Sugar cookie—one of my favorite cookies. But in Navy Seal training, being a Sugar
Cookie was not something you wanted. During
physical training, the trainees would run up and down sand dunes, across the
beach, and swim through the ocean. If the
Seal instructor gave you “The Look”, you were being punished and had to turn
yourself into a Sugar Cookie. This meant
as soon as you came out of the water, you rolled around in the sand until you
were totally covered in sand. Then, you
had to walk around like that the rest of the day with sand all over you.
As explained by Admiral William McRaven in his book “Make
Your Bed”, this punishment was one of the toughest in all of training. Not because of how uncomfortable it was to
walk around with sand all over your body, but because you never knew “why” you
were punished. Even though a trainee
thought he was at the top of his game, being a “Sugar Cookie” was a test of
patience and determination.
As officials, we can often go through a game and think
highly of our individual and crew performance.
But observers, graders, supervisors, other officials, administrators and
coaches may have other “not so good” thoughts about our performance. We may not receive a “great job”, “good call”,
or “good position”. We may only receive
feedback that focuses on what we did wrong or what we need to improve on.
Being a “Sugar Cookie” was hard to accept in Navy Seal
training because most often, the trainee never knew or did anything wrong to be
punished. In officiating, we can often
get frustrated when we are “nitpicked” on the things we did not do as well when
it really had no impact on the game.
As James explains in the verses above, take the trials--things
that are pointed out wrong in our performance--and let them make us more mature
and stronger officials.
Don’t complain, Don’t blame, just
improve your game!
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