The Pressure That Comes With Quitting

 Good morning, everyone!

I'm sorry I missed yesterday's posting. I had planned a stirring commentary on washing the dishes, but I was busy washing the dishes. Now that ship has passed and I'll circle back to it some other time when I wake up in the morning to finally clean my plates before heading into work. (I've been really bad about getting the dishes clean lately, so it might be a few days.)

Apparently, the topic on the minds of every American is how gymnast Simone Biles dropped out of the all-around competition in the Olympics citing mental health issues. This, and when the tennis player dropped out of the French open points to an odd trend in sports, and, of course, everything from generational to cultural politics. Remember when sports used to just be about playing games?

Me neither.

Personally, it doesn't affect me one wit whether these young women compete or not. When someone drops out, there will be someone behind them to take their place and find their own shot at glory. That's pretty much life in a nutshell. In fact, it was a basketball coach who once told us as a team that "no one is indispensable." 

There are various reasons why athletes - or anyone else, for that matter - can lose their mojo. This is especially true for elite performers. I think I heard it called the "yips" on some TV show. There's been stories of this sort of thing in every sport, but now it gets special vitriolic attention because a pair young women got to feeling the pressure a little too much. However, keep in mind that when this sort of thing has happened to big, strong white men, they also have had to deal with the criticism. Granted, with social media the way it is, we can arguably say that things have changed.

Here's the thing, though. We've all buckled under pressure at one point or another. For instance, I loved playing basketball and could sink just about any shot during practice. When it came game time, however, I couldn't even find the rim and backboard. I was easily rattled under game conditions, which is why my brief high school basketball career was spent at the far end of the bench with my warmups on. In short, I rarely got into games. If I'm being honest, I was perfectly fine with that.

I just wasn't real good operating under pressure, most of us aren't, and that is somehow considered a personality defect. I know it was that way with every coach I ever had and my own father expressed disappointment when I quit the basketball team for which I warmed a bench. I realize that equating the pressure I felt as a teen isn't close to the pressure these young people feel, but I've felt enough of it to know that everyone deserves a break.