Softball Tips - 3 Little Pigs

Guest Post by Dalton Ruer

I was recently reading a very huge book and wanted to share an excerpt from this story with those of you who may not be familiar with it. It is very complicated stuff so I will interrupt the story with my own commentary so that you don’t get lost.

Once there was a mother pig who had three little pigs. She did not have enough to keep them, so she sent them out to seek their fortunes. The first little pig had not gone far when he met a man with a bundle of straw. The little pig said to him, "Please, man, give me that straw to build me a house." This the man did, and soon the little pig had built a house with it. Just after the house was built, along came a wolf. He knocked at the door of the little pig's house and called, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in!" But the little pig answered, "No, no! Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" Then the wolf said, "I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in!" So he huffed and he puffed until he blew the house in, and ate up that little pig.

This is great stuff. Seriously! Where were this little pigs brothers or friends when he chose to build his house out of straw? Not a single person in his life that would step up and say “Look. I know you are in a hurry to be on your own, but a house of straw just isn’t going to last long.” More importantly though is what kind of people are you surrounding yourself with? Are you building a network of support for yourself that will tell you the truth and challenge you to work harder, or is your life only full of friends who will tell you what you want to hear? As a team are you rushing to get into games/tournaments or are you taking the proper time to build a solid foundation? When you lose (repeatedly) do you just chalk it up to luck, or do you figure out what is really the core problem(s) and take the time to seek new training in order to overcome the problems for good?

The second little pig had not gone far when he met a man carrying a bundle of sticks on his shoulders. The little pig said to him, "Please, man, give me those sticks to build me a house." This the man did, and soon the little pig had built a house with them. Just after the house was built, along came the wolf. He knocked at the door of the little pig's house and said, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in!" But the little pig answered, "No, no! Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" Then the wolf said, "I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in!" So he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house in, and ate up that little pig.

Woo-hoo the second little pig was a goal setter. His goal was to be a little bit better than his little brother and structured his life with a little more support. But that didn’t work out any better for him than it is working out for those of you who only want to be a little bit better than those around you. “She doesn’t even show up for practice. At least I show up.” “Check us out, we drove to Smalltown, USA and won the tournament. Once we figured out we could beat those teams, we kept going back and beating them over and over, and over.”

The third little pig met a man with a load of bricks. The little pig said to him, "Please, man, give me those bricks to build me a house." This the man did, and soon the little pig had built a house with them. Just after the house was built, along came the wolf. He knocked at the door of the little pig's house and said, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in!" But the little pig answered, "No, no! Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" Then the wolf said, "I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in!" So the wolf huffed and he puffed and he puffed and he huffed, and he huffed and he puffed, but he couldn't blow this third little pig's house down.

Unfortunately this year I’ve seen so many teams that are just like the first two pigs. They are in such a rush to jump onto the field and say that they have a team and they are playing, that they ignore the fact they have built their team on straw or sticks. Teams that become champions do so by first building a strong foundation. That takes time. They become true champions by continually taking time to learn more, practice more and play stronger and stronger competition to test their resolve. If they see a single brick out of place, they take time to make the needed repairs so that their entire house remains strong and know it will stand the “huffs and puffs” that come at them. The goal is never to be the first team on the field. The goal is always to be the last team/player standing. Players/Parents/Coaches I hope you get the point of this incredibly powerful story. If you are so busy playing games that you don’t have time to get training and improve. If you are continually in the “same” tournaments with the “same” teams and you are kicking their butt. You better be careful because some big bad wolf might just be sneaking up on you looking to eat you up.

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