My niece has now decided I should write about soccer (her second week at soccer camp this week inspired this request!).
My experience with soccer pretty much extends to watching from the sidelines and cheering her on. So I had to think about how it connects to this site.
One thing I did realize from those games is that the best players automatically turn their bodies and attention to the ball at all times. They don’t look to the sidelines, obsess over the miss they just made, check the time, or stop to chat. The focus is on the ball, teammates, opponents, goal, rules, coach and muscle memory. When on the field, their attention is absolute—and even off the field they have an awareness of what’s going on.
It’s a lot of work! And these girls practice hard for those games. It’s amazing to see the levels of improvement from year to year.
In some ways writing/publishing is like that. At first you just like the game/watch it. Then you participate and work at it. Learning to write, the commitment of time, getting critiques, practicing, and letting the myriad details become muscle memory.
