My Secret Weapon

9 My Secret Weapon I love baseball. It's my favourite sport. I play on the school team. And this year, I was given the great honour of being named captain. I can catch and throw well, and I'm a pretty fast runner. But my best ability is hitting. I have a good eye and I can hit most pitches. I wasn't always such a good hitter. In fact, my hitting used to be my worst skill. When people ask me how I got so good, I tell them, " I learned from my woodworking teacher. " “ Does he coach?" they ask. “ No, " I say. " He doesn't even know how to play baseball. " One day in woodworking class, we were all given hammers to practise driving long nails into pieces of wood. We were given ten nails each and safety glasses. Each of us took our turn. Everyone wanted to look the strongest, so we all swung the hammer as fast as possible to hit the nail.

Many of us missed the nail or bent it, myself included. The teacher just stood back and watched with a smile. " My turn, " he said. He took the hammer. Although he was as small as us, he drove the long nails into the wood with just three hits while we took five or six. " The secret is to let the tool do the work, " he said. How effortless it was! " If a tool is well-designed, it will do most of the work for you. You don't have to swing too hard, " he explained. Swing too hard. These three words rang in my ears. The next day at baseball practice, I relaxed and slowed my swing, instead of chopping at the ball. At the end of practice, I was hitting easily. I had learned a great lesson. So, next time when you're working with tools of any kind or even playing baseball, remember: let the tool do the work. It's safer and it's fun.