I started in for the ball but I just couldn't get it. I should have caught it because I was used to catching everything on the sandlots. But they hit the ball a lot harder in the major leagues and I just couldn't reach the ball this time.
On crosses, sometimes I make my move one or two seconds before the ball is coming because I'm trying to guess that the ball is coming there. It's intuition. So I run. Sometimes the ball comes...sometimes not. But that intuition is working.
It's called tactical periodisation because you push the physical and the psychological part together, but with organisation. So you run, but you run all the time with the ball. Always with the ball.
You used to be taught to let the ball go as far as possible and then drop it on the runner, whereas now it might be even more advantageous to direct the ball in front of the bag and get the guy on the leg.
I play in front of 70,000 fans week in and week out, and I may drop the ball in practice, I may run the ball the wrong way, but once it's game time, it's game on.
I'm used to having the ball, man. So, not really having the ball in my hands... it's just me trying to find different ways to impact the game.
You run the football for toughness. You run the ball to tell your opponent that you're as tough as they are. But you throw the ball to ring the bell.
I reached this level by sheer dint of hard work, toiling away at scores of tricks and experiments. I used to play with the ball from dawn till dusk and just kept practising. If I wasn't playing matches, it was trying out one on one or two against two with a tennis ball. Then I used to try aiming at certain targets. That's the only way to learn. And if I missed the target, I kept trying until I scored
The biggest mistake is trying to pinch down on the ball and ripping out a big divot, often hitting the ground before the ball. You'll dig up some turf, but you won't create much backspin.
People have assumed that I have to run the ball before I can throw it most all of my career, all the way back before high school. It's a stereotype put on me for a long time because I'm African-American and I'm a dual-threat quarterback. I don't know why that stereotype is still around. It's about talent and the ability to throw the ball, not the color of your skin or your ability to also be a dangerous runner.
Letting the ball travel is an important mental cue. It's simply about making an attempt to see the ball and to slow it down. It's a relaxation technique used to avoid being jumpy and attempting to hit the ball directly out of the pitchers hands.
First and fore-most, you must have confidence. Your second mental problem is concentration. Think the shot through in advance before you address the ball. Draw a mental image of where you want it to go and then eliminate everything else from your mind, except how you are going to get the ball into that preferred spot.
When I started bowling with a cricket ball, I was quite nippy, because I was already used to exerting more energy with the tape ball. So by the time I made the switch, I had already strengthened my shoulders.
When we're able to get stops, get the ball off the glass and run, you never know who's going to get the ball. Everyone takes off, runs to their spots, and the ball just finds the open man.
Most of the balls that I've dropped have been from a result of trying to run before I actually catch the ball. It's frustrating. I just have to go and fix them.
Basketball for me has always been a matter of rhythm - what you do bouncing the ball, how you bounce the ball, how you run, how you receive the ball to be in rhythm.