If you’ve ever heard professional athletes discuss their craft, you’ve likely heard a variation of the same phrase.
Getting deep.
Batters in baseball talk about letting the ball get deep before they swing at it. Hockey players talk about getting pucks deep in the opposing team’s zone. Basketball players allude to the topic when they talk about splitting the defense. Football players do the same when they talk about penetrating the defensive or offensive line.
The phrasing might be different, but the central theme is the same. Success is tied to depth of attack.
It’s remarkable how prevalent this theme is. It transcends sports played on different surfaces and under different rules.
So, if you believe in the If there’s smoke there’s fire version of proof, a bevy of athletes preaching the gospel of getting deep speaks volumes.
Part of this commonality is tactical. As is the case in military strategy, getting past your opponent’s first line of defense in sports makes you dangerous — and makes them vulnerable. This is as true if you’re running up the middle in football as it is if you’re seeing the ball all the way to the plate in baseball. You dictate the terms.
Yet, tactical soundness doesn’t fully explain why a football player from Texas, a baseball player from Venezuela and a hockey player from Norway speak of the same concept. Growing up on three different continents, they likely learned their respective sports in different ways. Tactical proficiency might not have been part of the lesson until they got to the pros.
No, there is something deeper that ties so many athletes to the gospel of getting deep.
You see, getting deep in sports isn’t quite as seamless as rolling out of bed in the morning. Unless your opponent is overmatched, they will execute an organized resistance to your efforts. And since the highest levels of professional sports are filled with the most elite athletes, such airtight resistance should be expected. When it comes to getting deep, brute force simply won’t get it done.
How do these elite athletes get around this obstacle? Through the three P’s — preparation, pivots and perseverance.
The most successful athletes prepare. They look at how their opponents prepare for them, and then they formulate a plan to disrupt that strategy. They build advanced scouting into their routines before they enter competition.
The most successful athletes pivot. They use skills of observation to identify what opponents are doing in the moment. Then they make real-time adjustments to stay one step ahead.
And the most successful athletes persevere. They try again and again to get deep, knowing that sometimes they might not succeed. But they don’t let those failings stand in the way of success. They keep going at it.
It is when preparation, pivoting and perseverance collide that the rubber meets the road. Athletes that attain this holy trinity become difficult for their opponents to defend against. And if an entire team buys in to this methodology, that team can quickly rise to elite status in its league.
In many ways, getting deep is the secret sauce of sports. At the highest level of competition, it’s what separates the wheat from the chaff.
Yet, I believe the concept extends off the field as well.
We all have the ability to get deep. To prepare for what lies ahead of us. To pivot based on what we see and experience. To persevere in the face of obstacles, keeping at it until we see the desired results.
Yet, more often than not, we fail to take the steps needed to harness this ability.
There are several reasons why. Perhaps life is going well and we don’t have major obstacles to overcome. Perhaps we’re looking for the path of least resistance, and don’t want to put in the effort to prepare in advance or pivot in the moment. Perhaps the thought of failing demoralizes us, rather than inspiring us to get back at it.
In any case, avoiding the process of getting deep does us no favors.
For when we get deep — when we prepare, pivot and persevere — we attain the most contextual information at the point of action.
This context provides a major benefit. Instead of reacting impulsively at the first sign of resistance — and potentially sabotaging our own efforts — we can use it to make a more levelheaded decision.
Getting deep allows us to think long-term, instead of just in the moment. It helps us focus on making the most sustainable decisions in the face of adversity.
Having these abilities is a gift. But it’s a gift we give ourselves through commitment to a process.
We must work to build a base of experience before we can truly succeed at getting deep. All that time preparing, pivoting and persevering early on provides us this experience. Experience that can be invaluable later on as we face down important decisions in times of turmoil.
Much like professional athletes early in their careers, we must take our lumps early on in order to build this experience. We must put a lot of effort into preparing, pivoting and persevering — all without necessarily seeing tangible results.
This can prove to be a bitter pill to swallow. But it’s an important one to take nonetheless.
For it unlocks potential that can’t be replicated. Potential to make informed and impactful decisions. Potential to read subtle patterns that have big impacts, and leverage them properly. Potential to have a steady hand, even in times of uncertainty.
Harnessing this potential empowers us. It makes more effective as leaders, professionals and members of society.
And we can only get there by making the commitment to get deep.
Make no mistake. Getting deep is more than just a sports philosophy.
It’s a gamechanger.
Use it to your advantage.