I love going to practice. I especially enjoy wrestling practice, because I actually get to practice against our guys. By wrestling around with our individual wrestlers, I can help each fine-tune a few moves and work on improving situations in which he's been giving up points. I also get some selfish rewards; it helps me stay in shape and it's a lot of fun to compete against such good athletes. This year Chris Gill (second from the left) made huge strides toward the end of the year. At both the State and Prep National tournaments, he beat somebody who had beaten him just seven days earlier, and in both cases the benefit to him and the team was enormous. At States he beat the Bishop O'Connell kid who beat him the week before at St. Alban's, finishing ahead of him to help the Saints narrowly beat the Knights for the state title. Later in States, Chris got worked over by the kid from Liberty Christian, a defending State Champ. The next weekend, Chris beat the Liberty Christian kid up at the Prep Nationals tournament in Lehigh. By winning this match, Chris qualified as a Prep National All American. He was one of five Saints All Americans, the most we've ever had in one year.
How was he able to beat the people to whom he had so recently lost? Losing to the O'Connell and Liberty Christian kids taught him what he needed to work on. Each week we worked on those specific strategies and skills, practicing them over and over until they were near perfect. While drilling the same moves again and again and again is not the most exciting thing in the world, Chris knew he had to do it. If he didn't get better, he would lose to people the team needed him to beat.
Some people run into difficulty and give up. They lose confidence in the face of a tough adversary and give less effort the next time around because they think they won't succeed. Others take a lesson from every loss, coming back stronger the next time around. Which type of person will you be? When you do poorly on a test or quiz, what is your reaction?
4 comments:
I am trying to be the kind of person who never gives up. Tonight, I went to a Kicker's soccer pool traing where they get to look at rising talent. The coach there wants nothing but perfection. I tried my best and that's sometimes all you can do. I believe in training hard when others may not be and never let yourself down by making excuses about why you shouldn't practice on your own when you can.
-Logan
My reaction when I do bad on a test or quiz is to go ahead and see what I did wrong whether it's studying or organization or I made simple mistakes. Then I try harder next time. An example would be my Spanish first interim grade I got a ''F'' I know it was terrible but I brought it all the way up to a ''B-''. So I say one thing never say never because we are men that cannot submit to failure.
Tazle Sumpter " Don't live in regret"
The other day i was playing tennis and the coach there also was looking for talent and if you screwed up you had to run a lap around 5 tennis courts. It had to be a powerful shot. It also had to have good placement. During stations at PE I try to do better than one or keep up with one of my friends who is probably stronger than me. I try that with the push ups, the sit ups, the mountain climbers, the running, the jumping over the line, and the wall sits. It actually helps me because it makes me push myself harder.
Julian Mills
Clemson is awesome!!!!
I look over what I did wrong, and see what I did to make it wrong. Then I practice it harder before the next quiz or test. It's the same with sswimming. When I have a bad race I try to figure out what I did wrong. Then I focus on doing what I did wrong harder and faster the next race.
Jack Bassett
P.S. Red Sox rock
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