Upon Further Review: Winners go that extra mile
Going the extra mile to succeed is a phrase we all know, but few actually understand what it really means.
For some, it may mean putting in that extra hour or so each day to make sure the job gets done, or working on your day off to help out a co-worker. It may mean taking extra time to study and improve your knowledge in a class you don’t understand, or to gain extra knowledge in your job to give you an advantage over someone else.
We all have gone that extra mile — or at least we thought we had, until the person we were trying to gain an edge over beat us to the punch or did it just a little better than we did.
For years athletes who find themselves at the top of their professions are the ones who go that extra mile.
For athletes that extra mile extends beyond showing up at the weight room when the coaches ask you to. It goes beyond running that extra lap after practice and beyond staying that extra hour and working on throwing, hitting, blocking or what ever you feel your weakness is.
Successfully athletic programs and athletes go that extra mile, and I think anyone who traveled to Lincoln County Friday night saw rewards of hard labor.
In today’s world it’s not good enough to just show up at practice and spend three hours out on the field or in the gym and think that’s going to prepare you for your next opponent.
It’s the work a person puts in on his or her own that gives them that extra edge in competition.
Lifting weights in the off-season, running steps and getting a pick-up game of basketball or football going between teammates helps put you one step closer to success.
Everybody wants to be a winner, but very few want to go that extra mile to gain an edge.
By working out or practicing only when the coaches tell you to, all you’re doing is settling to be average at best.
Over the last couple of months, I have talked with several coaches who have seen their teams turn things around. I’ve asked them what has been the biggest difference in their teams’ success. They all gave credit to the difference in their kid’s work ethics.
Their players understand now, that working out in the summer on their own is the quickest way to succeed. One coach said that in the past he had never had kids show up at the school in the summer to run steps at the stadium or lift weights on their own. He now has kids showing up and working out for a couple of hours in the mornings, then going out and playing flag football for an hour or so. They have finally realized that they’re the ones who are going to make a difference in winning and losing, not the coaches.
If a team has nine or 10 players willing to go out each day during the off-season and work hard at becoming bigger and better athletes, then every team that team plays during the season will have to have kids doing the same thing just in order to stay competitive.
We can complain and make all sorts of excuses for losing, but until we realize we have to go that extra mile to be successful it’s all just a bunch of talk.
I can guarantee Lincoln County’s players didn’t just work out when it was mandatory. Those kids took it upon themselves to become bigger and better.