One of the most helpful ways to become a better baseball player is to practice the simple game of playing catch.
You and at least one other player get some distance apart and begin to throw the ball back and forth. This simple, repeatable practice can be a lot of fun. You can practice gripping the ball in various ways, attempt to catch in a variety positions, and prepare your arm for the unnatural overhand throwing motion.
But, most importantly, this fun game teaches you something fundamental about baseball. Throwing is far more important than catching.
If the throw is off the mark, too hard or too soft, or somehow too difficult to catch, the game becomes more waiting than playing. Someone has to go retrieve the errant ball! If one or both of the players are poor throwers, playing catch can be downright frustrating.
This isn’t much different than our work lives. If we throw badly to our colleagues or to our donors, the “game of giving” can become very frustrating. We want our philanthropic throws to be the right velocity, hitting the target, and easy to catch. When we regularly make poor throws, our results will suffer.
Here is the other fundamental lesson that playing catch with a baseball teaches us: If we want to be a better thrower, the only way to improve is do more of it.
Our throws to colleagues won’t always be perfect and easy for them to catch. We may be late, or pass along incomplete information, or rush a design.
Our throws to donors won’t always be perfect and easy for them to catch, either. We may be less than compelling, or fail to pay attention to their interests, or misunderstand the motivations behind their giving.
But, the only way we will get better is to throw the ball more often.
