The Line | Smith Rock State Park, Oregon | Jun 2007

Malcolm Gladwell, Annals of Innovation, How David Beats Goliath; focusing on youth-league and professional basketball, Gladwell uses the example of the full-court press to explain how underdogs can use “socially horrifying” strategies that challenge the conventions of the game to give themselves the best chance of winning.

I’ll give you a personal example; I play racquetball, but not the same way anybody else plays. There are two main types of shots in racquetball: kill shots and ceiling shots. Kill shots are offensive shots driven low to the front wall, driven low and hard to make it very hard for the opponent to get to the ball before it bounces twice. Ceiling shots are hit high off the front wall to the ceiling and are meant to bounce high and far towards the back wall on their second bounce. In combination, ceiling shots and kill shots are designed to push your opponent out of the center of the court and toward the edges (back, front, sides) to allow you to control the game from the center.

In normal play, kill shots are offensive and ceiling shots are defensive; kill shots are meant to win the point immediately, ceiling shots are recovery and strategical shots meant to help you stay in the point and move your opponent from the center. I’ve never been able to hit a kill shot consistently, but since I’m good at ceiling shots I hit them incessantly; and since most players struggle to attack from the positions on the court and the available shots that ceiling shots put them into, it gives me an advantage.

If you know me, you’re probably not surprised to know I play the game differently than most people.

I know the rules, I know the convention, I know how most people play; but that’s not how I play. Instead, I play the game that gives me the best chance to win with the skills I’ve got. Granted, I’m dead against a player that can consistently hit kill shots, I’m simply not that good. But if a player doesn’t have a consistent kill shot in their arsenal, then I’ve got a chance.

You’ve got to pick your own line, create your own desire path, find your own vision. People can copy your content, copy your tactics, but they can’t copy you.

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By the way, the image above is just one of many from the Long Way Home series from my cross-country road trip in 2007; check out the full project on the web or view / download the extra gallery on Slideshare.