Ryan Joseph

I spent 12 years of my 18-year career as an AF Combat Arms Instructor. Invested over 10,000 hours of podium/range time, 1,200+ courses. Here are 5 concepts I learned that apply beyond the range.

There is no substitution for competence. Majority will try to shortcut it or “offset” it with desire. Huge mistake. You must accept the lifelong journey it will be to become samurai-level at anything. This also means there’s a real price you pay if you switch domains. So stay the course. The march is extremely dissatisfying and uncomfortable most of the time — when you’re new and don’t know anything. Even after a few years, you often don’t get the satisfaction of realizing how far you’ve come and how much you’ve developed — because there’s still so far to go towards real competence. DO NOT MISTAKE DESIRE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR COMPETENCE. This is one the most costly mistakes amateurs make — among a myriad of others I’m sure you can name.

Giants old logo looks better than their new one. So does the Redskins.

🇺🇸

Rickey Henderson stole second base in about 3 seconds. He spent 25 years engineering those 3 seconds. Career steals: 1,406. Second place, Lou Brock: 938. The gap alone, 468, would tie for 47th on the all-time list. Here is how he built it, piece by piece, in his own words. 1. The lead He paced off three and a half steps from first, dug his cleats in and crouched (TIME, 1982). The short lead was on purpose. He was usually no more than 3 1/2 steps off the bag, so he could get back on a pickoff without diving. He was never still out there. "If you're always faking then they don't know if or when you're going to go. When you're not faking, then you tense up. Then someone's going to read you." 2. The read People would warn him a pitcher had a great pickoff move. His answer: "Why am I going to worry about his move?" He studied the move to home plate and committed it to memory. "It's that first initial step that lets you know where he's going." He scouted every pitcher every time, even the ones he had already beaten, because pitchers adjust. 3. The clock He knew the math. A pitcher at 1.3 seconds to the plate with a good catcher was a fight. "But if you get a guy who's 1.32, 1.35, above that, you're walking to second base." He stole on pitchers as quick as 1.25. 4. The start Early in his career he used a crossover step and got picked off a lot. So he rebuilt it from an outfield drill: push off first, then cross over. Staying square let him get back if the pitcher turned. Once he went, he hit full speed in two steps. A's coach Charlie Metro said he had the quickest takeoff of any runner he had watched. 5. The slide He went head-first to protect his legs, because running was his job. At first it pounded his body. Then a pilot explained a smooth landing to him: get as low as you can, then ease it in. Rickey applied it to the slide. The lower you are before the dive, the less time you spend in the air. "Like you throw a rock on the water and skid off it. If you didn't have the tag down, I was by you." Metro's stopwatch had him at 2.8 seconds stealing second. 6. The body He told Tim Kurkjian he never lifted a weight in his life. Push-ups and sit-ups, every night. At 39 he led the American League with 66 steals. After turning 40 he stole 109 more. 7. The mind He was caught stealing 335 times, the most on record. In 1982 he explained why it never slowed him down: "If I'm picked off or thrown out, I accept it as part of the game and figure I'll make it next time. I always look ahead, not behind." That season he stole 130 bases, still the modern single-season record. On May 1, 1991, he stole No. 939 and passed Brock. He retired with the career records for steals (1,406) and runs (2,295), plus 81 leadoff home runs. The runs were the point. "I stole the bases for a reason. I crossed the plate." What carries over to whatever you're chasing: Study the move that commits your opponent. Ignore the one built to scare you. Rebuild your technique when the numbers expose it, even while you're winning. Re-scout what you think you already know. Train every day with whatever is in the room. Count your failures as the cost of attempts. Rickey Henderson is the greatest base stealer who ever lived, and the margin came from homework.

Inspiration is for the immature.

Dear algo, Please fill my timeline with nonstop Jensen Huang slop. Wait… Nevermind, already locked in. Thanks.

Assess your "friends" based on this.

I idolize our Vietnam Veterans especially. I’m not sure a group has ever endured such physical and psychological hardship. They were sent to do the hardest job in the world (many drafted of course) and then if they were fortunate enough to return home, they were demonized by many who have no idea what service is about. Imagine having your honor challenged or demeaned by a civilian society completely devoid of honor or decency. The challenges they faced seat them firmly atop the most deserving of the sacred warrior class. God bless them 🇺🇸

Not a recruiting call but if you’ve never served (especially men) — you should. You might even be able to find a 1 or 2 year contract. A handful of my closest friends I grew up with joined — at times when Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom were at their peak. Men used to want to test their mettle. I bet some of you out there want to. Some of you think you may have missed the opportunity — maybe. But you can join pretty late these days — you’d be surprised. If you do, I guarantee you’ll have days where you’ll think “what the hell did I sign up for?” Your first day (to be precise) and many days beyond that. But once you’ve served — even if just for a little while (honorably of course) — you’ll get to say you know what it’s like. What it’s like to march and shoot guns, and be challenged, and be terrified, and earn stripes. You’ll know what it’s like to know you have what it takes. Again, not a recruiting call — but maybe helpful to someone out there on the fence. It’s an appropriate day to think of service. To all my brothers and sisters who did answer our nation’s call… Happy Veterans Day 🇺🇸 Thank you for serving and enduring. To those who support us… God bless you and God bless 🇺🇸

“The universe is shaped exactly like the earth — if you go straight long enough you end up where you were.” — Isaac Brock

Work so hard that you don’t have time for random chinese women to enter your life.

It’s easy. Just do the opposite of what everyone else is doing most of the time.

May all those who don’t reply to thoughtful commentary bang their shins on a coffee table this week.

Just got a bs email from my insurance company asking me for more info to guarantee I don’t have a gap in coverage. But this is why I love the ai era. Thanks for the reminder to deep research my current rates and get switched over to a new company. grok bot will be handling it all of course. Harass your customers and ai now gives them the power and bandwidth to tell you to kick rocks.

If you were offered a seat to be part of the first group to setup shop on Mars would you do it?

I’ve heard some say, “go back to the things you loved when you were a kid.” I loved sports growing up. Played a lot of sports. Watched a ton of sports. Then things kind of spiraled when I was 15. A tragedy in my community. Continued to get bad grades in school. Ultimately, led to me dropping out. Then I got serious. Got fed up and started taking myself very seriously. Joined the military. Graduated from college. Saw the world a bit. Climbed the ranks. Stressed and endured a lot. Flash forward 25 years. I wish I would’ve known I didn’t have to be so serious. I white-knuckled and willed my way to success, as defined by those in my community. I never totally stopped watching sports but there were long stretches (years) when I really didn’t. I’d see games or things mentioned online but I was too preoccupied and busy to care about the silly games going on in pro sports. But that faint signal I kept alive subconsciously was trying to tell me something. It was telling me it’s ok to watch sports and invest time in watching silly games. Because I enjoy it. I’ve watched more sports this year than I have since I was 15. I don’t have the time to watch 5 reruns of SportsCenter in the mornings like I used to. But I’m following again and it’s relaxing and entertaining. I think about that kid I was when watching the games again. That kid had it right. He just needed to grow up in other areas. Don’t make the mistake of taking yourself too seriously. Handle your business as you must. But stay connected to those things you were naturally drawn to as a kid. That’s your life telling you how to live it.

Worked all weekend to support my family.

Many don’t understand how precious free speech is. You need to not only be using it, but cherishing it. There are so many things I wish I could share/say here but can’t (by nature of what I do). So please say it for me so I can express my thoughts vicariously through yall and the like button. TYFYATTM.

A nice thing being from the west and living in the east is you can catch your team’s games later in the night. And it’s so nice to get off work when you’re working the weekend to find your team losing again — as usual. Thanks Buffs 🦬 Here’s to 20 more years of irrelevance

There’s a Zaxby’s right next to the supercharger by my work. It’s proving to be problematic.