Geography Lesson

"Playing ball is playing ball, isn't it? No matter where you're playing, if you're good, you're good!"

I was recently standing in a crowd watching, from the other side of the park fence, the annual West 4th Street summer basketball tournament when I tuned in to a side conversation:

"Playing ball is playing ball, isn't it? No matter where you're playing, if you're good, you're good!"

Was the debate that a couple of old guys were having about why some players can only perform "at home".

What they said made me stop and think.

My eleven year old daughter, Gussie, is away at summer camp. She is attending an Arts Camp, studying the violin. It is her first time away from home.

In a conversation with "Mom" this past week, Gussie shared from summer camp that she was feeling that she may be losing her confidence. Here she is, far away from home, playing on foreign soil; away from her familiar surroundings and the loving support of the people who know her well.

But -

Her skills are still her skills, aren't they?!

Playing the violin is playing the violin, isn't it? No matter where you are playing, if you're good, you're good.

As players, no matter what the GAME is that we are playing, do we do what we do better, when we have the "home court" advantage? When it is time to "take our show on the road" do we somehow make up a new reality, based on inauthentic fear, that threatens to render us ineffective?

Whether "at home" or on someone else's court, your skills are still your skills!

The 'playground' on which we play -- every day -- provides us with a sense of acceptance, comfort and recognition, and that allows us to play freely, skillfully, even sometimes -

masterfully.

But we all have to face the inevitable "away game" and the challenges that go along with performing on unfamiliar turf.

In a later conversation with us, Gussie shared that she decided to focus on what she knew she could do, on who she knew she could be and then she went on to perform well in her audition that earned her an orchestra seat, worthy of her abilities.

That’s my two cents (for whatever it’s worth),

Auguste Roc
auguste@danaroc.com