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Life Lessons Life Lesson #13: Accuracy ACCURACY Accuracy is a combination of athletic skill, coordination, effort and desire. Accuracy means to throw the ball where it is intended to go, to control the baseball's path. While a big part of being accurate does involve a player's skill level and abilities, an even more important key to accuracy is personal pride. Pride in your performance, and a consistent effort in order to put forth a good showing. For a pitcher, being accurate is important both while making pitches to home plate as well as throws to bases on defense. Accuracy will determine whether a fastball intended for the outside corner hits the desired spot and results in a ground ball, or misses over the plate and results in a round-tripper. Accuracy will determine whether a leadoff bunt attempt results in a 'one-out, nobody on' situation, or a 'no out, man on first' situation. Because we all would rather hit our spots and throw runners out, we must strive for accuracy to improve our pitching and defense. Examples of accuracy in everyday life include spelling tests, playing darts and shooting free throws. In all three of these, attention to detail and the effort to be accurate drastically improves success. That success can easily be connected to a high level of effort and a relentless attitude. In school, there are times when doing homework that you find yourself searching the pages of a short story or chapter for a correct answer. Whether it is a vocabulary definition or setting description, the answer lies somewhere in the text. Now, you really don't feel like working, and you'd rather be outside playing with your friends. So, when you find something close (but you know it isn't the perfect answer), you settle on it in order to finish as soon as possible. This is an example of how a lack of effort will result in an inaccurate answer, and a lower grade. The similar correlation between effort and accuracy is present in baseball. For example, I believe that it should "eat you up" if you make a bad throw. You should not be down, or visibly angry, but inside you should be disappointed in yourself. Walks are in the same category. As pitchers, we can control the game with aggressive attitudes and an attacking mentality. Walks, due to inaccuracy, are "free passes" or presents to the other team, and represent the easiest way for a batter to get on base. Work hard to be accurate- avoid walks, errors and "free passes" by focusing on hard work, effort and control! Accuracy equals success! |
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