Let's get fired up...tomorrow
It's baseball post season right now and a couple of the divisional series have gone to a full 5 games. I was catching up this morning on the Orioles vs. Yankees series and previewing game 5 when I came across a curious quote.
"If you can't get up and get ready for this, you might not have a pulse."
This struck me as funny. If you cannot get fired up for a play-off game where the option is win or go home, you don't have a pulse.
I've read this quote many times before, and it's almost exclusively used for these "one and done" situations. As I was reading the rest of the article, I had another flashback to years ago where Allen Iverson, the former NBA basketball player sat down at a media session and uttered his famous quote, "we talking about practice."
I understand what is meant by the quote. And having listened to Iverson's clip several times, I do know what he's trying to reference.
However in my opinion, every time you step onto a field of play whether it be football, rowing, or soccer, you need to be ready to go. You need to be excited. In other words, you need to have a pulse, meaning, you need to care. It doesn't need to be a do or die situation. In my opinion it shouldn't be. You should be ready to go and have the passion and desire to want to get something done every single day.
I am constantly telling my teams that there needs to be a passion or a want to for everything that we do. That everything we do matters and how we approach it matters and if you can't be bothered to have some passion for doing the nitty gritty, the detail work, then how do you expect to have passion for the competition? A game is simply the result of all those pieces coming together so if you lack passion for them, then how do you have passion for the sum total?
With all due respect to Allen Iverson, I believe that practice is more important than any single game or series of games. I believe firmly in you competing the same as you practiced. I believe that when you lose a game or a race, you never actually lose in that game but in the practices and months leading up to it. One of my favorite sport quotes is from Augie Garrido, the head baseball coach at Texas.
"Maybe you lost back in December when you decided to skip that day of practice."
I'm paraphrasing it a bit but the meaning is there. Even more poignant to this is the quote from Steve Gladstone, the former Cal coach now at Yale who said, "There has to be a passion, not a mild interest but a passion."
That is what this rambling post is getting back to. Yes, the final game of the series between the Orioles and Yankees is important and you - the players - should be up for it. But I believe that you should be up for everything, not just the games, but the practices, the detail work, the video sessions, the meetings, everything.
A while back when Michael Jordan was being inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame, he received a lot of flak for his acceptance speech, for it being cold, disparaging and unnecessarily blunt. And it was. But in it you see the true nature of a competitor, someone who took negatives, perceived slights, anything to elevate his game to another level.
You never had to ask MJ if he had a pulse be it in a game or practice. And that, in my humble opinion, is how it should always be.
"If you can't get up and get ready for this, you might not have a pulse."
This struck me as funny. If you cannot get fired up for a play-off game where the option is win or go home, you don't have a pulse.
I've read this quote many times before, and it's almost exclusively used for these "one and done" situations. As I was reading the rest of the article, I had another flashback to years ago where Allen Iverson, the former NBA basketball player sat down at a media session and uttered his famous quote, "we talking about practice."
I understand what is meant by the quote. And having listened to Iverson's clip several times, I do know what he's trying to reference.
However in my opinion, every time you step onto a field of play whether it be football, rowing, or soccer, you need to be ready to go. You need to be excited. In other words, you need to have a pulse, meaning, you need to care. It doesn't need to be a do or die situation. In my opinion it shouldn't be. You should be ready to go and have the passion and desire to want to get something done every single day.
I am constantly telling my teams that there needs to be a passion or a want to for everything that we do. That everything we do matters and how we approach it matters and if you can't be bothered to have some passion for doing the nitty gritty, the detail work, then how do you expect to have passion for the competition? A game is simply the result of all those pieces coming together so if you lack passion for them, then how do you have passion for the sum total?
With all due respect to Allen Iverson, I believe that practice is more important than any single game or series of games. I believe firmly in you competing the same as you practiced. I believe that when you lose a game or a race, you never actually lose in that game but in the practices and months leading up to it. One of my favorite sport quotes is from Augie Garrido, the head baseball coach at Texas.
"Maybe you lost back in December when you decided to skip that day of practice."
I'm paraphrasing it a bit but the meaning is there. Even more poignant to this is the quote from Steve Gladstone, the former Cal coach now at Yale who said, "There has to be a passion, not a mild interest but a passion."
That is what this rambling post is getting back to. Yes, the final game of the series between the Orioles and Yankees is important and you - the players - should be up for it. But I believe that you should be up for everything, not just the games, but the practices, the detail work, the video sessions, the meetings, everything.
A while back when Michael Jordan was being inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame, he received a lot of flak for his acceptance speech, for it being cold, disparaging and unnecessarily blunt. And it was. But in it you see the true nature of a competitor, someone who took negatives, perceived slights, anything to elevate his game to another level.
You never had to ask MJ if he had a pulse be it in a game or practice. And that, in my humble opinion, is how it should always be.
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