Sports

In the world of sports, everything is about numbers. In baseball, there's the batting average, the OPS, the pitch count, the strikes and balls, and the number of innings. In football, there's the yards left to gain until a first down, the quarter, who's on the field, and if one should kick the field goal, punt it, run it, throw it, or go for the two point conversion, all based on the score. In basketball, athletes must be careful of the time left, where they are when they shoot (three point line or inside it), and the score. The point is that with all these numbers in athletes heads, it gets confusing sometimes. But the successful athletes all know how to prioritize these numbers, and at the top of that list is the number one, as in first place. As a kid, everybody is told to compete with themselves, to do their personal best; but really, all that is is recreational; the real deal is that sports is a competition. Beyond high school competition, there's really no more competitions left that offer awards for participation. The Olympics, for example, are all about being "faster, higher, stronger". But is this a competition against oneself? On the surface, it is definitely not; it's a competition to be better against others, and to be better than others, not oneself. But really, that's not the case; there's a hidden meaning in the Olympics that not much people understand, maybe not even the athletes themselves. The Olympics- any competition, really- is a competition of guts, to get faster, get higher, and get stronger. It's a competition strictly against oneself. The other competitors? As Magic Johnson likes to say, "If you're a competitive person, that stays with you. You don't stop. You always look over your shoulder." The other people, in a competitor's eyes, are nothing but obstacles to overcome, people to help the athlete get better. Everybody performs better when the will is there, and the competition is also there, too; that's a key component. If everything is so easy, then one wouldn't perform at his/her best; their medium is good enough to win, so why try, then? It's when the heat is on, and the other competitors are right behind one, that one has to channel the inner power, and to give it one's all. I've felt this in many instances of my life before, but none as strong as this one time. Myself, I've always been a fierce competitor, and I've always wanted to be the best at everything and anything. In PE class one day, we were running the mile. That was the first time; being pretty fast and having good stamina, I easily outran the rest of the class. The next time, the person gained on me, and steadily, I began to loose my edge until the mile was becoming a neck to neck race. At first, when the competition wasn't heated, I felt like the mile was easy, with everything under control if I just jogged. But then the heat grew more and more intense, until my competitiveness almost forced me to try harder, to work faster, urging my limbs to move like they've never moved before; that's what it feels like as a competitor when the heat is on, that even though a certain objective is well out of reach, it's what one has to aim for. It's as if one's fastest, or best performance, isn't good enough. But the results will show different, as at the beginning of the year, when I hadn't been pressured to do my best, I ran the mile in almost seven minutes and thirty seconds. Now, as my competition grows, to maintain that first place, I've got to run my fastest and try my fastest, and the results have shown, as I now can run the mile in under six minutes. That's the level of competition that one needs to succeed. It's certainly a race against oneself, to be better than one's ever been before, these sporting games. It's like life, having to constantly improve oneself to maintain one's position, or even possibly go up. But this is all hidden behind the competition, who in your eyes are nothing but helpers to help pace one, and help one get on the right track. That's what the competitors see.

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years everyone! Here's a piece of advice for anyone looking to have a great 2011!

It was Casey Stengel that once said, "No baseball pitcher would be worth a darn without a catcher who couldn't handle the hot fastball." In other words, even with the best of pitchers, if the catcher can't catch the pitcher's fastball, it would be useless, and the pitcher would be as good as all the rest, if not worse. This saying refers to success in real life, too, and not just on the baseball diamond. In real life, friends are the essential "ingredient" to one's success. Almost every great invention in history was accomplished by two or more people, even if only one person got credit for it. In every single project, there's always helpers, though unimportant (as a good catcher would be catching for one of the best pitchers), but they still contribute much to the completion of the project. So there is no such thing as one-man success; all accomplishments are done by a team. Some examples of team success is the multi-million dollar company Apple, created by Steve Jobs. Though he his credited with the founding of Apple, he is not the only person responsible for the creation of this company. There are the 35,000 employees that worked as a team to bring to the world things like the Mac, iPod, iPhone, etc., and also the co-founders (Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne). So even though it may seem Steve Jobs single-handedly brought forth the iPod, there are a lot more people that worked hard to design it. Another example would be Bill Gates and Microsoft. Like Steve Jobs, he is the main contributor to the creation of the company, and also similar to Steve Jobs is that he also got help from thousands of workers from around the US, and maybe even the world. In fact, any invention- the atomic bomb, the lightbulb, the car- were invented by two or more people! That just shows one the power of teamwork. If two brains work together to do something, they'll moth likely achieve it. Just take it from Michael Jordan, widely considered the best player ever in the NBA, and listen to what he has to say about teamwork: "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. " Truly, the key to success in 2011, as it has always been and probably always will be, is to be a good, intelligent team player. As the old saying goes, "Two heads are always better than one."