Respect and Fear
Two concepts with an abundance of different meanings. Some people feel that the two words go hand in hand while others dissociate one from the other entirely. With so much gray area as to what the two words actually mean, is it possible to know which school of thought is correct? Does fear imply respect or are respect and fear indeed mutually exclusive? Not that I think anyone sits around all day and debates this concept with themselves but it is really interesting when you start thinking about it, which is what I did when Corey [Winkoff] brought it up to me the other day. It is something that applies to everyday life as it does to all sports, including lacrosse, and every athlete should understand the difference between the two. While they might seem trivial and almost irrelevant in the world of sports, respect and fear often are the difference between winning and losing.
Both concepts respect and fear relate to any sport as well as life. In lacrosse, you should always respect your opponent but never fear them. But what does that even mean? Let’s start with respecting your opponent. No matter how big or small the game is in your eyes, you should prepare for every game like it is the biggest game of the season. At Garden City, Coach Flatley would always remind us that, “everyone always gets up to play Garden City,” meaning that, although it might not have seemed a big game to us, it did not mean that our opponent was going to come in and “lie down” because of the name across our chest. Week in and week out, we needed to work and prepare for each game like it was the State Championship. Respecting your opponent means watching extra film, getting your extra wall ball work in after practice, and focusing the entire week to make sure that you take care of business on game day. The last thing you want your team to be is complacent all week in practice and have a flat start to a game. Before you know it, you’ll be in a one-goal game with a team that has no business being on the same field as you. 
While fear and respect often have overlapping concepts, they definitely do not have to belong in the same sentence. Yes, you should respect all opponents but you should fear none of them. Absolutely none of them. A large portion of lacrosse is mental and if you go into a game, or anything in life for that matter, afraid of your opponent, you have already lost. The mind is a powerful thing and can either work in your favor or against you. Growing up, my dad always told me “if you think you can, you can. If you think you cant, you cant.” What he meant was, if I made up my own mind that I was going to do something, I could do it. However, if I had already determined that I was going to lose, then I was destined to fail from the start. So when you step onto a field, there should not be a shadow of doubt in your mind that you can win the game. At the end of the day, they eat, sleep, and get dressed the same way you do, right? All the preparation you have done during game week like film, wall ball, etc. because of the respect you had for your opponent should erase any fear you may have. No matter whom you are playing on the sports field or in life, anything can happen on game day. That’s the whole reason we play every game.
So I guess my own interpretation of respect and fear is that the relationship is somewhat inverse. The more you respect your opponent, the less you will fear them. The more preparation you put in during the week, the less nervous you will be come game time. Once the opening whistle sounds, you’ve done all you can do to get ready. All the scouting reports have been read, the film watched. Be confident in who you are as a person and a player and leave it all on the field for 60 minutes.
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