When I was still playing baseball as a kid I had an amazing experience that changed my way of learning. I was 10 years old practicing grounders and playing around bases. The day was hot and most of us on the team were pretty upset with how the day was going. On top of it being hot our coaches seemed to be in more of a strict mood with us which in turn caused us to just want to give up practicing all together. The air felt tense and anyone could tell that there was a problem. That was all until our head coach had called for us to all gather. I was confused as to why since we were in the middle of practice, but I went on over to hear what he had to say. To be honest I thought we were going to get chewed out because of our moods. However, he didn’t chew us out. Instead he asked us how we were feeling. Obviously all of us groaned on how bored of the same boring plays we had to do in the heat. He understood and told us that we were in the right to be upset, but he wanted us to know that this practice wasn’t for nothing. In fact he told us that the most important things are sometimes boring. I wasn’t buying it, there was no way that he wasn’t saying all that just to get us to calm down. He saw that we weren’t understanding, so he told us that if we didn’t take the time to learn the basics and the fundamentals, there would be no way that we would be able to do any real plays. My whole team stopped and took a moment. Again we were confused but much less. In the end, his words really didn’t amount to anything at the time because I had no proof if what he said was actually true. However, later on in life, those words rang in the back of my head. The fundamentals. At some point, I believed it. The fundamentals of anything are the most important. It seems obvious to say, but to actually put it into practice is hard. Because to me, the fundamentals can be boring. Grounders in baseball, learning embouchure for band, or research during a project. They are all boring to practice and put the time into because of the repetitiveness of it all, but understanding how important it is to learn them really opens opportunities. Those fundamentals in life should be the main goal of practice no matter what skill level you may be at. My coach that day was so kind as to rather than yell at us, he gave us a talk about the basics of learning and hard work.