Shoot It Until You Make It
My sister once gave me a photo of Babe Ruth swinging and missing:
Every strike brings me closer to my next home run.
I love that photo.
It's not those who fail in life who don't get ahead...it's about failing...faster.
We all fail.
Those of us who fail faster and figure out the way to succeed quicker...are those who flourish.
Make sense?
I went to my son's playoff basketball game on Saturday. I'd like to say I enjoy such games, but I don't. It's great to see the kids play ball, but there's so much negativity around all of it. Parents yelling at refs; coaches screaming at kids; everyone acting as if they are going to be successful or complete failures depending upon what happens.
It drives me crazy.
I want to stand up and yell out:
Stop! They're supposed to be having fun!!
But I went.
And I smiled at Sam shooting in warm-ups. I clapped when he scored and grabbed a rebound and when he wiped the dust from his shoes as he stood there because he had seen pros and college players do such a thing.
And he missed a couple of long shots, but I was happy that he had taken them.
No guts, no glory.
As the game came down to the wire there were a couple of things happening:
Sam's team was having a real bad game.
"You guys are 1 for 25 from the three-point line!" The assistant coach shouted out. "Stop shooting threes! You can't make them!!"
At that point they were down 5 with just a minute left. There was nothing to do but foul and hope you can make up the difference in missed free throws.
Yet a funny thing happened.
During the coach's time-outs the leaders of the group were not speaking of how to get back in the game. Rather, they were chastising the kids about how they lost.
Jake was seated beside me.
"This game isn't over," I said to him. "Two made baskets and they win. Why aren't they drawing up a play or two?"
Jake laughed. He agreed with me, but neither one of us was much interested in shouting out to the kids on the floor.
One of the kids on Sam's team sort of ignored the wishes of the coach and launched a 3 with about 40 seconds left.
It went in.
They were down by just 2.
A kid on the other team calmly sank 2 free throws with 30 seconds left.
Down 4.
"They can still do this," I whispered.
Yet at the time-out the coach spent his allotted two minutes screaming at the kids about not boxing out on a long-ago play. There was no talk of the last 30 seconds.
But that same kid had a plan.
He shot another 3.
It went in.
They were down one with 8 seconds left.
They were also out of time-outs.
(Which was a good thing).
The kid on the other team missed his free throws and Sam's team grabbed the rebound. The trip up the floor was something out of a movie, but they found that same kid...who had been 1 for 15 from the floor up until one minute was left.
He swished his 3rd straight shot as the buzzer sounded.
The final score was 31-30.
After the game, Sam got the message loud and clear.
"If I'm open I'm gonna' shoot it," he said. "Sometimes they go in."
Exactly.
"You can't think about the ones you missed," I said. "Those are gone. You have to keep telling yourself that you're good enough to do it next time."
There's no such thing as a not-so-confident-Fuzzy so I wasn't real worried about my boys, but I was happy for the other kid who had made the winning shot.
He'll never forget that lesson.
On to next week!
Every strike brings me closer to my next home run.
I love that photo.
It's not those who fail in life who don't get ahead...it's about failing...faster.
We all fail.
Those of us who fail faster and figure out the way to succeed quicker...are those who flourish.
Make sense?
I went to my son's playoff basketball game on Saturday. I'd like to say I enjoy such games, but I don't. It's great to see the kids play ball, but there's so much negativity around all of it. Parents yelling at refs; coaches screaming at kids; everyone acting as if they are going to be successful or complete failures depending upon what happens.
It drives me crazy.
I want to stand up and yell out:
Stop! They're supposed to be having fun!!
But I went.
And I smiled at Sam shooting in warm-ups. I clapped when he scored and grabbed a rebound and when he wiped the dust from his shoes as he stood there because he had seen pros and college players do such a thing.
And he missed a couple of long shots, but I was happy that he had taken them.
No guts, no glory.
As the game came down to the wire there were a couple of things happening:
Sam's team was having a real bad game.
"You guys are 1 for 25 from the three-point line!" The assistant coach shouted out. "Stop shooting threes! You can't make them!!"
At that point they were down 5 with just a minute left. There was nothing to do but foul and hope you can make up the difference in missed free throws.
Yet a funny thing happened.
During the coach's time-outs the leaders of the group were not speaking of how to get back in the game. Rather, they were chastising the kids about how they lost.
Jake was seated beside me.
"This game isn't over," I said to him. "Two made baskets and they win. Why aren't they drawing up a play or two?"
Jake laughed. He agreed with me, but neither one of us was much interested in shouting out to the kids on the floor.
One of the kids on Sam's team sort of ignored the wishes of the coach and launched a 3 with about 40 seconds left.
It went in.
They were down by just 2.
A kid on the other team calmly sank 2 free throws with 30 seconds left.
Down 4.
"They can still do this," I whispered.
Yet at the time-out the coach spent his allotted two minutes screaming at the kids about not boxing out on a long-ago play. There was no talk of the last 30 seconds.
But that same kid had a plan.
He shot another 3.
It went in.
They were down one with 8 seconds left.
They were also out of time-outs.
(Which was a good thing).
The kid on the other team missed his free throws and Sam's team grabbed the rebound. The trip up the floor was something out of a movie, but they found that same kid...who had been 1 for 15 from the floor up until one minute was left.
He swished his 3rd straight shot as the buzzer sounded.
The final score was 31-30.
After the game, Sam got the message loud and clear.
"If I'm open I'm gonna' shoot it," he said. "Sometimes they go in."
Exactly.
"You can't think about the ones you missed," I said. "Those are gone. You have to keep telling yourself that you're good enough to do it next time."
There's no such thing as a not-so-confident-Fuzzy so I wasn't real worried about my boys, but I was happy for the other kid who had made the winning shot.
He'll never forget that lesson.
On to next week!
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