A weekend bio-post about growin’ up in 1950′s & 60′s SoCal.
It’s amazing how many things we learn, but mostly get better at by virtue of simply doing something over and over and over…repetition. I started the trombone in sixth grade, and stayed with it through my freshman year at Norwalk Hi. My junior hi music teacher, Mr. Hopkins, told us the first day of school in seventh grade music class that those who practiced above and beyond what was required would, by eighth grade graduation, be easily superior musicians than those who merely did what was assigned. Most of my cousins and our parents/grandparents are musicians to varying degrees, Mom and her sisters having played organ/piano in church for their preacher husbands. They told me the same thing Mr. Hopkins did — OldSchool repetition never fails — ever.
BawldGuy Axiom: We can all pretty much learn whatever our God given intellect allows, but gettin’ really good at it results from hard work, which is almost always based in repetition.
They were right, at least about trombone playin’. I was one of just eight freshman picked to be in the Norwalk Hi marching band. On the face of it that doesn’t sound like too big a deal, but about the only thing that school was know for was their parade band. They were almost always numbered among the top 10 high school marching bands in the West. Our first chair trombonist was taught one on one by Lawrence Welk’s first chair. On days he didn’t practice, he practiced for an hour — the guy was wicked good. Me? I just played trombone. 
For the record, I loved the parade experience there, but when we moved to Fullerton in the middle of the year, I stopped playing. That year, 1965, we were named the fifth best high school marching band in the 11 western states at the Long Beach All-Western Parade — my musical claim to fame.
How many times have we learned something well, young in life, only to miss out on how we got so good at it? Intrinsically most of us abhor learning through repetition, yet I’ve found no other way bringing with it a virtual guarantee of success. I’ve found this to be axiomatic even when the ‘repetition’ is mental in practice.
As a baseball player I yearned to pitch. Grandma said I had to practice more than the other kids to be better. Since Grandma was never wrong, I took her advice to heart. One day I took some burnt orange crayons and made a target on the garage’s side wall facing our backyard. It was the size an 11 year old wannabe pitcher thought the strike zone to be.
My first garage wall was my little sister, 18 months younger, who was too young to realize she had no business whatsoever tryin’ to catch her brother’s fastballs. Me? Hey, she was a catcher. That short-lived experiment in the temptation of imminent facial reconstruction was cut short toot sweet by Mom one day. I’d thrown a better than average fastball to her nine year old daughter, who only saved her face from who-knows-what cuz her glove was in front of it as the ball happened to land (SMACK!!) in it safely.
Turns out dozens of fastballs daily wasn’t what the doctor ordered for that wall. I broke through to the chicken wire in no time. When Mom saw it she figured out what I was doing, and let it be. Since there was no Dad or coach around, what else was a wannabe to do? That year I started half our team’s 18 games. We were the worst team in the league, but with one exception, I pitched a complete game every time out — winning one. Trust me, my fastball wasn’t blowin’ by most hitters, but my control was a lock. Problem was, my fielders on their best days couldn’t catch a cold.
Same thing happened later in high school with bodybuilding. This time though I did find a coach who took me under his wing. Inside of three years he had me competing for Mr. Teenage Southern California for real. He got me into the finals — think I was seventh. It was fun, but it was hard work, day in, day out. The guy was relentless. He was also a world champion. Disclosure: I was in great shape, and did look very good in my Speedos on stage (Thank God for no surviving pics.), but compared to the top two guys? My new name shoulda been Nancy. Repetition over almost three years took me from ground zero to competing at that level though.. Again, I was no Ahnold, but then who is?
Repetition has become one of my best buds. Later in life, it performed another miracle. Not being able to play ball with really good players any longer, I opted for umpiring. Starting with Little League at 40 years old, mainly as one-liner fodder for my friends there, I found some elite training, and enrolled at the University of Endless Reps School of Umpiring. In one year they made me Chief Umpire. Two years later I was umpiring adult amateur ball around the county — including post season play. My third year an umpire buddy recommended me to the local NCAA group in town. I was given a summer long tryout, then hired with the understanding the other umps were never learn I’d never done an inning of high school ball. At the end of my rookie college season, I was on the coachs’ preference list for post season play.
All due to spending every spare minute I had umpiring games wherever they’d let me — almost always for free. At one point I gave up three outa four weekends monthly to umpire doubleheaders on both Saturdays and Sundays. It was the incredible pro training plus the relentless repetition, compressed into a very short time period that made the difference. In three short years, counting summer and winter ball, I managed to be on the field for over 300 games — about 60% of which I was doin’ the dish. The average ump in college might officiate 30 games a season. Through sheer repetition those three years, 10 years of experience was gained.
Wanna get really good at something? Find as good a trainer as you can locate/afford, then repeat what you’ve learned as often as you can in as short a period as possible.
Then do it some more.
Related posts:
- What Real Estate Investment Strategy Works In Slloooowly Appreciating Markets?
- Old School Real Estate Investing
- Real Estate Investing — Life BEFORE Retirement
- The Physics of Real Estate Investing Are Like Gravity — Ignore At Your Peril
- Is Your Region A “Keeper” When It Come To Real Estate Investing?
About BawldGuy
Recent Comments