Ultimate and the NFL Combine

Over the past week, I've been watching a lot of NFL Network.  I signed up for the Comcast (I loathe you, Comcast) sports package because I wanted the Tennis Channel and Fox Soccer Channel.  The NFL Network came as a nice surprise, but I'm not that big of a football fan.  I follow the Patriots and I enjoy the overall game of football (thanks to Madden '92-'96 on Genesis mostly), but I don't care enough to watch out of market games.

This week, however, NFL Network was covering the scouting combine in Indianapolis.  If you're unfamiliar with the combine, it is a series of workouts and interviews for college football players who are going to be drafted into the NFL. Before this week, I had heard about all of the different drills that the players are put through (40-yard dash, broad jump, standing vertical jump, etc), but I had never actually seen any of the players doing the drills. I was curious to see what these fantastic athletes would be able to do.

Here's what's funny: none of it is that impressive.  This is not to say that benching 225 lbs 38 times in a row or running a 4.55 40-yard dash is not impressive when looked at individually.  In the context of so many great athletes, though, these feats of strength and speed are nearly indistinguishable from the average benching and 40-yard dash scores.  

In short, context is everything.  If you saw even the worst combine athlete in your gym or park, you would be shocked at his abilities.  I'm talking about the kind of shocked where you accidentally get hit in the face by a pass or drop a dumbbell on your foot because you can't tear your eyes away from the sheer athleticism.  In regular company or even among scholarship division 1 NCAA football players, the athletes at the combine are men among boys.  Around each other, however, they just look average.

You start to notice what they can't do.  Some guys don't bench as much as you'd think they should (usually due to having freakishly long arms).  Some guys aren't really that agile.  Some guys don't have great verticals.  Some seem poorly balanced when moving laterally.

My point in all of this is that even the greatest athletes in the world have serious flaws.  We who play Ultimate would never confuse ourselves with the greatest athletes in the world.  At best, we are a collection of good High School varsity athletes and maybe some guys who could have walked on to various teams at smaller division 1 colleges.  We all have serious flaws in our skills and our athletic ability.

And, it is all too easy to become focused on our flaws and deficiencies.  The same way that I became focused on the flaws and deficiencies of the fantastic athletes at the combine.  What should really matter to us and what really matters to the scouts at the combine is what players CAN do well, not what they can't do.

If you have one great fake-cut combination, refine it.  If you have a great forehand huck, practice it.  If you can sky people, work on it.  This may sound like I am advising you to waste your time, but I assure you that I am not.  Of course you should always be trying to get improve all facets of your game, but having weaknesses is okay provided you have strengths and can work around those weaknesses with smarts.

Your teammates count on your strengths.  A team can be thought of as a collective of all the individuals strengths and weaknesses.  Captains can strategize to make up for individual weaknesses, but they cannot strategize to create individual strengths.  Get really good at what you are good at.  Get so good at it that that particular skill or ability is a joke to you.  That is how you become valuable.