Pebbles on the Invisible Bridge

During the Vietnam War, Air Force Colonel George Hall was a POW for over seven years. Before his capture, he was a four-handicap golfer. After losing 100 pounds, and not playing golf in nearly 8 years, he shot a 4-over at Augusta in his first round after his release, as if a day hadn't gone by. He said he'd been playing in his mind during his imprisonment, and that's why he never lost his touch. You play the game in your mind.

The first step in doing something is believing you can do it. It applies to all goals-- long-term, short-term, and immediate. Belief is the universal prerequisite to accomplishment. 

The interesting thing about belief, though, is that it's contagious. John Landy broke the 4-minute-mile barrier just one month after Roger Bannister did it first. Without any major technological improvements, or significant changes in style of running or pacing oneself, two men had done something nobody had ever done before, within a month of each other. Is that just a coincidence?

I have a six-year-old dog. He is a healthy, happy, 55 pound dog, but he is terrified of stairs. Any new staircase, even if it's only a handful of steps, presents a serious mental hurdle. My wife and I have tried everything we can think of to get him to go up a new staircase. We encourage him. We act like it's not a big deal. We try coaxing him up with treats. We try pulling him up. I've even picked him up and put him in the middle of a flight of stairs, forcing him to go up because turning around and going back down is far more terrifying.

The most effective way to get him to go up stairs, though, is for him to see another dog do it first. It works without fail. He needs to see another dog do it to believe he can do it. And once he believes he can do it, he can always do it again, albeit with some nervous hesitation. 

So what would happen if someone routinely did things that seemed highly improbable? What if a major leaguer hit .478 next season? It's not inconceivable. If someone can do something 36 percent of the time, is it impossible to believe someone else could do it 48 percent of the time? If that happened, wouldn't everyone else's averages go up? You play the game in your mind. 

Well, basketball is having its what-if moment. Steph Curry takes, and makes, hundreds of nearly impossible shots. With each unbelievable bucket, his confidence grows, and our confidence in him grows. It's reached a point where we are genuinely surprised when he misses an extremely difficult shot. But what's different about Curry's accomplishments than say, Jordan's, or Lebron's, or Bo Jackson's, or Cam Newton's, is that they don't require otherworldly athleticism. Yes, he is blindingly quick, and has exceptional hand-eye coordination, and not many people are 6'2", but most of us could make all the shots he makes if we had enough chances and practice. Someone who is five-feet-tall is never going to dunk from the free throw line (nobody under six feet has ever done it on film), but most adults are strong enough to throw a basketball 35 feet, one way or another.

There is little doubt that Curry's incredible run will lead to some terrible shots. People jacking up contested back-foot garbage from 30 feet because they're feeling it. But it will also lead to more people practicing those shots, just like Curry does. With enough practice, people will believe they are going to make those terrible shots, and their chances of making them will improve. Suddenly, terrible shots are acceptable shots, and people can shoot them with clean consciences because others will believe they can go in. When you see people say things like, "I channelled my inner-Steph Curry, and it worked!," you know the belief by proxy is real.

Curry is changing the game, it will just take a bit of time for the rest of us to follow him up the stairs.