“The 1st period is won by the best technician. The 2nd period is won by the kid in the best shape. The 3rd period is won by the kid with the biggest heart.”—Dan Gable
Brace yourself. I am going on a Dan Gable kick. If you don’t know who Dan Gable is (are you kidding me??!!) he is the standard to which all wrestlers aspire. He epitomizes hard work and determination. He is also a model for coaches. I met Dan Gable once at a golf outing to raise money for the wrestling program at Eastern Michigan University. Coach Gable was the keynote speaker. He made rounds to every foursome on the course and introduced himself personally. Now, I am not one to be impressed by celebrities, but meeting Dan Gable was special. Why? Because he is Dan Gable! Moreover, it was his presence. He actually asked me who I was—not just my name, but what I did, etc. He made conversation. He didn’t just do the obligatory smile and handshake. Dan Gable was/is the real deal. It is no surprise that he has had the success he has had on and off the mat and continues to inspire legions of wrestlers and others. It is also no surprise that his words often come to mind when I am looking to be inspired or inspire others.
The other day at youth football practice was no different. The boys had a lackluster practice, and the coaches were delivering their post-practice inspirational speeches. (I love my son’s coaches—across the sports—for their abilities to inspire my son toward success in life, as well as in sports.) This particular practice, I could hear echoes of the above Dan Gable quote (one of my favorites) in their words—and no surprise since all of the coaches have a wrestling background.
In life, as in wrestling, there are three major contributors to success: 1) knowledge, 2) practice, and 3) desire. We have to have all three to succeed.
The wrestling match is three periods. Three exhausting periods. What Gable is saying here has implication for all efforts in life, because all of life requires the same three periods (stages).
The first period is getting started. No one can be successful without the basic knowledge of what to do. In life, this is education. In sport, even the most athletic will need to learn the rules, the plays, the skill, etc. of the sport. A fast kid with great hands will be a lousy wide receiver, if he doesn’t know the pass routes.
My son has a close friend on the team for whom this is his first year playing football. He is coming into seventh grade football with very little knowledge of the physical aspects of the game. He asks questions, though. He pays attention. He is learning. He taking care of the first period.
The second period is where fatigue starts to set in. When I wrestled, I was not the greatest technician, and, as I have mentioned before, I was “a wrestler trapped in a basketball player’s body”; but, boy, was I well-conditioned. Coach Kling saw to that. I knew that the longer I survived (i.e., didn’t get pinned) the greater my chances were of winning. I could outlast most endurance-wise.
In life, sometimes the more hardship we experience, the better conditioned we are to face adversity and challenges as they come. In life and sport, the more we give 100% effort, the more prepared we are for what is to come. “Be your best today; be better tomorrow” is the second period.
The third period is heart. Heart is a certain intangible quality that one either has or one has not. I can’t say from where heart comes, but I know it when I see it. Some seem to come by it naturally (but, I suspect, they probably learned it somewhere along the way). Others, the least successful among us (and I don’t equate success here with money, stature, position, or celebrity), lack heart. These don’t have the willingness to push though even the slightest pain, adversity, and/or trial (“P.A.T.”, my son’s coach told the boys, “is your friend”). Heart always wins. Heart wins because the one with heart strives to learn more than the next, to condition more than the next, and, when the chips are down, will push harder than the next.
How bad do you want the desires of your heart? Until, you are willing to go the distance and pursue harder than the competition, greater success will always go to the one who wants it more.
Carpe momento!
“There’s nothing like success.”—Dan Gable