The Ultimate Opponent

Being involved with sports for my entire life, I tend to associate and relate everything that occurs in my life to a mindset of strategic competition. As we are all recovering from our encounter with Hurricane Milton, I have been reflecting on my personal experience with this particular storm, an experience which has forever changed my mindset as to the strategies and the actions I will take when encountering future storms. I have been through, aka competed against, numerous major hurricanes in my life, both here in south Florida and in south Texas. Some of which, depending upon my location, I decided to evacuate for, and some of which I decided to stay and ride out the storm.  Either way, I have always managed to, for the most part, emerge victorious. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have never experienced any loss of property from my competition with all of these storms.

With that all said, I found Milton to be the most threatening and challenging opponent I have ever faced. Without going into specifics and boring you with the details of my personal battle with Milton, this experience has enlightened, (or re-enlightened), my awareness of the necessity of having a set of guidelines that one must utilize when preparing to compete against a tough opponent.

1. Never underestimate  your opponent.

Milton kept getting stronger and more threatening as it approached. Sometimes our opponents on the court can, at first,  appear to not necessarily be an over-challenging threat, but as I learned from Milton, that can quickly change!

2. Anticipate and be aware of possible unpredictability from your opponent.

Milton’s storm surge predictions kept changing right up to its eventual landfall, which I feel caught all of us a little bit off guard. Always be aware of and be able to adapt to changes that may be occurring with your opponent. These changes may be premeditated and intentionally executed or may be occurring due to circumstances beyond their control.

3. Have an initial game plan and always have at least one backup plan.

Even though my initial plan was to not evacuate, I had a backup plan, which I ended up having to utilize as Milton’s unpredictability presented itself. The same is true when competing on the court. Have an initial strategic game plan to apply against your opponent but be prepared to react quickly when and if you discover that game plan is no longer effective.

4. Trust your instincts.

Do not panic when things don’t go or occur as you had initially planned and don’t second guess your decision to switch to a backup plan.

There is an old saying - If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck. As the effects of Milton were presenting themselves, I noticed the water in my parking lot was beginning to rise rather quickly. My first instinct was that I needed to relocate myself immediately (aka, backup plan B). Fortunately, I live on the second story, and I did not experience any flood waters in my residence, but had I not trusted my instincts and reacted immediately and had I stayed, my vehicle would have been flooded and destroyed. When you are in the heat of competition and you realize your initial game plan is no longer effective against your opponent, and you are suddenly and unexpectedly feeling very threatened, switch to your backup plan and stay in the game.

5. Never give up.

For me, this one almost goes without even saying. No matter how bad you may be getting your butt kicked, never quit giving it everything you’ve got. You may not end up being totally victorious, but giving it all that you had to give will provide you with a kind of euphoric pride in your loss.

My last thought on this subject is a quote from the late, great Bob Marley.

“You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice."