It’s college football season, and it can be disappointing when the team you cheer for loses. This is especially true when their loss is due to an inability to execute the fundamentals.
Being grounded in the fundamentals — the basic skills or knowledge in a given field — is important in all areas of life, not least sports. These skills may not be enough to guarantee greatness, but without them, sustained success isn’t going to happen. In football, for instance, if you don’t block or run or tackle well, you’re going to have tough time beating most competent teams.
Learning from the Greats
It’s always been fascinating to me how some of the greatest coaches of all times focused on the fundamentals, sometimes to an extreme.
John Wooden, for instance, would begin every year with teaching his players how to put on their socks and tie their shoes. These were high school All-Americans. Certainly they would know how to put on their socks and shoes. Yet Wooden started at the beginning, intentionally spending time teaching even the most rudimentary items.
A similar emphasis is found in legendary coach Vince Lombardy. At the beginning of the season, he would would gather his players around and proceed to start from the very beginning. “Gentlemen, this is a football,” he would say as he held the ball in his hand. It didn’t matter how good they had played the season before, they were going to start with the fundamentals.
Mastering the Basics
Music and athletics are fields where we can easily see the value of the fundamentals. The pianist practices her scales day after day, and the ball player shoots his free throws. Because although they are basic skills, having mastery of them will provide a foundation for excelling when it comes time to perform.
The same principle applies elsewhere. Having a knowledge of grammar, or being familiar with the literary classics, for instance, is going to serve the aspiring writer well, regardless of the genre she wants to pursue. Being grounded in the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, will be of value to the web developer, independent of which new framework happens to be all the rage. Even in interpersonal relationships, being kind and learning to listen well are fundamental skills that go a long way, regardless of the situation you find yourself in.
The fundamentals are indispensable. The questions are: Will we be able to identify what they are in our unique situations? And will we be content to continue to work on mastering them, even when something new and flashy comes along?