“I’ll see you on the way back down, it’s quite a long way to fall”.
John Ward was the first person that I can remember to teach me about the principles of humility.
He was my school Basketball coach (and a genius).
Very early on in the career of our team he was quite clear to explain that it was fine to showboat when you were winning as long as you would also showboat when you were losing.
It was fine to be cocky in victory as long as you were cocky in defeat.
He built a group of boys that were humble and who were good sportsmen and I think all of us learnt crucial lessons from that period.
We lost the Scottish cup final by 2 points in 1985, six months later I would lose my first international against Ireland by 3 points.
John taught us to remember those days and how they felt so that when we were beating teams by 50 or 60 points in other circumstances we never bragged and never bloated.
You might be winning now but you won’t always be, best to remember that for the way back down.
Blog Post Number - 2467
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