How To Survive A Nailbiter

Even though college basketball is my great passion,
living here in Gainesville it's hard not to get caught
up in football frenzy too sometimes. I'd been too
busy this fall to get to any home games, but Matthew
my 14-yr old had wanted to go all season and
yesterday was the last regular season conference
home game against South Carolina so we went.

That meant the Steve Spurrier who had made the
Florida Gators champions and then abandoned
them for the NFL was coming back to his alma
mater as the evil genius who was trying to beat the
Rowdy Reptiles like a drum. Even though South
Carolina had not won in the Swamp since joining the
SEC 20 odd years ago the presence of 'the ole ball
coach' made this an instant rivalry game. One worth
seeing for sure.

The game turned out to be about as statistically
even as you can get. If you didn't see the game,
with 8 seconds left we were up 17 - 16, but the
Gamecocks were close enough for 48 yard field
goal. That sound's long, but their kicker had
already hit a 47 yarder. He'd also drilled one from
55 yards earlier that had been nullified by a penalty.

Now I love my Gator fans, but I really got tired
yesterday of hearing the fear, worry, bitching,
grumbling and complaining that was going on in
the stands. They would not be satisfied. No matter
what happened they felt it was their duty to pick
things apart. Fortunately I was still able to enjoy
myself and celebrate the good that was happening.

When it finally came down to the potential game-
winning field goal all I could think about was the
quote from General Chesty Puller in the Korean
War when he said "All right, they're on our left,
they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're
behind us...they can't get away this time."

I turned to a couple of people and said, "Hey,
we've got them right where we want them."

I got a lot of quizzical stares, but I kept smiling.

Of course everybody in the stands was hoping
the Gators would win, but how many believed
they would. It makes a big difference.

If you're a sports fan you probably know what
happened.

They snapped the ball, the kicker kicked it well,
but Jarvis Moss a 6' 6" defensive lineman who
played a lot of basketball in high school has a 35"
vertical. The other lineman made penetration
and gave him room to flex for a good jump. He
timed his jump perfectly and got just enough of
his hand on the football to knock it off course.

Gators won, and I've never heard such a
spontaneous eruption of exhilaration. It was
magical. Nobody wanted to leave the stadium.
Hope is a good thing and the stands might have
been full of it, but I'm glad the players actually
believed and did something about it. As a shooter
you want to get to the point where you don't just
hope in your ablilities, but you believe in them.

It really helps your belief level when you've
putting in the practice time and know what you're
doing. It wouldn't have worked for Jarvis Moss to
just run out on the field and say, "I'm going to block
that kick".
No, he had trained for it. He had the vertical leap.
He knew his teammates could create space for him
to penetrate and leap. He and the team believed
they would get the job done.

Help yourself believe in you by following in the
footsteps of a shooting coaches who knows their
stuff. A great place to start is Coach Tom
Nordland's Swish Method of shooting. You can now
get Tom's new Swish 2 DVD and have 2 hours of
solid instruction and drills to build on. Start laying
your foundation today at:

http://www.deandelker.com/swish2.html

Shoot For The Stars,

Dean - The Dean of Shooting Hoops

P.S. Coach Hal Wissel can also get you believing in
yourself. See how simple he can make it for you by
running without delay over to:

http://www.deandelker.com/wissel_order.html

Make Every Shot Count

Copyright 2006 Delker Enterprises, Inc.