After practice today, one of my players challenged me to a game of PIG. That means Pretty Intelligent Girl, Right? Yeah, he didn't find that very funny either. Another one of my players was watching, and I really liked how he said something along the lines of: "Coach has a nice jump shot." Earlier he had said: "You shoot like old school or something!" I asked him what exactly that meant and he said, "Yeah like Larry Bird or Magic Johnson." I then said to him, "Guess who I was watching play when I was younger?"
Larry Bird was my hero. I wanted to play like him. I watched practically every game he played. I would try to mimic him and play like him. Of course, in my mind I was playing like him, but I am sure it was a lot more like just a normal kid with mediocre skills.
I actually won the game of PIG today. Does that mean he is a Pretty Intelligent Girl? We were tied P-I for a long time, and then I took control. Playing that game brought back a flood of memories about my basketball playing in the past.
When that player said "Coach has a nice jump shot." I thought about the countless hours I spent shooting the ball, and perfecting my shot. I lived in bitter-cold Wisconsin and that didn't even stop me from going into the driveway and shooting, often times having to shovel off the court before doing so. That though, is how I got that nice jump shot.
I don't think kids realize how much it takes to perfect something, to make it become routine and second nature. It takes hundreds of hours practicing.
I thought of this earlier in the day too when a student in PE class wanted to give up while playing badminton for the first time. Sometimes things are hard and we are tempted to stop. By stopping though we guarantee that we will never become good at it. That frustration isn't something that I necessarily can sympathize with because I really do feel I have a little bit of a gift when it comes to sport skills. I'm not sure if I was actually born with that skill or if it has always just been my passion so I kept on repeating certain movements to get good at them. I do feel that it may be a little bit of both though.
How often do we give up on things because they become too difficult or challenging? What if we took all the things that we struggle with and started to "shovel off the courts" of our lives and kept on shooting?
Maybe you struggle with patience, or kindness or sympathy? What if you got your court cleared and played to be better at it?
Just a few thoughts as I went through my day. And here is a little bit of a Throwback Tuesday for you...
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| I'm #15 going for the jump ball. Probably 6th Grade at Lincoln School, Wausau, Wisconsin. |
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| I drive past the old school most times I visit home. I am not sure they still have this statue, which is one of my fondest landmark memories of those hallways. |
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| I spent hours playing. Here I am on one of many recesses during my elementary days! |
