The importance of practice | Don’t be afraid to try something new
My high school basketball team worked harder than any other team I’ve ever had.
We practiced year-round. In season, we practiced 6 days a week, even when we had games. Our strengths were our endurance, team comradery, and muscle memory. Truth be told, we ran more during our basketball practices than I ran in my track or cross country practices! And we did the same drills, over and over: quick feet, jab steps, punch passing, etc.
Not only did we work our butts off in the gym, we also set goals for each game. Think of it as the basketball version of OKRs (and this was well before OKRs gained popularity). We had targets for shooting percentages by 2 pointers and 3 pointers, turnovers, assists, offensive and defensive rebounds, and more.
If we exceeded our targets, our reward was that we almost always won the game. Our coach would also reduce the amount of running over the next week. If we failed our targets, not only did we typically lose, we also had to do sit-ups for each basis point that we missed our goal.
In one (rare) scenario where we lost and played particularly badly, we had to do 532 sit-ups. 5-3-2. These days, I’m happy to do 30 sit-ups, much less over 500! But we did every single one of them. As a team.
We knew that based on how we practiced and played, we can and should have done better. We held ourselves accountable. And you know what? We won the state championship later that year. We were the first women’s team from Martin’s Mill to win state ever, and the first for all genders since 1949.
I’m not the tallest or the fastest. I don’t have the best hand-eye coordination. But what basketball taught me was that if I did enough reps of anything, then I could get good enough to be better than average.
That’s how I learned the importance of practice.
It’s also how I learned to not be afraid to try something that I’m not naturally gifted at right off the bat.
Face Your Fears
Let me give you an example.
I was wrapping up my first year of college and needed to find a summer job. My closest friend found an on-campus events coordinator job, and I thought it would be fun to stay on campus that summer with her. The only other role available was a summer internship at the admissions office. The admissions intern mainly gave tours of the campus to prospective students 2-3 times a day.
Many of you who know me now may not believe this, but I was painfully shy at 19 years old. As one example, I was afraid to talk to strangers on the phone. I used to call my mom and beg her to make a call on my behalf.
I would literally panic on the phone with a stranger, palms sweating and heart racing. Just the idea of speaking to someone I didn’t know terrified me. Fortunately, my mom recognized the impending panic in my voice and agreed to make calls for me. That said, I was NOT ready to give tours to 50+ students a day.
Then, I remembered my basketball training. Giving tours can’t be that different than flexing and strengthening a muscle, right? So I applied for the job. To make sure I landed the position, I asked one of my professors to give me a recommendation. (This is how I first learned about the importance of referrals and reputation; more on this later.) Turns out, he was friends with the admissions hiring manager! Bingo. I landed the job… for which I had absolutely no skills.
Walk the Talk
I approached my tours how I approached every basketball game. I practiced, and I practiced, and I practiced. My parents ingratiated me with listening to every iteration. Many of my friends did too. Days before the internship started, I talked myself hoarse. Then, I started practicing in front of a mirror with memorized words and hand gestures.
I’ll never forget that first tour. My backwards-walking skills needed improvement, to say the least. I still laugh to myself thinking about the faces of prospective students and parents who tried to warn me before I banged the back of my head on a car window while crossing the parking lot backwards!
I had to use notecards because I nervously forgot my lines a few times. Still, I made it through. The second tour went smoother, as did the third and fourth.
After a couple of weeks of actively giving tours, I had it down. So much so that I started making up jokes. The parents loved it. I also told stories about our historic buildings.
For example, the Cullen Building staircase has unusually short steps. I would normally take them two at a time to classes. For purposes of the tour, however, I would slowly, painstakingly walk up each step, explaining to the group of prospective students and parents that when Southwestern opened for women, the female students weren’t allowed to show their ankles. They had to take tiny steps to avoid impropriety. 👀
“Can you imagine what those professors would have thought of me in this tank top!?” I’d joke, eyes open wide in mock horror. (It was over 100 degrees most days that summer!)
All that to say, we had a stronger application pool that year than ever before… in no small part due to my tour and also, our amazing admission staff.
Practice, Practice, Practice
I share all of this to tell you – don’t be afraid to try something new that you don’t feel equipped for.
Want to learn to code? Practice every day for a month and see how amazing you become.
Want to learn a new language? There is no substitute for practicing daily with a friend.
Afraid of public speaking? Practice in front of a mirror and then groups of friends and family.
You may just find that you love learning new things. And what a gift that would be!
You can do more than you think you can.
Practice, practice, practice.
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