Episode Transcript
[00:00:11] Welcome back to another edition of UnlEAshEd Athletics. I'm Brian Bond, your host, and boy, oh boy, do we have a great conversation ready for you today. It actually stems from a podcast I heard about a week, maybe two weeks ago with Joe Rogan. He talked about a high school basketball team in the northeast that is being reprimanded by the state association for winning by too much or beating teams too badly. It has stirred a ton of conversation, so I thought I might weigh in on the situation and present my side of how I think these things should be handled. First, please understand it is a sensitive topic because there are truly two sides when it comes to this topic. The first side is, you should never beat a team by a lot. It's not very nice. And just because you're better than them doesn't mean you have to embarrass them. The second side of that is we train our athletes to play their very best, and when they do get a chance to compete, you put your very best foot forward no matter what. Those are really the two things that we can look at. So as I started to process, how do you articulate this in a way that would make sense for people to understand?
[00:01:34] I wanted to remove the sports element out of it for a minute. So removing the sports element and looking at it in other contexts will help you understand why my position is the way that it is. So here are three situations that I was thinking about when trying to understand. You can embarrass people or you can play your very best. Which one makes the most sense here? And again, we're removing sports out of the equation. So the first one is you don't feel badly when you take a test and get 100 on it, but others in the class get a lesser grade than you. You're not doing that. And that's really important. When you go to take a test in a classroom, you are proving your ability and knowledge when you go through that. And I just think that's a good way of looking at it, especially when we look at it as kids. If you get 100% on the test, you would never go back and say, I'm really sorry that you got a 70, I'll pull back next time. So we both get seventies. That would never happen. The second thing is you don't turn down a job because you felt badly that you had a better resume than the other candidates. That would blow my mind. If you went to a job interview, you showed your resume everything you've worked hard for, and then you said, but I know that little Suzy Q over here has a lesser resume than me. So I'd like to give up my opportunity in that and let her have a chance to do it. Or maybe we could share this together and cut the salary in half and. And do this thing together. I don't know. I don't think anybody's up for that. Okay. And then finally, you don't turn down a promotion because you felt bad for the person that didn't get the promotion. You are working your tail off to get that promotion. And when you get it, it should feel good. The other person might not feel good about it, but the work that you put in front of you in order to gain that promotion is so incredibly valuable that a company not only recognizes it, but wants to promote you for it. But there's a person on the other side that didn't get that promotion. It might not just be a person. It could be a set of people, a team, even of people that didn't get it. You're not going to draw back on that because they didn't get the promotion. You're going to fight for yourself in that situation. And I get it. You could say some of these are out of context, but in reality, when you hear those things, it's hard work paying off for something that you get right? And that's the same thing in sports. You practice all week so that you can play a game and you can show that you're prepared for the game that's in front of you. And I just think if you're going to do things like that, you gotta put your best foot forward.
[00:04:37] If you want to be your best, you better be ready to fail. And if you want to be your best, you better put your best foot forward. Every opportunity that you get, someone is always watching, and your best foot forward matters. And if done correctly, you would hope that people around you would raise their game to your level. So which side am I on? Well, you play your butts off every single game.
[00:05:05] You put your very best effort forward every single chance you get. You teach that your very best matters all the time. And when you don't, you are allowing them to believe that goofing around is acceptable, that not your very best self is acceptable. And I'm just not okay with that. You can tell me you're embarrassing the other team. You can tell me that it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but every opportunity that you get along the way will determine how you turn out later on in your future. That is what it's all about. So while we want to be careful to not say we want to run the score up, because that's not, that's not why we're doing it. We're not running the score up so that we beat you by 100 points. We are playing the game the way that it's supposed to be played. And if it ends up being a high score, it's because every kid gave their very best effort in what they were doing. No different than a test, no different than you getting a job.
[00:06:18] You are going to put your best foot forward the entire opportunity that you get. And that same thing should happen in sports as well. You should put your very best foot forward. So whether we'll talk basketball, if it's your starting five and they're not playing in your next five come in, they better be playing their best. Gino Ariama of the Yukon Huskies, he demands excellence all the time and if you're not willing to do excellently all the time, he'll put you right back on the bench. Doesn't matter if they're up by 100 and it doesn't matter if they're down by five. You better be putting your very best effort forward all the time.
[00:06:59] That is the sign of a successful program. But part two, that's a successful sign of kids that are going to go on to do great things in their life. I am all for it. If you're running up the score just to run up the score, it's for the wrong reasons. If you are running up the score because you are putting your very best effort forward, the entire opportunity that you get, I'm all for it. So when I listened to Joe Rogan's podcast, I was, I was settled back going. I can't believe how many people are angry about this conversation because we need to be nice to each other and we need to care for the other team. And I don't disagree with those things. But also part of caring for people is showing them what greatness looks like. It's getting back up on the horse when you fall. They get beat up this week and now they have an opportunity to respond next week. And I said it earlier, but you have to be willing to fail in order to be successful. Sometimes failing is on the end of being on the other team. And the sometimes failing is you didn't do your best today and I'm not going to be okay with that. I'm putting you back on the bench again. And man, do I think there's a big difference between those two. If you allow your best player to be successful whenever he wants and he can goof around whenever he wants and you don't hold him accountable to that. You just lost it. You lost the whole idea of trying to do it with best intentionality in front of you. You have to hold every person accountable to being their very best all the time. And when you do that, you are going to see a whole group of kids get better together.
[00:08:46] They are going to work harder than they've ever worked before and because of that they will be more successful in their life. I get it. There are some teams that run it up to run it up. I'm not in agreement with that. But I am in agreement with if you end up winning by a lot because every one of your players across your bench were playing the very best that they could and they weren't doing it to embarrass you, but they were doing it to play their very best when they got a shot. Man, am I in on that. Man, am I okay with Joe Rogan reaching out to the team and say, keep going. Keep giving your very best because that's what it's all about. It's about teaching lessons that will help you in the game of life. And that is a lesson that I want taught. That is a lesson that I want kids to learn, is that being your very best matters. It helps you today, tomorrow and for the rest of your life. But don't fall victim to I gotta pass it six times. And you only can shoot with your left hand or you can only swing opposite handed or you have to make twelve passes before you can shoot a ball on net. I'm just not for it. I think that makes teams worse because you would never do that in a championship game. So your preparation has become less because you decided that you were going to dumb down what you taught during your weekly practices and the overall culture of your program because you didn't want to hurt a feeling.
[00:10:22] I just think that's not okay. Give your best effort. Do not make them look ridiculous. Don't shoot opposite handed. Don't start toying around on the court. You play the game right for the entirety of the game and then you shake their hands and you thank them for the opportunity to play against them regardless of outcome. You're thankful that you get to compete against another group of kids in the sport that you love so much and you gave your very best effort. So, Joe Rogan, I want to say thank you. Thanks for bringing this topic to the table.
[00:10:58] Thanks for supporting what is good for kids so that they are the very best that they can be. But more importantly, families saddle up like, let's go get excited about the fact that your son or daughter is going to be the very best that they can be, regardless to the team on the other side. And we preach that far too often. Doesn't matter what the other team's doing, you focus on you. Okay? Let's live up to that. Let's focus on you and be the best version of yourself so that you are giving incredible effort. Whether it's a practice, a game, a tournament, a state championship, it doesn't matter. You are the very best version of yourself. Parents, I just want you to fight for that. Coaches, I definitely want you to communicate that to your families, and I want you to go after it with the very best intentions along the way. Okay? And. And I just think you're going to see the elevation rise. You're going to see teams go from good to great. You're going to see teams that are upset after they lose and they get better the next week because they don't ever want to have that happen again. And you're going to see great teams go even better than great because they were willing to put their very best effort forward. You got to see it. The UConn Huskies are dominant in that fashion. They might not be number one right now. South Carolina is killing it, women's basketball, but you know the type of team he is going to put on the court every single time, no questions asked.
[00:12:30] That matters. Be your very best. Continue to pursue excellence in all that you do and watch yourself thrive and grow matter what. I hope this has been a fun episode for you. I love these conversations. I love when that divide occurs, but there really is a right answer, but no one wants to speak up about it. I want to hear your thoughts, though. Leave them in the comments. I hope you enjoy this episode. Thankful that you continue to watch or listen to unleashed athletics with Ryan Bond. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead and keep continue to strive for all that you do. Let's go do the work.
