Skip to main content

Board Balls




I don't know why this drill came to my mind today.

My coach called it 'Board Balls'. I don't know what the official name is, or if even there is one.

I remember it as one of the most taxing practice drills- both mentally and stamina-wise- for me, personally. It seems strange but it's true.

I find individual drills and exercises simpler, because you have just one person to keep motivated - yourself. And you have just your own angst to face, and yourself to answer to, if and when something goes wrong.

But with 'Board Balls' and team games it's entirely different. You have more people to answer to, more people to take along. You need to save yourself but not at the cost of throwing someone else under the bus. You need to preserve your energy. It matters not just for you, but also for the team. And you can't quit. One person misses, and the entire group needs to start all over again.

The feeling of dissipating guilt as you mistakenly hit a weak board-ball which could easily have been missed by the succeeding player in your group, but thankfully, was yanked and caught- is not a feeling that can easily be forgotten. It stays with you forever- the momentary glimpse of impending jeopardy, guilt and remorse.

And you can't miss. You need to have your predecessor's back, quite literally. You can't miss catching the ball. Save the insults for later if you think they shoved it in a hurry and made things difficult. There is no time even to think of anger, let alone feel it, in this fast-paced exercise.

I remember dreading this exercise because it was all for one and one for all. If I messed up, I messed it up for everyone there. That's a lot of pressure. 

Yet, that's the very purpose of the game. Sometimes, your individual goals need to take a backseat. Sometimes, you've got to slow down, hit hard and keep the people behind and ahead of you in mind. 

I think that's an invaluable life lesson. I can feel the need for it today. Maybe- maybe, that's why it's all coming back. :)




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Clandestine

Sometimes we wait too long, To speak our minds. We let lingering truths linger, We let sporadic clocks, chime.. We allow patient seams to fritter away Like a sparrow does with the timber of the tune That she was shrouded by; shrill words tearing  Ears, each word she utters, careful, today. While the first day it was a free reign, until Some unctuous winds carried to her, criticism. Just the same way as copper utensils in a house Of steel, are anyone's delight, until bronzed,  With wear and use, both are the victims Of sundry needs and glances. Just the same way, some things, Are stowed away in careful pockets Because they have borne a lot of perusing When kept in the open.  Like love. Like hurt. Like envy. Like silence. Trust and truth are two things I can list, That are given, that are l'habitude. I tell the truth because it is, it exists, It is what I perceive, it is what I've lived.. And I keep your trust, because I've learnt That it'll help you keep mine, it wil...
Post a Comment
Read more

Predictability Plays Spoilsport

"Comfort's journey from the familiar to the unpredictable..." In the age of AI, if you are an AI Engineer like I am, you would swear by predictability. It's indispensable. We will find patterns in your genetic tree. We'll find them even in your whim of a Gulab Jamun or Barfi. We'll try to connect dots that are distant by miles. Yet, I'm here to tell you that we cannot afford predictability today. Sounds crazy and totally contradictory right? But I can be weird.   I'm here to tell you about randomness. I want you to experience it too. Well, you're smart people, readers. I may not be as smart. You know why we can't enforce patterns.   Someone will read them. Someone will exploit them.  Someone will feed them to an AI (Tool) and figure out what to do with them. You see what I mean? I'm being random. Randomness is not entirely useless.  I want to be equally random. I am stupid, gullible, naive and I'm wandering... You can say that I can be ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Still

A landscape of feathers The smoothest natural canvas, For Nature's painter- Alighting while parading its beauty Before retreating  Into a well-worn easel. Soot-black, rust-grey, brown like tinsel, Folding up and pulling down the covers Over grace, beauty and space, Compounded with distance, Rendering known unknowns, beautiful art. Now mingled with unknown knowns, Streaks of color paint the marauded canvas Differently. Camouflage seems eminent, Unimportance, inadvertent. The marvels Of the aerial world, beget stupor as  They transform into the pedestrian In the realm which is terrestrial. The miracle of flight now a bane, As for food they must forage  With feet, not fly with feathers. I don't want to startle them. It is silence that beckons them to the ground. Startlement stirs them upwards, into the skies, Simpering, whimpering, not soaring and diving- Trespassers on a land where they are weak, Vulnerable- they know they can't win. Aviation is a weapon futile against...
1 comment
Read more