You Can't Be Scared Of Your Competition

I was a senior in college on spring break at South Padre Island. I had just survived my car crashing by flipping four times and looking like a crumpled tin can (my roommate was driving, but that is a story for another day). Everyday at the hotel we were staying at, they held a 3 on 3 basketball tournament and my buddies and I would sign up each day to see how we would fare against all the other spring breakers out there. One of the days, we did end up getting runner-up in the tourney for that day, but this story is about a loss we had on a different day.

My buddy, Ted, and I still talk about this game to this day. We were winning games and proceeding through the tournament when we were pitted against three football players from Texas. Athletic dudes ranging from 6' to 6'2" and all about 200 pounds. They tried to pound you and bang on you to intimidate you, using their athleticism to score.

Ted and I were amped, ready to play these clowns. Ted and I ran the pick and roll to perfection, he was always the picker and I never seemed to pass him the ball, but we were scoring. He was getting brutalized by these guys, but before you knew it we were up 6-4 and needed to get to 10. Well, our third member wasn't as gung-ho for this game. He was obviously intimidated by these guys and at one point they blocked his shot and sent this ball over a 10 foot high gated fence. That was it for him. He would be useless the rest of the game. We had a pretty big crowd for this game, but unfortunately we lost.

Ted and I are still pissed about it to this day. This was something we enjoyed. Taking on guys who thought they were the best players out there and hoping their stigma of being "Texas football players" would carry them to the promised land. Well, it intimidated our buddy, but not Ted and I. I always had the mentality, if you are so good, you're going to have to prove it to me because I'm giving you my best shot whether you like it or not.

You can't be scared of your competition. If you are, then you've already lost and don't bother playing the game. I've played in many games in my life of all different sports and seen it happen constantly. I loved it. I loved beating some guys who were supposedly this awesome team and then have them bicker amongst themselves.

Now there were times when I knew we were probably out-manned, but I wasn't going to back down. You still had to go out there and fight. You have no clue what is going to happen and maybe it is your day and you win. But, you won't know unless you try. And, if you go out thinking, "I want no piece of that person tonight," then I tell you what, that person is going to own you and you might as well not show up.

Trust your abilities and give it your all. It still might not be enough, but at least you're going to show that you aren't backing down. Make them prove to you that they are better than you. A lot of times, you will be surprised at the outcome.