Amnesia
Most people forget that there is something good about having amnesia. You can hide and hunt your own Easter eggs.
It reminds me of the two old geezers who decided to play golf and help each other out. Bill had poor eyesight and George had amnesia.
Before Bill teed off, he told George to watch where his tee shot went. George crouched down and got a good view of the fairway. Bill drove it down the middle. He turned to George and asked, “Where did it go?” George said, “I forgot.”
In athletics, coaches preach to players about developing amnesia. In other words, forget about what just happened. You can’t do anything about it. Focus on the next play, the next shot or the next at-bat. Every great defensive back has football amnesia.
Watching Alabama’s basketball team is a perfect example. Nate Oates has said over and over again that the quickest way to get sent to the bench is to “NOT take an open 3-point shot.” Players often start questioning that philosophy after they have missed the last 7 shots in a row. Oates’s strategy: “keep firing away. I believe in you and they will eventually fall.”
I played football, basketball and baseball. I have coached football, basketball and baseball at many different levels. Too many players think coaches keep a mental tally of player’s past mistakes. Totally wrong.
I can think back on key moments in my 21 years as a coach when a player struck out with the bases loaded or missed a game winning extra point. I can recall a player shooting a foul shot to send the game into overtime and he didn’t even hit the rim. Guess what? That’s why you play the game.
Many of those same players came back to help us win a game later because I believed in them. The bigger outcome is that they became great husbands, fathers and leaders.
One of the traits that separates the great ones from the good ones is the ability to develop amnesia or to put the past in the rearview mirror. Coaches emphasize this over and over: “Don’t let one loss or bad game get you beat more than once.”
You learn from the past then file that experience away. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to remind you that a hot stove will burn you or gas station sushi will turn you every which way but loose.
Last night, Alabama basketball team beat Texas Tech like a rented mule to advance to the Sweet 16 to face number 1 seed, Michigan. Bama, like most teams which rely on the 3-point shot, can win by 25 or lose by 25. The Tide might get their doors blown off but it won’t be due to their reluctance to fire away from deep.
As a coach, one of the greatest intangibles for a player is confidence. There is a thin line between being confident and being cocky. Every coach wants a team full of athletes full of confidence. Not fake trash talking confidence but the ones who want to be at the plate to win the game. Opposing coaches spend hours of preparation looking for mismatches, especially players who can’t put a mistake behind them.
Watch the games in March Madness. You don’t have to be Adolph Rupp or John Wooden to locate the ones with a shaky confidence level. Late in the game, those are the ones you want to foul since every orifice in their body tightens up when they approach the free throw line. They throw up more bricks than a brick mason building a fireplace.
As a former player and coach, nothing irritates me more than fans or keyboard warriors who says a player “choked.” We have all made errors, dropped passes or dribbled one off our foot. I have even heard the term used on a world class golfer who missed the winning putt on the 18th hole at the Masters. Let’s praise the athlete who chooses to get in the arena and competes. That in itself makes them a winner.
I borrowed this from an old preacher:
Probably, the greatest example of amnesia happens when we mess up and throw our mistakes and sins into the “Lake of Forgiveness.” Even though the Good Lord has forgiven us, we keep wanting to fish our mistakes out of that Great Lake.
When we do that and keep bringing up our past mistakes, we fail to notice the sign which reads “No Fishing.”
And to hear those words of blessed assurance from our Maker:
“I forgot.”
As I said earlier, amnesia isn’t always a bad thing.