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The 1^st Key to Beating Big Shots is Equipment—You’ve got to have it!

This is boring and easy to overlook, but it’s the starting point - Get the right equipment. You can’t afford to give your competition an advantage here. You have to at least have equal equipment and if you can find an advantage use it.

John Wooden won 10 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships at UCLA
So how did he start the first practice of each new season? He would sit the team down and show them how to correctly and securely tie their shoelaces! Weren’t they supposed to learn this when they were 5 years old? 

Players played all 4 years of college before going to the NBA during that era. Since they won almost every year, that meant he would have players returning from a Championship season. Year after year he would show them along with the new players how to tie their shoes. 

He was the only coach who did things like that. Do you think that attention to detail had anything to do with the Championships?

What was the point? Was he trying to demean and humiliate them?
Not al all. He was making a statement that every thing is important. He wanted them to start at the very beginning every year and re-establish the basics. 

He wanted them to appreciate the fact that to win a championship they had to make sure every detail was done correctly so that in the heat of battle they would have no “breakdowns.”

He was showing them that something as simple as a untied shoe or broken shoelace that fell apart at the wrong time could be enough to get them beat and that they were going to make sure that didn’t happen. Little things matter. 

Attention to detail, even in equipment, can give you the edge it takes to win
There’s no problem when practicing, things are calm, but when intense pressure of game it's much different. It’s so easy to take it for granted, to delegate to an inexperienced person, not follow up thoroughly and then...disaster!

This is one area you can totally control, so if you let yourself get beat by equipment issues, it’s really unforgivable. There have been Pro golfers disqualified, penalized, and even lost tournaments because they didn’t have right number of clubs in their bag. 

Lost a tournament over something like that? That’s what I mean by unforgivable.

Equipment disasters in Football
There have been players even in Superbowl that couldn't go in game because they couldn't find their helmet. Star running back Thurman Thomas will always have a mishap that occurred at Super Bowl XXVII  associated with his name.

Thomas had a pre-game ritual where he placed his helmet at the 34-yard line. His helmet was moved in order for the stage to be set up for Harry Connick, Jr. to perform the national anthem. This caused Thomas to miss Buffalo's first two offensive plays. He went on to gain just 13 rushing yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. You can’t blame it on this incident, however….Buffalo lost the Super Bowl

National Joke… Meet the Natinals!
The MLB Washington “Nationals” expansion team had already started their first season before anyone noticed that the clothing company had misspelled their name. They embroidered every jersey the NATINALS. 

So they started off their franchise as a National joke because it took a while to get new jerseys made…not the kind of thing to build a lot of pride and confidence in the new team and their management.

Want to beat the Big Shots? Then start by getting the right equipment, get it checked out and get it organized!

Part 2 of 5 KEYS TO BEAT THE BIG SHOTS
Related post: YOU CAN BEAT THE BIG SHOTS