The Sounds Of Summer '26

In this summer episode of "A Pane In The Glass Podcast" I bring eight sound bites, each with a thought provoking premise. I urge you to check out the "chapters" section above these show notes to see the topics of the sound bites and where to find them on the episode. 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_04 0:16

Welcome to the Sounds of Summer episode of the Pain in the Glass Podcast. This is your host, Bill Shearhart, chartered professional coach with Coaches of Canada, coming to you from my home in Grand Bend, Ontario, on the ancestral land of the Kettle and Stony Point First Nations. It's Civic Holiday Weekend here in Canada, obviously a three-day weekend, and it signifies the midpoint of a Canadian summer. And I thought it was a good time to come to you with a number of sound bites that I have gathered over the last number of weeks. The first has to do with the open golf championship. Now, don't get me started on this open golf championship thing, because I still refer to it as the British Open. Because, well, I think most golfing nations have an open championship. And for one nation to call itself the open, I think it's a little self-serving, but it's just the way I feel. So if I slip up and refer to the British Open, that's the reason. The champion golfer of the year, which is the designation ascribed to the person who wins the open, uh, is Ryan Fox. Now, his name is not necessarily a household word among those of you like me who like to watch golf on television, especially professional golf. He's a Kiwi from New Zealand. And he burst upon the scene uh at Royal Burkdale. Royal Burkdale. And in exciting fashion, uh I'll just describe what happened on the last hole. The last hole at Royal Burkdale is extremely difficult. It's long, it's narrow, and the fescue is uh tight to the fairway on both sides. And playing the last round on Sunday, there had been only four birdies on that hole. And if he stepped up to the T, he knew that to win the open championship and be the champion golfer, he needed to birdie the hole, and that would have been only the fifth one. Well, I won't carry the lead. That's exactly what he did. He brought a breath of fresh air into uh the the tournament or golf in general. To say that he plays quickly, an understatement, and part of one of the sound bites he's gonna talk about playing quickly. But we want to start with uh the aftermath, and the trophy for the open is the clarity jug, and it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a wine jug, it's a long uh history, and like the Masters, the winner gets to uh keep the green jacket for one uh calendar of one year to the next Masters, the Clarit Jug will be in the possession of Ryan Fox for one year. He'll bring it back to the next year's open. And the interesting part, well, he's a very humble uh gentleman, and he had just won this major golf tournament, and he's flying home, and the photograph on Facebook was was was uh I don't want to say comical, but it certainly brought a smile to every golfer's face because he flew home economy, and in the overhead was a trophy case, and of course, inside the trophy case was the cleric joke. So this sound bite is about uh congratulations that he had received. And of course, he received congratulations from many different sources, and this was one that stood out to him. So let's hear from Brian Fox, champion golfer of the year.

JT's Congratulation Advice To Ryan Fox

SPEAKER_06 4:34

So, what what's the best text you've gotten since wedding?

SPEAKER_05 4:37

I've had a lot. I would say the I had one, I had a message from Justin Thomas on Instagram, and it actually had. I'm paraphrasing here and I'll get it wrong at some to a point, but it was basically like remember every little detail because you're gonna want to be able to bring that out at some point, like to be able to look back on it and think of all those good feelings. And I was like, that's pretty cool coming from you know a two-time major champion. It's like I've had a lot of like really nice messages from my peers from other sports people around, but uh yeah, that that one like stood out for me as like like that's a real little nugget of information there that someone who's loved it has you know has imparted on to me, and that that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

I very much like that sound bite from Ryan Fox, and of course the words of uh JT, uh Justin Thomas, who said, You have won a major championship. Remember every last detail because you're going to have to pull those details out in the future as you meet other challenges in your sport, doesn't matter what sport it happens to be. It's so easy to focus on winning, let the celebrating begin. And that's great. But make sure you know why you won. Because if you don't do that, if you ignore the details, as uh JT said, you've lost a good deal from the victory in the first place. And of course, if you lose, don't lose the lesson. This next sound bite by Ryan Fox is about pace of play. Now, if you're a recreational golfer, one of the uh uh dandelions or crab grass in the law of golf is is slow play. So let's hear what Ryan Fox talks about slow play, because that certainly does not apply to him.

Ryan Fox's View On Slow Play

SPEAKER_11 7:05

See playing fast, is that a cause that you are willing to be the face of, or do you see you know everybody plays differently? Do you think that more guys should play like you? I think everyone's different.

SPEAKER_05 7:16

I'm not gonna pick on anyone on slow play, but like my personality's fucked. Like, if I did something slow it would be against my personality. Some guys are just uh slow, lowering everything just happens slowly, and I'm good with that. My biggest bit for is just not being ready. Like, there's too much about another noise at all. Like, when it's someone's turn to go, they haven't even talked to the kid about what they're gonna do. And then they go and do the whole routine and take two minutes to do the whole thing. For the most part, because you know as well, like you can do your work when someone else is doing something and just be ready when it's your turn. You know, if you take 40 seconds over the ball, I'm cool with it, like that's your routine. But if you take a minute to get ready when it's your turn, and if you take 40 seconds over the ball, that's another one.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

Another excellent comment from Ryan Fox, and the word in there that uh strikes a chord with me is be ready. And when it's not your turn to play, you can do a lot of the planning for your next shot. Don't start that process when it's your turn, and that's good advice for everybody. And of course, that translates into curling very much so. Wow. When you know that it's you know your turn to shoot next, and you're watching the the your opponent play in front of you, you know the various situations that are likely going to occur, whether it's a made shot or a missed shot, it shouldn't be a uh a mystery when the uh the skip calls your shot. You should be prepared for it. And sometimes a lot of those uh gardening uh duties, uh uh making sure that uh the the rock is in in place and uh everything is ready for you to communicate with your skip and and execute the shot, that certainly can make a big difference, especially with recreational curling. So good comment for all sports. This next sound bite is about baseball, and it's a sound bite uh with the the late Pete Rose, and he talks about uh winning and losing and mental mistakes as opposed to physical errors. So uh it I thought was it was very well done with Pete. So let's hear what he has to say about that.

Pete Rose

SPEAKER_08 9:42

How do you feel about making errors on the ball field? Well, uh physical errors uh are are part of the game. I mean, you're you're gonna miss balls, uh, you're gonna make bad throws. You beat yourself up about it pretty bad. Well, yeah, uh I did, but uh because I always tell you leaving the pitcher down when you made errors. Uh but uh mental errors are not part of the game. You know, to throw the wrong base or uh to get thrown out third and start the ending off or get thrown out second and start the ending off. That's just bad baseball. You know, I didn't make many mental errors. Uh and uh and everybody makes physical errors, although, you know, I people don't know this about me, but I got the highest shooting average in the history of baseball for outfielders. I mean, you need to know that. I know everything about me. And you need to know that. So, you know, you because there's two phases of the game of baseball or sports in general, okay? One is offense, and the other is defense. And when you got a bat in your hand, you worry about offense, and when you got a glove in your hand, you worry about defense. In other words, you strike out with bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game. Don't take it out to play defense. Take your glove out to play defense. And you know, I always pitchers are trying to make money too. They have families too, and and when you make errors, you you let them down. I mean, people are people who are around me could never tell if I got four hits in a game, but they could tell when I made an error that cost us the game. Because I I took that, I took that away from the ballpark with me. Uh, more so than if I struck out. You know, because you're gonna strike out, you're gonna make errors, but but uh I I didn't like to make errors. I I I know I I like I was a perfectionist, I didn't like to make errors, but I made them, everybody makes them. I see Louis Mays make an error. In addition to errors, how do you feel about losing? Oh, losing sucks. I mean, you know, I mean, that's of all the records I have, the the the proudest record is 1972 winning games. That's more winning games than anybody in the history of sports. You play the game to win. And uh you know, you get in trouble sometimes when you tell kids this, but not to the state point that you're a sore loser. But you know, I've I I've been in situations, Graham, where we just won a World Series and the guy we beat is in our club house congratulating us. I couldn't do that. I could if I played against Tony Perez and he won a World Series and I was you know great friends with him, I would call him the next day and congratulate him. But I'm not gonna go be part of his celebration. Because I'm gonna sit, I'm gonna sit and analyze why we lost that game, where if the situation comes up the next time, we will win the game and we won't lose the game. And that's just part of me that's a professional athlete for 24 years the player. You know, if if if if you think losing in stride, you're never gonna be a good professional athlete. You might be a good money earner because you're a good player, but I don't want you on my team. I want I want players who care about winning. You know, because uh uh I don't care who who's watching you and I talk right now, if they got kids that are little eight players, okay, they feel better.

unknown 12:43

I'm talking about mom and dad. They feel better if their kid got a base set to win the game and a little eight game on the way home.

SPEAKER_08 12:50

The food tastes better, the phone call to grandma or grandpa's better, as opposed to striking out and going over four. You know, when I was a kid, if we lost a game, my dad wouldn't even stop to eat. You had to earn that food. Okay? So if we went into a prolonged swamp, it was almost like going to Jenny Crank.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

This uh next outbite uh brings us to uh football. And North American football. We've just finished the uh World Cup, of course, and football in that sense means soccer. But this is North American football NFL style, and uh for people who watch the games, maybe sometimes you wonder when the players go into a huddle, and usually it's the quarterback that speaks, just what does the quarterback say? Well, it's complicated, and Drew Brees, who is a Hall of Fame quarterback in the Orleans Saints, explains it this way.

Drew Brees Explains A Huddle

SPEAKER_06 13:57

What I don't understand is how does everybody on the field memorize all the names of all the calls? Because some of them they they come together into these incredibly long chains of words that mean nothing to the rest of us, but is clear to everyone on the team. What are some of the hardest call code names you ever had to memorize?

SPEAKER_02 14:17

Well, see, the good thing for the positions are there's really just a couple words that they need to just listen up for.

SPEAKER_06 14:24

Okay, it's like that triggers.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

This part of the play is me. The entirety of the play talks to the entire huddle, but each each grouping has like their segment of it. So for example, green left twin nasty. So green left twin nasty is the formation. Z peel tight tells the Z he's it's a motion to a tight alignment. Pass 37, Buster Bluff is the protection. That just told the offensive line what they need to do. Now they're tuned out, right? X post, Y bite. I just told the X what to run, just told the Y button what to run. But then here comes the zinger. Kill. That just means, hey, I may change the play to 53 tight left. 53 being the protection, O-line just here's perked up again. Titan left, just talk to the running back, but he's running the screen to the left. So green left, twin nasty kill tight past 37 busted block, exposed, y bite, kill 53, tight left.

SPEAKER_11 15:23

One yellow.

SPEAKER_04 15:34

In an interview with uh Drew Brees. Another uh discussion that takes place in sports uh is in baseball. And when the pitching coach comes out and talks to the pitcher, what what does the pitching coach say? Now, there could be some mechanics that the pitching coach wants to remind the pitcher of, but a lot of times it's very simple. And the pitching coach says, stop aiming the ball, go back to throwing the ball. Stop aiming the ball, going back to throwing the ball. And you know that uh fits in with curling as well. Sometimes we try too hard. You've done it a million times, you can slide in a straight line, apply the rotation, let the rock do the work, stop aiming the curling rock, and go back to delivering the curling rock. Next up is a sound by by Hall of Fame baseball player Cal Ripkin, who you know they say that uh records are made to be broken. Well, this one is consecutive games played. I don't remember the exact number, but I think I'm not going out on much of a limb to say that the record that will very likely never be broken. And he talks about the value of playing a variety of sports. So let's hear from Cal Ripkin, Hall of Fame baseball player, played for the Baltimore Orioles.

Cal Ripken

SPEAKER_09 17:17

I'm a big advocate of playing other sports. I think when you develop your athleticism, other sports challenges you in ways that you know baseball might not. I played basketball, I played soccer. Soccer, if you think about it, you don't use your hands, you know, most of the time. I mean you throw the ball in the goalie use with hands. But you're moving in all different directions, changing your balance, kicking off your right foot and your left foot. And so it's at a higher speed. So you're you're you're getting your overall balance uh and your agil uh your agility down. You know, and we also ran hills so you built your lower, you built a lot of stuff. Basketball was this one, just quick movements all the time, quick jumping, quick movements side to side. And I always thought that translated really well, you know, to baseball. So if you're trying to develop uh the better athlete, you want to encourage them to play more sports.

SPEAKER_04 18:07

This next sound bite talks about the dichotomy between talent and grit or determination. I thought it was worth listening to. So let's hear what this woman has to say about it.

Talent Is Overrated

SPEAKER_01 18:28

So why does grit matter? Because talent is overrated. I try to remember this when I go recruiting and I'm evaluating potential players for my program, and I'm sure you do too. We all say hard work and effort is way more important than talent. But when you're asked to evaluate potential, we all fall back to natural ability. And that's called your unconscious bias towards talent, and we all have it or have it at some point. Listen, I am probably the most competitive person you will ever meet. I will literally die on a treadmill before I will quit. But even I had this bias when I was younger. You see, sports came really easy to me. I played eight sports growing up, and I got accolades in most of them. I was named Athlete of the Air four years in a row at my high school. I went on to play two Division I sports at Brown and got all American recognition in both. I've never been cut from any team in my life. So in 2002, when I was for one of the last players cut from the Olympic team, I thought I had reached my ceiling. That's it. Because I had a fixed mindset about talent. So the very first time I got cut, I thought I had reached my potential. That's as far as you'll go. And at just 22 years old, I hung up my skirt. It's the biggest regret I have to this day.

Stanley Cup Names

SPEAKER_07 19:57

The hurricanes are taking a ton of heat on social media after the Stanley Cup enrages were revealed on Tuesday. Featured at the top of the cup are the names of several of Tom Duncan's family members, with many calling the gesture from the Hurricane Zoner both unprecedented and disrespectful. Did the Hurricane Zoner go too far? Did the Carolina Hurricanes disrespect the Stanley Cup?

SPEAKER_04 20:29

The National Hockey League allows the Stanley Cup winning team to affix 55 names from their organization onto the Stanley Cup. The owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, Tom Dundan, used seven of those 55 allocated spots for members of his family. Well, that caused some concern, and certainly I was I was amazed at how disrespectful could he be. Well, let's hear about the longtime hockey commentator Pierre McGuire and how he feels about that.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

Bobby Gorman has been with that team since 1985. Bobby was our trainer, and I'm gonna tell you right now, when I found out his name wasn't on the cup because of what the owner did, yeah, that that broke my heart. That is inappropriate. I'm really surprised that hockey operations at the NHL office allowed that to happen. You have to submit a list. Jay knows because it's been part of the process. And I I was really heartbroken when I heard that.

SPEAKER_10 21:46

I don't think it's going over well with anybody who sees and see what's just seeing what that's all about and knowing what it means as you just talked about.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

You know, Larry, what's really cool what Jay's bringing up is that there's a certain group in the National Hockey League that does a Lot of heavy lifting and doesn't really get recognized. One is a scouting group, especially the amateur scouts, that spend all this time on the road and they go and find these places. It's a passion, it's a lifetime passion, it's a calling for those guys. And it's a hard life. Believe me, it's a hard life. Try driving through Winnipeg or try driving through Regina or Saskatoon in January when it's 40 below zero and they're blowing snow and the roads are straight and there's no trees and you can't see the road. I've done it before, it's not a lot of fun. But the other part is the trainers, and Jay's been through it, both the medical guys and the equipment guys, they're the lifeline for every player in every single situation that plays pro hockey. They are the lifeline for your skates, for your sticks, for your well-being. If you got a bump, you got a bruise, you need sutures, you lose your teeth. Who looks after you? The first person there is the trainer. And the fact that they've basically alienated and oppressed these people is not appropriate. It's just not.

Athlete's Development At Different Rates

SPEAKER_04 22:58

We'll end this episode of a Paint of the Last podcast that I call Sound Good Summer with a soundbite about how athletes develop. And I'll play the soundbite and then I'll weigh in with a personal experience that affected my entire coaching career.

SPEAKER_12 23:25

Can I tell you one of the biggest mistakes we make in youth sports? We seem to think that athletic ability and technical skill are the same thing, but they are not. Some kids are incredible athletes, but they struggle to master the technical sides of the game. Other kids have unbelievable technical skill, but they haven't developed the athleticism to fully use that technical skill yet. The problem is that in youth sports, we often overvalue one at the expense of the other. But the reality is great athletes need both. The hardest part of this entire thing is that kids develop those two things on completely different timelines. The athletic 10-year-old might dominate because they're bigger, faster, and stronger. But if they never develop the technical side, they'll often be passed by the time they get to high school. Meanwhile, that technically gifted 12-year-old might struggle because they haven't grown into their body yet. But then at 16 or 17, once they go through the growth process, everything clicks. Some kids develop both late. Our goal in youth sports should be to keep kids playing as long as possible so they have the best chance of reaching their full potential, both on the field and often through the tools they learn playing. But we can't do that when we're too busy chasing tournament wins and all-star teams at nine years old. We have to play the long game here and understand that every kid is on their own timeline and winning at these young agents, it doesn't really matter.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

Now, here's my experience. So many people said, Bill, why don't why aren't you more interested in in doing that at the high school level? Well, there are two reasons for that. Um number one, I I really like that 13 to 16 year old age group. There was still an innocence there that I appreciated and a passion. And I didn't need uh to coach uh high school athletes because I was on the staff at the University of Waterloo as the varsity curling coach. But that's aside. So back to my experience in uh in in middle school, in junior high school. I remember one young lad who tried out for literally every school team that that that I offered through through the entire year, and I had him for three years, and he was uh one of the last cuts virtually every time. A great young man, I really liked him, but uh he just didn't really have what it took at that particular stage of his development, and of course that's what this sound bite is all about. So I won't carry the lead. He ended up going to the high school in our region and ended up at the University of Michigan, go blue, with an athletic scholarship in track and field, and that changed me um uh to the point where I never ever ever from that time really to this cut any athlete from my team. If you want to come out and be part of my varsity program, you will be part of my varsity program as much as I can offer experiences for you. You may end up cutting yourself from the team because of losing interest or whatever, but I never cut another athlete after that because athletes develop at different rates. That's what that sound bite is all about. Well, I hope you enjoyed those sound bites, the sounds of summer, and uh as the summer wears on, I'll uh do another version of the sounds of summer. But until that time, wherever you are, of course, you know what I'm gonna say. Please stay safe and don't forget the wise words of that great North American philosopher Charlie Brown. Don't focus too much on things that make you sad. Because there are so many things that can make you happy. Until next time.