An Uphill Battle

I was standing in a driveway. It was brisk spring night. A cool breeze was blowing from the north. The sun is on the way down. I reach down and grab a cold on out of the cooler.

I hear behind me, hey Bryan do you want to play. I thought to myself for a moment. I never played this before but hey what the heck I might as well give it a go. Standing at one end and my partner standing at the other. I bend down and pick up my first bag.

The bag lands next to the board. I grab my next. I wind up and release and what do you know that one hit the board and landed next to the board. This went on for hours. Every time my team was up I dreaded it. I was terrible at this game. I don’t think I scored a point the entire night. Apologizes were frequent to my partner. I just felt so bad that he was stuck with me over and over.

Towards the end of the night I was given a suggestion from a buddy of mine to stop folding the bag up in my hand. Instead, lay the bag flat in my hand and throw it with a spinning motion. I tried his way a couple of times and it was still just as bad as before. I gave up on it and continued to stink it up for the night.

I ended up really liking the game and was determined to get better at it. To buy a set of boards was to expensive. So a buddy and I decided to build a set of boards. They turned out pretty decent, but the point of the build was for us to practice. To finally get a chance to use the new technique of throwing.

I practiced for the rest of the summer. Once fall and winter hits, it is far to cold outside to practice and I figured there was no where else to play. I was definitely wrong. Brandon got a hold of me early in November. Told me that there was a corn hole league we could enter. It was weekly league that lasted 13 weeks. I told Brandon I did not think we were no where near good enough to play in a league. I did not even know that corn hole had leagues.

We entered anyways, figured that we might as well give it a punchers change. I never knew that people were this good at the game. This league was tough. Half the league was over and we were second to last place. I was sort of bummed out. Why was I this bad at this game? I am normally decent at most thing but this game was just getting the best of me.

The second half of the league started and we started a winning streak. I was starting to get the hang of the game. Instead of the bags going off the board or just sitting on the board, they were finally starting to drop in the hole. By the end of the league I had other league members coming up to me and telling me the improvement I had made from the beginning to the end.

I joined a second league right after the first one ended. The improvement continued to grow. I was sinking the bag in the hole consistently. In this league we were never at the bottom because we never left the top five. At the end we placed second in the league. To go from almost dead last to close to first was an amazing feeling.

Now I am in my third straight league and am touted as one of the best in the league. My team is now in the top three and we are approaching being first. The players respect my game and I always get matched up with the better of the two guys in the match up.

Two years ago I was absolutely terrible at corn hole. This game caused me some major frustration. I don’t think I have ever had such a hard time picking up on a game. I can’t say I am good at everything but for the most part I am normally at least decent. This game I was not even decent in the beginning. To move up from one of the worst to one of the best is a huge accomplishment. It may be a simple victory for most but to me it was more me proving to myself that if I give it my all that no matter what improvement will always come.