I remember growing up in Southern California and always being around the wonderful game of baseball. My mom and dad were both youth coaches, mom with softball, dad with baseball even before I was born. They never pushed the game on me though, it was my decision to play, but just being good enough was never an option.
I was around 11 at the time, and was just learning the game, just beginning to get comfortable, really lagging in ability to my teammates. I was up to bat and there was a man on second base we were tied, a past ball sent the runner to third, the next pitch was a fastball down the gut and I was o'fer on the day so far, I was nervous and took a very ugly, please don't make an out swing and hit a chopper that due to my speed produced a good result, and a win. As a kid caught in the moment I was excited, a walk off how cool is that, then I saw the glare my dad was giving me from the dugout and excitement turned into confusion, fear and unease.
After packing up we got into his truck and as always talked about the game, when we got to that last at bat again he asked me if I thought it was good or bad. I replied with 11 yr old bravado "good, real good, we had won and it was a hit and i was the hero". He proceeded to turn his head a raise his voice a little and told me the words that "son, good enough is never great, and great is where you want to be" He told me that it was good that I got the run home, it was good that I was successful, but it was not my greatest or best effort and due to being fleet of foot, the game should have been tied and that I was not a hero but less than that for not giving it my best effort. He told me that being great is just giving great effort and playing fearlessly, and that he did not expect great things or results from me, he just expected great effort, and even though we won, I had failed.
My 11 yr. old mind had turned "Failed" into "I WAS A FAiLURE", and he knew it .As tears rolled down my face he told me how I was loved and that I was not a failure, but I had failed that athletic test and I should know the difference. He said I would fail many more times the more I played, but I would become a failure in the game and in life if I did not give great effort. He explained to me that great work and effort pays off faster, good enough, is good enough to get passed by, and it was up to me to control that because nobody could but me.
I say this because I hear it a lot in my lessons. I am trying to get a student to perform a drill or swing mechanic and they hit the ball in a non successful way and they are saying that it was good enough, and I come back with...."I would rather see you miss the ball than do it that way because we don't want to keep bad habits" We as mentors, teachers, parents are trying to instill life lessons as well as functional athletic lessons and in today's life good enough has crept in and taken over for being great. We want them to be great, to give great effort and to not settle, to have great fun doing it. Every player I work with may not be the best player on their team, but they can be some form of great, a great teammate, a great situation hitter, a great cut off man, a great inspiration, a great worker, and the game will teach them some great life lessons.
My dad taught me that day.....good enough was not acceptable in our household, or on the ball field. He wanted my game to be great fun, and knew it required great effort, I kept that lesson a part of my game and aspired to be great, and 14 years later applied to the rest of my life.
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