Notes From Camp 2012: Not a Finished Product

Our week of basketball camp ended with a weekend at the Iowa State team camp. We concluded with a phrase that we like to remind the players of at varying points of the season: "We are not a finished product." Win or lose, in June, the pieces are simply not completely put together. Nobody is as good as they're going to be, and we're not entirely sure what we're going to look like when it's all said and done. The message is the same to individuals and to the team as a whole.

With this perspective, current weaknesses are less daunting, less permanent. Hope for success is abundant and control over the outcome is placed firmly in the hands of the team. The message is clear: whatever you are now, you don't have to be when the season is all over. We can be better, or worse. The opportunity presents itself to define what the finished product should look like, what it will take to make that a reality, and display through action how important that vision is.

We use this phrase in November as well as we prepare for our pre-Christmas games. The phrase is repeated over Christmas break as we adjust and plan for the stretch run. But we don't get to say it in February. As coaches are fond of saying that time of year, you are what you are. The product is ultimately finished, and that product will either match the vision or depressingly count the days until that vision can be forgotten. I've seen both types of teams - those reaching their potential and playing with confidence in the stretch run, and those who will remember their experience as one full of "might-have-been's."

This is an essential phrase for everyone outside of team sports as well because we aren't finished products either. Many aspects of our lives are undefined, developing, fluid. Your reputation is not a finished product. Neither is your marriage or your relationship with your family. Same with your career, your cooking skills, the physical shape you're in, and your relationship with God. We all have time to define what the finished product should look like and take action accordingly.

Ignoring the fact that a product is being formed in a certain area of life won't do any of us any good. The season will end, and you will be in the locker room facing what your final performance turned out to be. Ignoring it just guarantees that the product will be a disappointment. And you can't look at the losses in your past to determine what your vision should look like. Yeah, they mattered. They might have been shattering losses. But the season isn't over with. It might be just beginning. What do you want the end to look like?

What our players must face, and so must all of us, is that each day we're moving toward the end. It's not here. We have time to get where we want to be. But every day we either move closer or further away from that vision of what we want to be. 

This is the last of the 2012 Camp posts. I've enjoyed this series again this year and hope to continue them in the future. If you missed any of the previous posts from this year, you can click on them below:

Look Like You Care

Learn While You're Watching

What If I Didn't Foul?