A few weeks ago I wrote about a period when basketball was my life.
After writing that, I realized there is something from that period that I still carry with me.
First, let me tell you something about practice.
***
In the classic high school (or younger) basketball practice, there are a few go-to drills.
The three man weave. The outlet drill. The elbow shooting drill.
And, then there's the layup drill.
The layup drill is the first place where you get a taste for what it might be like to dunk a basketball.
It's the place where, when you're super hyped during a pre-game warm up, you do a finger roll and casually touch the backboard.
During the course of most layup drills, you're supposed to practice layups from both sides of the basket.
But let me tell you a little secret about high school (or younger) basketball players...
If they are right-handed—which the overwhelming majority are—nobody wants to do a layup with their left hand.
Nobody.
They'd rather contort their body in all sorts of ways, go under the basket, try (and likely fail) at some kind of 360 layup, all to avoid using their left hand for a layup.
The reason?
Left-handed layups feel awkward as hell.
If I asked you to throw a ball with your dominant hand, which hand would you choose?
Now imagine trying to casually place a rather large ball in a very specific spot, while running at speed, using your non-dominant hand.
That's a left-handed layup.
***
My basketball coach during Grade 8 and 9, was one of the most influential figures in my life. If not the most.
He knew I wanted to dunk the ball (I couldn't). He knew I could jump pretty high (which was good because I couldn't shoot).
He knew me.
He would encourage every player on our team to use our left hand when trying to layup on the left side of the basket.
He would also shout out some praise when we did.
I decided to make this, my thing. Left-handed layups.
Fortunately, I write with my left hand (but I use my right hand for all sports) and so dribbling the ball up to the basket (the dreaded precursor to the left-handed layup) came somewhat easily to me.
I would spend an inordinate amount of time practicing left-handed layups.
So much so that now—more than 20 years later—I look like an absolute fool trying to do a right-handed layup, but with my left hand ... it might seem to an outsider that someone taught me to play basketball, once.
***
Left-handed layups are the thing that no one else wants to do.
If you choose that thing often enough, it has a chance of becoming something you enjoy.
Perhaps even one day, something you'll get quite good at.
This is the thing that I still carry with me from that period in my life.
Choose the thing that no one else wants to do and do it often.
What's your left-handed layup?
