i still remember one of the hardest hours of my life high school basketball practice, absolute living hell the day before we lost against a team we should have beat, and the next morning, 5am, we watched film of everything we did wrong, it was a hard watch then, right on the dot at 6am, we headed downstairs to begin physical practice, the whole team moping around in our slides it's now 6:01am coach blows his whistle "PRACTICE STARTS AT 6AM, WHY DO Y'ALL NOT HAVE YOUR SHOES ON?!" we all scramble to put our shoes on "LINE UP, BASELINE" coach puts 60 seconds on the clock and 10 on the scoreboard "CHAMPIONSHIP RUNS, WE FINISH TODAY WHEN YOU GUYS GET TO ZERO" for context, a championship run = sprint hell baseline → free throw line → baseline → half court → baseline → opposite free throw line → baseline → then 3 full-court down-and-backs all under 60 seconds now here's the caveat: every successful round subtracts 1 from the scoreboard, every failed round ADDS 1 and to complete a round, EVERYONE on the team has to cross the finish line you're only as strong as your "weakest" link we finished the first then the second the third was a struggle coach skiff was pissed he dropped the clock to 55 seconds we barely made the fourth (5 seconds is eternity) at this point, everyone was heaving, hands on knees, drenched in sweat, desperately trying to catch our breath "LINE UP!!!!" WHISTLE BLOWS we sprint three stragglers our first miss +1 "LINE UPPP!!!!" another miss +1 people started DIVING across the finish line, legs giving out, bodies hitting the floor maybe coach just wanted to see effort? nah he didn't give a fuck +1 "OKAY, OKAY, I'LL GIVE YOU GUYS 3 MINUTES, GET IT TOGETHER" we huddled up our captains rallied the group, we made a strategy, we encouraged each other, for the stragglers, our plan was to have the fastest people go back and push them across we were going to get through this together and for a moment, it worked we knocked out 3 in a row down to 5 we got this then we hit a wall not just tired, completely cooked i looked around at my teammates, guys were barely standing, some were running to trash cans, throwing up, others were bent over, trying to find enough air for the next sprint our bodies had nothing left to give at least that's what we thought i stumbled over to coach "c-c-c..... coach.... i ..i ..... i can't.... brea..the" he looked me dead in the eyes "MINH!!! YOU ARE LITERALLY TALKING TO ME, BOY!!!! YOU CAN BREATHE!!!!!" then he turned to the team "LISTEN UP, Y'ALL!!! EVERYONE CAN MAKE EXCUSES!!! THEY'RE LIKE ASSHOLES, EVERYONE HAS ONE AND THEY ALL STINK!!!!" "LINE UPPPP!!!!" and just like that, we were back on the baseline sprinting gasping fighting for every second i think we eventually got the scoreboard down to 3 +2, back to 5 then the bell rang 7am saved by the bell, literally i'll never forget that hour to this day, it was one of the hardest mental and physical battles i've ever gone through and the funny thing is, in the grand scheme of things, it didn't really matter it was just a high school basketball practice no championship on the line, no trophy, no one in the stands watching just a bunch of exhausted teenagers trying to survive an hour together but looking back, i realize how much that hour shaped me the pressure, the exhaustion, the frustration, the feeling of having nothing left, yet somehow finding a little more, pushing past that wall i didn't know it then, but those moments were teaching me something i'd carry for the rest of my life you don't always get to choose how difficult life gets, but you do get to choose how you respond and you may not realize it now, but the experiences you're going through today are shaping the person you are and the person you'll become also do team sports in life please, it's a great life teacher try your hardest at everything you touch rest just as intensely when you need to lean on the people around you and when life feels like absolute hell, when everything feels impossible, when you think you have nothing left take a moment catch your breath and remember what coach skiff told me that morning you can breathe