Alastair Clarkson, AFL coach of the coolest team out there – Hawthorn – has talked quite a bit this year about grinding wins.
When he talks about ‘grinding wins’, it’s this idea of working hard and getting through the match with a victory, even if it’s very close or if they didn’t play that well.
Just getting the 4 points each week is what he wants. A win’s a win.
Hawthorn won back-to-back premierships last year, but people forget they lost quite a few matches earlier in the year. In fact, Clarkson said that they’d had some scrappy wins on the way to winning the championship.
It’s the same thing this year. We still don’t know who’ll end up champions, but the Hawks have fought back from 4 wins and 4 losses to now being in 3rd place on the ladder.
So What Does This All Mean?
A lot of educators and language bloggers out there don’t tell you one important detail: winning takes time, and it takes a lot of focussed practice.
It comes with each small victory along the way. Even if you didn’t play that well.
It means dealing with the losses.
It means working on your game, improving yourself in all kinds of areas.
But the field is king.
Ultimately you can train all you want, but it’s only when you step out onto the field that you find out where you are.
Word Bank
A scrappy win is a win that wasn’t ‘pretty’ or wonderful play.
Image
From Abc.net.au (no copyright breach intended)
What do you think?