Pass Along PDJ
April 2009

Mistakes
by Steve Smith

his is a little different issue, the likes of which we have not produced before and maybe no one else has, either.

If you are a novice golfer or, if like me, even after years of trying you still play like one, you likely think the best way to shoot a good score is to put together a series of hero-shots -- wedges to within two feet of the flag; sinking 40-foot putts from the fringe; 280 yard drives that split the fairway.

But, the good, really good, and great golfers know that a good round comes to he who makes the fewest mistakes: Make sure that wedge shot doesn't fly the green and end up in a sand trap; don't run that 40-footer 15 feet past the hole; keep the drive out of the woods and the water.

Other sports are the same way; it's axiomatic that an NFL team that turns the ball over a half-dozen times is probably going to lose, regardless of how good their running or passing game is. A baseball pitcher who could throw a strawberry through a brick wall will never make The Show if he can't hit the wall. And a hockey team that can't keep its players out of the penalty box is unlikely to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup.

Well, what we do when we train dogs and when we hunt birds is a lot the same. We make mistakes, and those mistakes cost us, the price being too often semi-trained dogs and empty game bags. That's what this issue is about. Instead of our writers saying, "To be successful at this and that, you have to do thus-and-so," this time around, they are writing about the mistakes that their vast experiences have shown them keep the average person from being a better hunter or dog trainer. Instead of saying, "Do it this way," they're saying, "Don't do it that way." It's the stuff they've seen in the field for years; some of it's a little tongue-in-cheek, some not. You'll be able to scan a story and spot the mistakes pretty easily because they'll either be subheadings, or we'll put them in a bold-italic format.

Aside from some of us being able to juggle -- one thing that separates humans from the other species is the ability, if not always the willingness, to learn from both our own and someone else's mistakes. So even if you haven't made a lot of these or haven't had the opportunity yet to make them, we hope this issue will be a learning experience anyway.

Until next time,

Steve Smith
Editor

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