The Fundamentals

So many of us, kids and adults, want the glory without the work. We practice 3-point shoots rather than opposite-hand layups. We practice shoot out moves rather than train plyometrics. We skip leg day and blame the economy rather than put in the extra hours at work to get ahead.

Perhaps one of my favorite stories about fundamentals come from the late Randy Pausch who was a Carnegie Mellon University professor and author of the book, “The Last Lecture.”

I’m paraphrasing from his book below…

A team of youth players arrived at the first day of football practice only to find no footballs anywhere to be found. “Hey coach, where are all the footballs they asked?”

“Well kids, how many players are on the field at one time?”

“22!” They answered proudly. “11 on each side.”

“And how many of those players have the ball at any given time?” asked the coach.

“Well, just one,” the kids responded. “Okay,” said the coach. “Then for today, we’re going to work on the other 21 positions that don’t have the ball.”

The moral of the story is this: We can’t all be quarterback, nor should we be. In addition, in just about any sport, only one person holds the ball at a time. Learning to be a dedicated teammate to that person (the role one plays most of the time on the field) is key. Fundamentals are key.