My son is the smallest and the youngest kid on his baseball team. He doesn’t come up to the armpits of most kids on the team.
He’s not stronger or faster than almost anyone on the team. That being said, you could make a STRONG argument that he is THE BEST player on that team.
Here’s why:
I was coaching first base last night, and this kid comes in to pitch for the other team, and he might as well be throwing 95 miles an hour. I mean, holy smokes, I don’t think I’d stand in the batter’s box. He mows down two kids.
Then my kid gets up there. One of our better players turns to me and says, “He’s not afraid of anything, is he? He’s right up on the plate, and he never flinches.”
The kid’s right. My guy plays to win every time. He plays to score. No question.
The night before he got caught off second base. There was a short fly ball to right field. When the ball was hit, he tore for third. The outfielder made a great shoestring catch running in, and then threw it to second for a double play.
The coaches and I were furious.
The more I think about it though, the more I come to the conclusion that he didn’t make a mental mistake. It was his natural, aggressive, win at any cost attitude. All he saw was himself sliding across home plate as the ball fell in.
Most of us never play all out. Most of us never give it our all. We’d rather not make a mistake than make the diving catch to win the game.
He’ll always go for the diving catch. He’ll never back up and knock the ball down and live to fight another day. It’s always WIN, right here, right now.
He doesn’t play on this team because of his athletic abilities. He plays on this team because he’s a warrior.
One of my favorite quotes comes from a series of books I’ve never read (but probably should):
“The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is
that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary
man takes everything as a blessing or as a curse.”
I’m not even sure what book it comes from, but the author is Carlos Castaneda and it comes from his teaching on the way of the warrior.
Everyone complains about the umpire.
Everyone complains about the test questions.
Everyone complains about….
It’s a challenge. That’s all. Do your best with what you have. You can’t change the test. You can’t change the teacher. It’s a challenge, nothing more, nothing less.
Of course, should you want to be better prepared for your challenges, I’ve put tougher a somewhat private “podcast” for you. It’s like a warrior sharpening her sword before a battle.
You can find it inside the PAER app by following this link:
https://www.physicianassistantexamreview.com/BB
Brian Wallace
P.S. If you don’t already have the app, it’s easy to get into. Follow that link and you’ll get all of the instructions. It’s hosted by Learnistic, so you’ll see their name and logo from time to time.