Fluency blog 14 Why do prople have to prove themselves?

     Milo likes to prove to the cats that he is the top dog, he jumps off my chair and runs at the cats, they don't care, he is smaller than they are, they just rub against him as to say " Good dog ".

     I sometimes wonder why it is that we have to prove ourselves in certain situations. One example is my son is trying to get onto the basketball team at school. He is a sophomore and this is his first try at basketball. He has been on the track team for a couple of years, since seventh grade, and know he would like to add basketball to his list of sports he has tried.

     At open gym the basketball players all work on the fundamentals of the game and the newbies work on not getting in the way. Well it's not always that way, the new players do get instruction from the coach and the varsity players do help from time to time. The thing that bothers me is the macho attitude the coach has toward the new players. I hear it from my son. He will come home from practice and complain that the coach just ignores him, or the varsity players keep him out of practice rotation. I explain that because you are new and they have been on the team for a while that you are going to have to prove yourself. Ahh!!! I said it, the magic words, prove yourself. What does this mean?

     I think this concept goes back as far as man has lived on the planet. The younger of a group will always have to show that they are ready to step up and show what they have learned growing up. The time when the younger ones from a society get to try to be one of the leaders. Try to be a provider or in the case of my son show that they are good enough to play with the rest of the team.

  But what about what I said about proving themselves. Well I know for my son it is a case of having to make every practice on time, be ready to learn from the older players. Understand that the coach is watching him even though he thinks the coach is just giving him a hard time. That's it!!! Hard Time.

     I said prove yourself many times now and that is the idea that I amn getting at. Having to deal with getting pushed around, yelled at by the coach, not having g the varsity players pass you the ball until you have proven yourself. That's what its all about. Showing the guys that come before you that you can stick it out, you are strong enough, though enough, have learned the game and the most important thing, that they can rely on and trust you. That's proving yourself. Yes you have to take crap, but that's the way it works, not fun, but stick it out and you will make it.

Thank you,
Scott Hasemeier