All day long the ball was dancing on the rim. Lots of good looks and almost baskets, mainly, though, the shoot around session consisted of the ball lingering on the rim without falling through the hole. “Aim higher,” an old coach’s words echoed through the barren gym. “Due to gravity, the ball is always going to come down,” he explained. “If you shoot above the rim, the ball has a chance of falling into the hoop; but if you keep throwing up those darts, you are minimizing your chances.” Aim higher? Aiming high isn’t something I usually need to be encouraged towards. Frustrated, I replied aloud, as though he was present, “how much higher can I aim?”
I coached myself through a series of jump shots repeating his words: “aim higher”. As much as my aim was my issue (my sight was at the rim not above it), the change came when I started to use my legs. No longer shooting in the “my follow through is pretty” kind of way, I adjusted so that my legs were bent, locked and loaded, ready to explode. There’s jumping and then there’s exploding. When you have to aim higher you have to not only raise your eyes and expectations but you need to adjust your setup and execution as well.
In the midst of a shoot around it’s frustrating to see the misses linger. But if you’ve ever experienced the buzzer beater not falling into the hole, you know the heartbreak that sinks simultaneously as the hope of winning instantly plummets. In life there are those “could have been” and “almost was” events. The ones you have been training for with dedication and determination only to come up inches short of victory at the finish line. They stretch one’s dedication to say it kindly.
It’s an act of the will to not linger in defeat. Just because I didn’t doesn’t mean that I won’t. It’s a choice to sit out or set up for the next chance. It’s a choice to continue to practice, even when the effort feels it’s done in vain. I may not have sunk the last buzzer beater but in the meantime, I’m going to improve my setup, strengthen my base, and heighten my aim so when the time comes, without doubt, “I’ll make it.”
Verso l’alto,
K.Coop
Because there is NO better movie in all of history!
Cause tonight's the night the world begins again
You shattered my darkness
washed away my blindness
now Im breathing in
and breathing out
Im alive again
washed away my blindness
now Im breathing in
and breathing out
Im alive again
