Doing “Battle-Fly” With Tim Thomas
I don’t pretend to be a diehard or even a diesoft Bruins fan. Before the Stanley Cup series, I couldn’t have named one player on the team. That changed when Jimmy started to share the unconventional story of the Bruin’s goalie Tim Thomas.
His contradictions drew me in.
He was short for a goalie. Old for a goalie. Itinerant for a goalie. Humble for a goalie. And he had a unique way of stopping the puck.
Most of the other NHL goalies used the Butterfly Style. They stayed close to the net, put their knees down, legs spread to the sides and kept their torso’s upright.
Thomas used his unique Battle-fly style. He came out of the net and threw his body, soul and spirit at the puck, sliding, diving and twirling as needed. Roberto Luongo, the Vancouver Canucks goalie, called him out on his style after Thomas surrendered a goal in game 5 of The Stanley Cup.
“It’s not hard if you’re playing in the paint. It’s an easy save for me, but if you’re wandering out and aggressive like he does, that’s going to happen. He might make some saves that I won’t, but in a case like that, we want to take advantage of a bounce like that and make sure we’re in a good position to bury those.”
I never gave much thought to conformity in team sports. My sport interests have always been individual. Yet, even there I can recall disastrous pressure to conform to some make-believe standard.
Both my parents played golf, so I took it up in Junior High. For a smaller-person, I could really pound a drive down the fairway. Because of that, I often played from the men’s tees.
But I had an unconventional stance. I played the ball pretty far off center, almost to my left foot. It worked for me. I won a work golf tournament playing against 100 men.
One day in my late-twenties, my dad and I were matched up with two guys at a fairly difficult public course. I played the front nine from the men’s tees, many situated behind large water hazards. The two strangers complimented my swing, etc.
On the back nine, they suddenly started commenting on the placement of the ball. “You sure play the ball to the left.” “You should center the ball.” “Why don’t you just try moving it in the center.” I ignored them for awhile, but they kept at it. Sorry to say, but at that point in my life I didn’t have a strong enough voice to say no. I usually did what folks told me to do.
So, I moved the ball to the center. My drives started to slice, to pop off the tee. They said, “It will just take awhile to get used to it.” I stayed with it, despite my drives getting worse and my gut telling me to go back to my own style. By the 18th hole, I had started to whiff the ball.
I never played a good round after that. I tried moving the ball back to a place that worked for me. I tried taking lessons. I sometimes had a few good holes, eventually regressing back to slicing/whiffing. Eventually, I gave up the sport.
That’s why I admire Thomas. He has the strength to ignore those who call for him to conform, something I did not.
Now that I’m older and wiser, I understand that some folks don’t want you to excel. They just pretend to have your best interests at heart. It reminds me of that old adage, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
Do you go with what works for you? Have you ever tried to conform to someone else’s standard of “excellence?” What happened?
thx, G.
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Riveting post, G! Absolutely every creative person who has ever suffered a single self-doubt should read this.
(I almost missed the goodies because your opening was about hockey, something I have zero interest in. Glad I kept reading! The way you related the story of Tim Thomas had me cheering for him! Now that’s a guy with real heart.)
Sad that you gave up golf because of “well-meaning” suggestions on how to improve your game—that was really nothing but interference from guys that maybe didn’t like being out-driven by a girl. I can understand how you crumbled under that pressure. Especially when they ganged up on you like that.
I’ve definitely had my moments of being demoralized by other people trying to mold me to their idea of excellence (or mediocrity, as the case may be). That’s partly what triggered me to write my book (Fear of Writing) and, in the process of helping other writers use the method, cure myself of fear of writing. One theme that has repeated itself during my years of working with writers is how many wind up wounded at an early stage by criticism or the wrong advice when what they really needed was encouragement to find their own voice.
Hi Milli!
Love your line here, “other people trying to mold me to their idea of excellence (or mediocrity, as the case may be).” So many people throw the term around “standards of excellence.” Now that you bring it up, I question what it even means. Whose standard of what excellence? Ugh. The empty-headed conformity is everywhere!
Your book sounds super. I’m going to get a copy. We all need encouragement to find our own voice!
Thanks for stopping in. G.
Giulietta,
Love this story of the goalie! What a great example of really doing his thing (whether that is conventional or not) – and believing in it!
I have certainly conformed. This is difficult to answer, because I believe that sometimes I conform just so I can move on (and the begs to question – what was I doing in this place in the first place). Anyway, thank you, Giulietta – this is really getting me to think about the things I do and “why” I do them…
Hi Lance,
Appreciate your comment.
We all conform – some way more than others – even when we don’t want to or know it isn’t right for us.
Great self comment – “what was I doing in this place in the first place.” So much of life ends up being lived in default land because we get herded onto default path by people we believe hold authority over us.
Untamed folks make tamed folks nervous.
Your post sounds intriguing. Will stop by! Thx.
g.
Hi Giulietta,
I also have conformed to others with lackluster results. No one knows me as well as I do and I don’t take kindly to unsolicited advice.
Conformity is a killer of individual expression and that is what we are.
Just like the goalie in your story, I believe that we have to do what in instinctual for us.
Hey Justin,
I like your definition of people – individual expression. Neat way to look at it. As you mention — when we follow our own instincts we stay true to ourselves. It supports my contention that we’re trained to ignore our instincts and do what others say we should. Your rejection post intrigues. Will stop in. Thanks, G.
Hi Giulietta,
Interesting your analogy of how unconventional hockey goal keeping works for Tim Thomas (vs. the more usual Butterfly Style) with how nonconformity or an individual style may work better than the accepted/correct way. Your own golf story was a perfect illustration of how this can affect, hamper and even stop a budding talent. It made me think of all the great natural artists and musicians who were/are held back, or told they have no talent because they can’t conform to the rules. This may also be a reason why the educational system is failing to inspire or motivate students. Each talent is unique and should be nurtured as such rather than bound by structures and restrictions. Bravo for Tim Thomas! Bet it wasn’t easy for him when he started but he stuck to his guns.
In almost every really good book that I read (and I’m a tough critic), the author has broken several so-called writing rules, and let their own style prevail. Any kind of artist who conforms too closely to rules made by others risks losing both their creativity and more important, their identity.
Hi Penelope,
You’ve made a super point about writers breaking the rules to write really good stuff. Now that you mention it, where do these writing rules comes from anyway? I took this Lyrical Essay writing class maybe three years ago and every week we broke the rules. It produced some crazy, sexy prose. I wrote one piece that I love – rather upside down. So far, it’s been rejected because it doesn’t fit in a category. Yet, I still have hope it will see the light of day when I find the an unconventional editor to fall in love with it.
I see so many articles on the web that tell folks they need to do their businesses this way. That may be part of the problem for so many — someone else’s “this way” doesn’t resonate with him/her.
Your comments always speak to the heart of the matter! thx, g.
Wow– I found myself getting emotionally invested in this post, too. The story about your golf game really hit a nerve… it illustrated the point so well. “You sure play the ball to the left.” “You should center the ball.” “Why don’t you just try moving it in the center.” That kind of stuff. It’s so subtle. But that’s what does it. And it happens, usually when we’re too young to know better, and then we spend our wiser years trying to unlearn the message that what works for us, our unique way of doing things, isn’t good enough.
Hey Angie,
Yes, the pressure to conform may be subtle, so subtle we’re not sure it’s even happening until it has happened.
Lots of unlearning needed in my case. Maybe an unlearning institute is in order? I’ll google it in a bit. I guess unlearning may be real rather than forced learning. It’s a fascinating topic to delve in to. I’m going to think about it.
Thx for the idea, G.
Hi Giulietta,
We need to set our own standards of greatness/excellence. Pleasing ourselves may sound selfish however it’s a lot better & easier than pleasing (trying to) others.
“If it is to be it’s up to me”
be good to yourself
David
Hey David,
I’m with you on customizing our standards of excellence. Following some generic standard makes folks crazy and disconnected to themselves.
Let’s all be good to ourselves! Many thx, g.