I study my children.
I’m the guy behind the two-way mirror holding a clip board and considering. Everything. Lately my analysis has turned to sports and the way my kids handle sports. When I watch the pros, and even back in college in that one sad year I was a part of that world, I could see the guys who were real and the ones who weren’t going to be at the next level. Skill was a part of it, but it was the smallest part of it. Determination, drive, and above all else, killer instinct.
Jordan is the poster child for killer instinct. When he played he wanted to put you away. He wanted to make sure the next time you faced him you were 100% afraid of what might happen to your now-fragile ego. Killer instinct also means rising to the challenge of playing superior talent until you become that superior talent. Now I see glimpses of both behaviors in my two oldest kids, but I don’t see them both in any kid. The eldest has that killer instinct. He’ll fight to the end and by the end he wants to put you down for good. He wants to do this in sports, video games, arguments, eating contests, hell, he wants to do it in a farting contest. No matter the challenge, he wants to win badly. The middle child is the ‘step up’ kid. He always wants to rumble with the big kids. He wants to get in there and hold his own and see what he can do. He is a fast learner and when encountering a new skill or trick or sport he gets the look in his eyes that says, “I can do this.”
You gotta have both to be a pro. My eldest wants to be a pro, so I need to find a way to teach him ‘step up game’. There may come a time where all three develop that pro instinct. I hope it happens. I love it when my boys want something badly and fight as hard as they can to get it.
Some Thoughts:
- 1245 is a lot of posts. Here’s to over 3 yrs of writing every stinking day.