Full-Court Press
The Field Review: TFR-105
THE LEDE
A Weekly Column On Living Well
I played organized basketball from the fourth grade through my junior year of high school. When we weren’t practicing specific plays for the next opponent, we worked on the fundamentals of strategic basketball. Put-backs after a missed free throw. Baseline inbounds under pressure. And at least once a week, the full-court press.
The full-court press means that before the other team even inbounds the ball, you’re working your ass off.
You pick up your man as soon as the ball drops through the basket. You deny the first pass. You take away the second pass. You trap along the sideline. Everybody moves at once, gambling that enough pressure will force a bad decision before the offense crosses half court.
When it works, it works fast.
A tipped pass. A loose ball. An easy layup before the other team knows what happened.
When it fails, five defenders end up chasing the ball in the wrong direction while somebody scores relatively uncontested at the other end. A failed full-court press makes you look like a bunch of idiots and question why you decided to do it in the first place.
No sane team runs a full-court press for an entire game.
A good press demands too much energy. Legs get heavy. Communication breaks down. One late rotation opens the whole floor. The same pressure that can create an advantage for a few possessions becomes a major liability once fatigue sets in.
A few months ago, I wrote an issue called “Know Your Season.”
I’m here to raise my hand and admit that both my wife and I have been living in a season of pressing.
Long hours. Full go. Maximum effort.
Work has asked a lot from both of us. Our son has entered his eleventh month of life and moves faster by the week. He needs more from us now than ever before. We have kept our jobs moving, kept the house moving, handled what needed handled, and have made progress along the way.
Good things have come from the effort, and visible wins make the press hard to abandon.
You remember the steals. You remember the easy points. You convince yourself that one more hard push will create another break.
So you keep pressing, even as you feel the fatigue set in.
Longer hours solve more problems. Extra effort opens doors. Staying ready has helped us take advantage of opportunities when they came.
Pressing worked, so we kept doing it. The problem is we’ve now been pushing for so long that we’ve failed to notice our situation has in fact changed. We’ve kept playing like we were down by ten when in reality, we’re already up by forty before halftime.
Effort has became so familiar that easing off feels irresponsible, even when we know the game no longer requires it. And if we’re being honest, running a full-court press when you don’t need to makes you look like a real asshole.
You can work hard to put yourself in position. You can prepare, stay ready, and make the most of the chances that come. You still cannot force good things to happen on your schedule, or just because you feel like pressing.
When something good does happen, you have to take time to notice and you should adjust course.
Otherwise, you end up sprinting around the court, trapping a team that has already lost, while the people who came to watch wonder why you refuse to take your foot off the gas and just enjoy playing the rest of the game.
The press got us here. It does not need to take us through the final buzzer.
Live Well. Tell No One.
THE MARGIN
A Few Things That Grabbed My Attention This Week
The Creek Kings Ohio Poaching Case
My home state of Ohio has produced yet another major whitetail poaching case in the last few years (see 2023 CJ Alexander poaching case), this time even closer to my actual home. Two Columbus, Ohio men behind the Creek Kings Outdoors YouTube channel pleaded guilty to a combined 40 charges after illegally taking deer from a protected Columbus Metro Parks property.
I found the most interesting part of the ODNR breakdown was how they identified this situation as the latest evolution of wildlife commercialization. Throughout American history, market hunting meant harvesting wild animals over sustainable limits to sell the meat or hides for profit. In 2026, a big buck isn’t sold for meat, but it can be converted into views, sponsorships and online fame to help individuals profit just the same. The whitetail deer is still being commercialized. The storefront just looks different.
Full ODNR report HERE
Pennsylvania Court Rules Against Game Warden Surveillance on Private Property
Along a similar line as the first MARGIN story this week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled that game wardens cannot enter and surveil clearly posted private property without a warrant.
I’m torn on this one. I don’t think wearing a badge should give anyone unlimited access to private property without cause. But I also know poaching usually happens where nobody is watching, and the Boone and Crockett club estimates 95% of game violations already go undetected. Property rights matter. But so does protecting a public resource. I also know that people are more ready to break the rules when they know no one is looking.
I’m not sure there is a clean answer beyond outdoorsmen doing a better job of governing ourselves.
Summer-maxxing vs Summer-saving
I enjoyed this one from the Huckberry Journal this week, a gut check on whether we are making enough of the warm weather season while it is still here. It raised a question I’ve been kicking around for awhile, not just on summer but life in general. Should the goal be maxxing or minimizing? Do you pack the schedule with the time you have left, or slow everything down enough to notice it?
They sound like opposites, but they may be two versions of the same idea. This article from Alex Tzelnic has some ideas to help you do both.
STANDARDS
Concepts & Vibes For Your Consideration
The Field Review is a weekly newsletter exploring the art of living well.
Every Sunday at 10AM EST, I share ideas, insights, and conversations that help break through the noise, offering a real look at how we can all keep moving forward.
Venture Onward,
Jack
Would love to hear more from you, the reader. What’s on your mind, where you’re headed, what you want to see next from me, the writer. Drop a comment below.
Being up 40 at the half with an 11 month old is a feat unto itself.
Signed,
- Down by a million with a 3 year old
Absolute banger of an analogy. We have a similar dynamic in our own house - both working (mostly) from home for all of the now 2.5yrs we've been parents. We threw a newborn into the mix and are in the peak press just to keep heads above water now that wife's back at work too.
That said, you're spot on about backing off the press at a certain point. Sometime around months 15-18, we noticed our need to push so hard simply wasn't there any more. Much of that was just our perception of the work required to keep progress rolling. Some of it was life actually easing up a bit before it got wild again.
Regardless, the full press ain't such a bad thing, so if you're feeling like you need to back off the gas — just know you'll get to do it sooner than you think. And if you use that newfound space to recover a bit during those months of "easier," you'll come back to the next season of the press with a new baseline of work capacity.