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Achieving your ultimate goals takes a few key elements, one of them is dedication. When I first came into the game I was lucky to have great mentors like matt marshall and davey williamson. These guys took me under their wing and said “this is what you have to do to get better.” It started off in mattys backyard with whatever paint we could get together, a tree, and a shovel. Matt would make me sit behind the tree and shoot one shot at a time at the shovel head about thirty feet away. We would shoot slow and methodically to gain a feel for our guns rather than come out blasting off tons of rounds. Of course it was easier to do so, as there were no electronic guns but that wasn’t the point. See it. Feel it. Make it automatic. On top of the drills we would do, we were also playing both days every weekend. We played whenever wherever like mfkn Shakira. We always looked for cool new fields and competition. The value of dedication that my mentors instilled in me has brought me a long way. My love for the game is what gives me the desire to play but my dedication to get better is what made me play at every opportunity. It made me search for more opportunities to play and new people to learn from. I go to so many events and see empty bleachers. The way to get better is to watch better players, see what they do, and try to understand the why they make the decisions that they do. Then you go find the best players around and beat the crap out of them. When you get the crap beat out of you, you should be able to talk through it with your teammates and understand why. You always need to continue to challenge yourself. Alex Fraige, Oliver Lang, and I used to go up to Camp Pendleton every tuesday and thursday for a time when there were always marines out there playing during the week. Three on three, three on five, we would pound these guys into the ground three on twelve all day until we ran out of paint. My good friend and coach of SD Aftermath, Mike Hinman, was another guy that was always down to play with me. We had our own crew that went in search of the game. For another few years we searched out and made the trek to any and every indoor field that we could find a wednesday or thursday night fight. We never cared about the numbers. It was always us vs. all. I will never forget the time we went to mexico to play this new field and after handing out whoopins to everyone a guy asked if we would split up the teams to which Rusty Glaze replied “go get your own good friends!” It was classic. What made me think about all these good times I used to have is some of the younger guys out there now that I see following the same footsteps. I want to give them some credit in hopes that they continue doing these sort of things like getting extra field time, doing extra drills, and hitting the gym. Alex Goldman, Justin Schwarz, Brandon Short, Robbie Petinnelli, Alex Savino, Scott Kemp, good to see the extra dedication. Put in that work. Matty said you gotta grind to shine. You know I’m blingin’ boy! Raza life.
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