How to master the basics [#42]

This is one of my favorite Magic: the Gathering cards. At age 15, I loved the game (and still do today). But Magic cards are expensive: the price for a single card in a competitive deck ranges from 50 cents to >100€ (with the most expensive ones clocking in at a solid 200.000 €). 

In Magic, there are five colors. In order to cast spells and summon creatures, you need “mana” of these five colors. This mana is produced by lands. And lands that produce more than one type of mana (so called “non-basic lands”) tended to be very expensive. 

I couldn’t afford to play more than one color back then - so I decided to build a deck that only contains one color, and punishes decks that play more than that. A deck that went … back to the basics. Featuring a card with that very name. 

I didn’t have any money, so I couldn’t do any fancy stuff. I had to focus on the fundamentals: play fast creatures, disrupt the opponent, and play something that wins big against the majority of the meta game. 

This was the very deck was the deck that allowed to be rise to the upper echelons of the German Magic scene: ranked 9th overall out of several hundred thousand players. (Even found an article about it.)

Magic isn’t the only discipline where mastering the fundamentals goes far. 

Become a winning team ... by putting on socks?

At the beginning of every season, legendary NBA Coach John Wooden taught his players how to put on their socks properly. At first, it seems baffling: you’re coaching professional Basketball players, they should know how to put on socks.

At second glance, it makes sense: if the socks don’t fit, the player might get a blister. The blister might alter his running style. An altered running style might lead to an injury. An injured player won’t perform. 

A player’s best ability is availability. Without it, having them on the roster doesn’t mean anything. So the first fundamental principle in sports is to keep your players healthy - and that starts with the basics of putting on your socks. 

Begin with the attitude of expecting mastery 

In my research for this newsletter, I stumbled upon a 2005 post about mastering the basics. The author, Steve Paulina, thinks of himself as a “top professional in training” when acquiring a new skill. 

This means practicing the basics like a professional would.

If you don’t get the basics right, you don’t have a good foundation to build on. 

Take golf as an example: if you don’t master grip and stance early on, practicing swings will only reinforce bad habits that are difficult to break later. Professional golfers play with perfect stance and grip; when they don’t, you can instantly see the difference. 

I believe part of the reason why you and I have failed at many things is that we didn’t take the time to master the basics; and instead attempted to graduate to higher levels of the skill too early. 

Today, when learning a new skill, I would invest time into getting coaching as early as possible in the process - so the coach can point me in the right direction, and show me the basics that are most important for my new skill. 

But with many things, we’ve already done the work and are where we are. What do we do here? 

Back to Basics

The answer is: we go back to basics. And we train them maniacally. 

A few years ago, I was dealing with plantar fasciitis - a nagging injury in your heel that hurts every time you take a step. I tried out every therapy in the book (shockwaves, flossing, physiotherapy, taping, heel inserts, …).

Eventually, the third physiotherapist I saw recommended to go see a running style analyst & expert. With his help, I adjusted my running style, and boom - the injury was gone. Turns out I had been running wrong all my life. 

If you - like me - experienced bad education early in life, now’s the best time to fix that. It’s your responsibility to get the basics straight, even if it’s effortful. 

And then, to continue practicing them. I still do my running drills twice a week. I have a Lacrosse stick in my hand every day. I write and read every day. 

It’s the tiny details that make the big picture. 

Action Items: 

1. Answer for yourself: what are the basics that you need on a day-to-day basis that you aren’t trained well in?
2. Pick one of these items. 
3. Get someone to show you how to do this really well. 
4. Work on the next one. 

That's all for today.

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Thanks for reading.

PS: I find the island of Tristan da Cunha endlessly fascinating. It is so remote that it takes at least 8 days to get there from the nearest port (Cape Town), and they have a list of all vessels that arrive at the island. Last year, those were 24 ships in total.