Pressure is healthy. It can lead to improvement. Stress is unhealthy. It can lead to mistakes.
I wanted our team members to feel pressure so that their opponents would feel stress. I applied this pressure on the practice floor by creating a buzzing businesslike atmosphere that had an intensity and focus equal to an actual game.
I removed stress -- the kind that comes from a fear of losing or an overeager appetite to win -- by focusing exclusively on improvement and teaching the team that ongoing and maximum progress was the standard, our daily goal. I never mentioned winning or beating an upcoming opponent."
From "The Essential Wooden," by John Wooden and Steven Jamison
