Swing Your Sword: Mike Leach’s Impact
The wisdom was more important than the play designs.
Like many diehard college football fans, Mike Leach’s death was sad news. The law school graduate who never practiced law installed one of the most potent passing attacks that college football has ever seen and has impacted many top coaches and players who benefited from his philosophy.
But a deeper dive showed his thoughts on life due in part to his diverse
experiences and interactions with people from all walks of life. His primary phrase made famous in Friday Night Lights, the TV show, and the title of his book is “Swing your Sword,” which means use the natural talents you are blessed with to your advantage. The passage from the book that hits home the most is about when people leave for college.
Maybe it’s instinctive that people fall into the same patterns over time. Everybody gets a little bit rutted by their routine, by what’s comfortable. Problem is, if you’re doing the same old thing that everybody else is doing, that’s who you become-everybody else. What’s more, you start to become the person you think everybody expects you to be, good or bad. Those expectations seem to weigh especially heavily on kids. They may never fully blossom, and years later, they cringe when they think back on what could have been, and end up resenting the people around them.
When you’re young, your instincts tell you to conform to surroundings or to roll with the expectations. It’s the path of least resistance. Even if you don’t like who you are-or who others have perceived you to be-that’s how you manage to find acceptance. It’s easy for you to exist that way, rather than to shake things up. But it can be suffocating, or at the very least, stifling.
I have always encouraged my kids to go away for college because I valued my own experiences away from my home turf. It allowed me to carve out my own deal, to reinvent, or more specifically, to develop myself.
If you go away for a fresh start, people have no expectations- they don’t know you, so you’re not bound by your past. You can build on your best qualities without being pigeonholed by the expectations of people who may have known you your whole life.
We can all learn from Coach Leach by being comfortable in one’s skin and having multiple hobbies and interests outside our careers. Having a sense of humor and never taking yourself so seriously. But most importantly, this guy followed his dreams and aspirations no matter how big they were (remember, he was a lawyer coaching football). Even though he is gone, we can continue learning from his wisdom, which is more important than any passing route.
