EPTDiscipline, it matters
What happened on the court was unacceptable, and though some might chime in to say that really it was totally normal, I can't accept that. To give some background, the team in white (opposing team) was losing by about 2/3. To be quite honest, to suck as hard as they did, for 3 and 1/2 quarters must have been frustrating. I don't mean to say that they were that bad people, but their raw skill was just not developed whatsoever. There was one player on the opposing side that couldn't have been more than a sophomore, and, though her raw skill was more than evident, she just could not lead her team. Even more evident than her raw skill was a blatant lack of discipline. She was crying throughout the game, frustrated more than half the time, lashing out at her coach by mid 3rd quarter. She then apparently found some injustice in my school's attempt at a jump ball, and punched a classmate of mine when they were both on the ground. The parents were enraged, they were on their feet and not about to sit down; truthfully, I agree with them, they were right to be angry, I was angrier than I had expected.
Why was I angry
From a very young age, I've played sports. I'm a small guy, I've never been very big, but that never stopped me. I'm going to flaunt my micro-epeen for a second and say that I played up 3 years in baseball when I was a 7th grader (playing in a highschool league); yes, I sucked at batting, and no I was not the MVP of the team. On that team though, discipline was there. We never got out of hand. When one of the players couldn't handle it all, he was asked to leave (though it was probably because he was just after the birth date cut off). When I played basketabll, my coach was a disciple of John Wooden, and we were taught his Half-Court Press, along with the less obvious points of discipline that Wooden espoused. What I am trying to get at here is that in the majority of sports I have played, a mental toughness and an unshakeable discipline have been at the center of it all.
Why it shook me
I couldn't tell what went wrong. I couldn't tell if the girl was just an untapped well of ability, or if she was just a hot head. What shook me, even to the core would not be an exaggeration given the fact that she physically assaulted another girl in a school, was that the coach didn't pull her out for the rest of the game and tell her to hit the showers. I'm sure in the lockeroom there was a stern talking to, but the ref didn't throw the girl out, which means that he expected the coach to; to my suprise, the coach did not. I can't help but blame the coach in this case, after all the coach is there to speed up player development on all fronts. I can't tell if this coach was inept, or the player was just a loose cannon. I want to blame the coach, and yet he can't control his players once they walk on the court. At the same time nothing was done to either side, except that the girl was given a Technical Foul, which really doesn't amount to much when her team was down by that much. I didn't know what to say at that point.
Discpline, fucking use it
Just do it. Real. Seriously, don't do what this girl did. I was angry at the fact she flew off the hook so easily, it was just one game of many that the basketball teams play in a season, and she went unpunished. I'm angry that a girl I know got punched, injured by someone else who walked off with impunity. I'm even angrier that in that moment, all discipline on the court was forgone for one girl to get some quick revenge that she'll forget soon enough. What do I take away from this TL? Seriously, I can't think of anything other than, A) Discipline, fucking use it or B) Discipline can't be bought but you can sell it away by your actions. I just don't know how to think about this without being angry at the girl. The rest is yours TL.
othersie i'd have more comments XD.
