed to the second. Players sprinted station to station. No wasted motion.

But there was no chaos because Wooden controlled the rhythm.

A sharp whistle. A two-second correction. A finger snap. Back to play.

One player later called it jazz. Structured. Rhythmic. Smooth.

They were moving fast. But they were always in control.

This was Wooden's genius. He taught a generation of athletes how to move with urgency but never with panic.

How to stay fast and stay present.

How to lead with rhythm, with calm, and with clarity.

Why Your Brain Hurries

When you're under pressure, your sympathetic nervous system kicks in. Heart rate increases. Muscles tense. Focus narrows.

This is just your brain trying to protect you.

But sometimes, it overcorrects.

Many of us enter into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode. This response can be useful in short bursts.

But when you stay there too long, the quality of your thinking drops.

You rush. You react.

You try to control everything, and in doing so, you lose control of yourself.*

*(Reread that last sentence. It's counterintuitive, but when we try to control everything, we often lose the only thing we can can control: ourselves! How many of us do this?)

This is exactly what Wooden understood. And that's what Wooden meant by hurrying.

Hurrying is what happens when pressure overrides presence.

The goal is to stay in motion without losing your mind.

To move quickly while staying inside your window of tolerance, that zone where your nervous system is alert but not overwhelmed.

Elite performers train specifically for this. Athletes, surgeons, military leaders, and musicians all practice one thing in high-pressure environments: Calm execution.

It's not the speed that breaks you. It's the panic.

Wooden wasn't just teaching tempo.

He was teaching nervous system regulation.

📜 TWO QUOTES

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one."

— Elbert Hubbard

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

— Lao Tzu

🚀 THREE TAKEAWAYS

1. Clarity creates speed without all the anxiety.
The fastest decisions come only when you already know what matters most. When your vision is clear, your actions don't need second-guessing.

2. Don't be afraid to fail. It's how you (eventually) move quicker. 
You don’t have to rush when you believe mistakes are part of the process. The people who learn the fastest are the ones willing to stumble.

3. It's not the speed that breaks you. It's the panic.
Moving quickly doesn’t mean losing control. The goal is deliberate motion. Decisive steps, not desperate ones.

🔍 MOXIE REFLECTIONS

• Where in your life are you moving fast, but without clarity?

• When was the last time you moved quickly without panic? What was true of you then that isn’t present now?

•  Instead of panic, what's your vision? Instead of rushing, what will get your attention in this moment, right now?

   

🛠️ TOOLS FOR GROWTH

🧩 PATTERN RECOGNITION: Affect Heuristic

Affect Heuristic is our tendency to make decisions based on how we feel in the moment rather than on clear reasoning or long-term priorities.

Why it matters: Under pressure, strong emotions like stress, fear, or frustration often override clarity. You act quickly, not because it’s the best move, but because it relieves discomfort. It feels like progress, but it rarely is.

Result: You react instead of respond. You confuse urgency with importance. And you move, not with purpose, but with pressure.

Hurry thrives when emotion is in charge. It keeps you busy but rarely effective.

🧠 MENTAL SKILL OF THE WEEK: Tactical Pausing

Tactical Pausing is the ability to insert a brief moment of stillness before you act. It’s not hesitation. It’s control. A split-second reset that keeps you grounded when pressure wants to push you.

How to use it: In moments of urgency, take one breath before you speak, decide, or move. Ask yourself, “What matters most right now?” This small pause interrupts automatic reactions and creates space for better judgment.

The paradox: Pausing doesn’t slow you down. It makes your next move sharper. You don’t lose momentum. You protect it.

🌱 ONE MORE THING


(John Wooden’s first year coaching was at Dayton High School in Kentucky (pictured), during the 1932–33 season, where his team recorded a 6–11 mark. That 6–11 season was Wooden's only losing season during his entire 41‑year coaching career.)

Move fast.
But live slow.

Let your pace be set by vision, not fear.
Let your steps be guided by values, not noise.

And when you fail–and you will–fail forward.
That’s not falling behind.
That’s how well-led lives are built.