BaseBall and Bullets

I started teaching my children baseball this summer, just the basics: How to throw and catch a ball.  It got me thinking about the process of learning the basics.

“This is only basic rifle marksmanship that you are teaching!”  The student said it with something between derision and accusation.

“Yep, that is exactly what we are teaching,” I replied.

“I’m a sergeant, I already know this stuff.”

I shrugged, and let it pass.  He was grouping three inches at twenty five yards, with the aid of a bipod.

I sometimes start classes by stating: “We will be working a lot on basics today.”  I can accurately predict which students will do well, and which ones will perform poorly, based on their response.  The ones that say, “Great, I need basics”, excel.  The ones who look disappointed, or bored, do not.  Ironically, it is those students who embrace the basics, who are ready to move on to more advanced work more quickly.

The basics aren’t cool.  They don’t look good on Instagram, and basics won’t get you followers on YouTube.  Basics are hard, tedious work.  I have heard it said that ten thousand repetitions of a single movement are required to achieve mastery.  How long does it take to amass ten thousand trigger presses?  Or ten thousand draw strokes?

Everything fancy is just basics, faster, or from some inconvenient position.  To paraphrase one instructor I heard, “All you got to do is line up the sights, then don’t screw it up pulling the trigger.”

Yep, basics.

Next time you tune in the ball game, look at the highlights reel.  You will see those amazing triple plays, the slide into home plate, the fielder leaping to catch that would be home run, before it sails over the fence.  Then watch what the players do when they take the field.  Even though they are professionals, the very best players alive, they practice the basics, tossing the ball to each other, warming up for the inning.

They all started out as kids playing catch with their dad in the back yard, and even now, as pros making obscene amounts of money, they are still learning to catch and throw.  That’s why they are the best at what they do.