Driving my son home today we had a conversation about how practice went. He responded with generalities like ‘fine’ and ‘did good’ but not once did he dig into the critical aspects of the practice. I went and looked at the tape and saw a kid who is not ready to compete at the varsity level. He’s jittery; uncertain of where to put his feet. He reacts late and without fluidity to the ball being in the air and the qb making reads. As a result he wasn’t on the field much. He did not, as the kids say, cook. He needs to get lower in his stance. He needs to read specific areas of the field, watching his 3rd develop and discovering how to move forward into the flow of the play. He can get there. He needs to deal with adversity on a much higher level before I believe he will get there. He hasn’t dealt with that on a serious level in his life and it is those kind of moments that will shape you.
Meanwhile, his big brother is into his summer training for his first D1 season. He’s ready. He found a training partner who was better than him–an Notre Dame All American CB who can push him and he can learn from. That connection has propelled his preparation, and now I see the kid striving to excel in his first year–maybe with the hopes of transferring to ND and stepping in for his training partner when that kid declares for the draft this spring.
The pros are about to start their summer of preseason, and I’m excited to see how that plays out. On three levels I have things to watch and talk about. Success is around the corner… that or the other thing.