Doing the Little Things

Doing the little things in life has become a big part of my life lately. My friend, Ben Stevenson, wrote a blog recently on doing the little things. In his blog he had a little story about Coach "Bear" Bryant:
"One day during practice, a visitor observed Coach (Paul "Bear") Bryant doing something that aroused his curiosity. From time to time during practice, the coach would reach into his pocket, pull out a crumbled little piece of paper, read it, and then put it back in his pocket. The visitor watched him do this several times during practice, and finally mustered up the courage to ask the coach what was written on the paper. Coach Bryant simply smiled, pulled out the paper, and let the visitor read it himself. It said: It's the itty bitty, teeny tiny things that get you beat."- An excerpt from the book "Real Dream Teams" by Bob Fisher and Bo Thomas.
In sports, the little things can be the difference between a sub par year and a championship season. In baseball, taking those five extra swings every day and taking those ten extra ground balls can be the difference between a good player and a great player. In life, doing the little things can also change our lives tremendously. As an aspiring coach, I have to do the little things every day to one day become a great coach. I have to study the game, learn from every coach I come in contact with and ask different coaches questions about how they do things.
Coach Lane (coach of the University of North Alabama from 1985-2007) once told me that the way he learned the game of baseball was by finding the best coaches in each thing he wanted to learn about and asking them drills and other things they do to help their players. Now Coach Lane is one of the top coaches in wins in Division II baseball history.
"If you take care of the little things, you never have one big thing to worry about." - Cal Ripken Jr.--from his book "Get in the Game."