On the ball?

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence: Mike is on the ball both at work and play.

My comments:

The question is, what’s “on the ball”?

And that means being focused. Mike always keeps an eye on the prize, in other words.

In ball games, such as basketball or soccer, for example, players are told to always keep their eyes on the ball because that’s where the focal point of attack or defense is.

If you lose track of the ball, you’ve lost your focus. Opponents may blow past you, for instance, without you putting up any meaningful resistance because you lose track of what’s going on. On offense, if you don’t keep an eye on the ball, you may not be able to control it when the ball is passed to you. If you lose sight of the ball, you’re prone to make all sorts of mistakes and that way, needless to say, you won’t be able to do very well.

If you manage to always keep an eye on the ball, on the other hand, you can be effective by running teamwork with others seamlessly and efficiently.

And, that way, both you and your team will be successful.

Hence, in short and figuratively speaking, being on the ball means being focused, being responsible and being effective.

Being competent, in other words.

In our example, “Mike is on the ball at both work and play” means whether it is work or play, Mike is focused and dedicated. He seldom makes careless mistakes.

Therefore, at both work and play, Mike is good.
And we may safely infer that Mike is a successful man.

That’s about it. Now, let’s read a few media examples to hammer the point home:

1. Trainer Ben Davison knows Tyson Fury in a way few people do.

His role in the rebuilding of a former world heavyweight champion once floored by depression and subsequent weight gain has been critical.

Davison’s ring work is complemented by the strength and conditioning expertise of Kristian Blacklock who, for the first time in a four-year relationship with Fury, has had a lean fighter on his hands from the start of a training camp.

“This version now, there is no limit to what we can do,” Blacklock says.

As Fury gets ready to face Sweden’s Otto Wallin in Las Vegas on Saturday night, the two men give BBC Sport an insight into managing his mind and talk us through his punishing regime.

Explosive movements were out of the question when Fury returned to training under Davison late in 2017, two years after his shock world-title success against Wladimir Klitschko. Likewise long runs. Both activities were too risky for a 28st man.

Davison, still only 26, faced criticism for his inexperience. But Fury took a chance on him and now their deep bond is obvious.

“I’m psychologist, trainer, friend, brother, sometimes father-son to him and sometimes he’s father-son to me,” Davison says.

“He can walk down the stairs and I can tell what mood he is in.

“If he has a deep conversation at night, he will go away and think about it, so the next day we might have to have a good-spirited morning to build him up. When you’re talking deep you don’t want to stay there with him as he’s an extremist and he will go deep, deep, deep into his thoughts.

“He doesn’t do things in half measures and I would never want to take that away from him as that is what makes him the fighter he is.”

Famously, Fury had lost 10 stone in a year by the time he fought to a draw with Deontay Wilder in December. No-one – from his own father to those in his team – felt he was fully ready for the fight.

...

But if the Fury of 2015 could beat Klitschko and the overweight fighter who returned to the ring could carry the fight to the big-hitting Wilder, the question now is how far can the lean and focused 2019 model go?

Davison and Blacklock seem very aware of prioritising balance in Fury’s life over the pressures that come with big talk and extravagant aspirations.

“You can’t look too far ahead or you’ll slip up. I think that’s what Anthony Joshua’s team did,” says Davison.

“This is the fight game. If you aren’t on the ball, you’ll get tipped upside down.”

- Tyson Fury v Otto Wallin: The team behind Fury’s transformation, in body and mind, BBC.com, September 11, 2019.

2. Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt blamed President Donald Trump for the staggering number of lives already lost to the coronavirus pandemic.

Schmidt appeared Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” where he explained why he and other “never-Trump” conservatives made the “Mourning In America” ad that has driven the president crazy.

“He started rage tweeting at about 1:00 in the morning, when he saw it after it ran,” Schmidt said. “It had been viewed more than 16 million times, it’s raised over $1 million. What the ad points out is that the president, who ran saying, ‘I alone can fix it,’ and, ‘I’ll make America great again,’ has presided over an era unlike any other in American history. He’s brought tragedy to the country. This is a moment of profound American weakness.”

Schmidt said the president had mishandled every opportunity in the fight against the deadly virus, and has abdicated his leadership role.

“He has handled this with a level of ineptitude and incompetence that is simply staggering,” Schmidt said. “The cost is immense human suffering in the country. We have 70,000 dead Americans, that number will cruise through 100,000. We have a shattered economy. We’ll see unemployment rates of 30 percent.”

All this suffering was avoidable, he said, if the president had managed the crisis with any competence.

“None of this had to happen,” Schmidt said. “He was not on his game, he left the country unprotected. He’s been lying to the country, he has been talking about his television ratings. His eye is not on the ball. The reality is, we have the worst president in American history at the moment of one of the greatest crises in the country's history.”

- ‘Disaster for the ages’: Steve Schmidt hammers Trump for bringing ‘mourning’ to America, RawStory.com, May 7, 2020.

3. Oh ... a costly mistake on the bases? By the Toronto Blue Jays? In the World Series? Buck Martinez, are you there? The New York Yankees would like a word. It seems like not every team in impervious to high-profile gaffes.

In the top of the second inning during Game 3 of the World Series, Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow faced a 3-1 count vs Daulton Varsho with Bo Bichette on first base. There were no outs. He was one ball away from officially being in serious trouble.

His next offering was technically a ball, but home plate umpire Mark Wegner called it a strike. A delayed strike, in fact. But even with that “delay” (was there really even one?), there’s no world in which Bichette should've been wandering on the base paths.

He had plenty of time to realize what was going on instead of hanging out between first and second base. After Will Smith threw the ball back to Glasnow, the pitcher tossed it over to Freddie Freeman, who tagged out Bichette to gift the Dodgers the first out of the inning.

Any guesses as to what happened next? Varsho walked and Alejandro Kirk singled. That would’ve put Toronto up 1-0. Instead, Glasnow struck out Addison Barger and got Ernie Clement to line out to center field.

In the bottom of the second, Teoscar Hernandez absolutely rifled a solo home run off Max Scherzer to put the Dodgers up 1-0. Yup, that’s how quickly this all flipped on the Blue Jays, who Martinez swore were always on the ball and never making mistakes, unlike the “not very good” Yankees, who had the same amount of wins as Toronto.

New York is very familiar with making gaffes on the national stage that cost them dearly. It’s certainly not a badge of honor, but Yankees fans are keeping the seat warm on the couch for the Blue Jays if their chance at a title unravels after Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s complete game and Bichette’s brain fart.

As for Martinez? He’s been around the game for a while, but perhaps he’ll have a different approach when he feels the need to take an unwarranted shot at a rival if he ends up eating his words at the worst possible time.

- Buck Martinez must apologize to Yankees after Blue Jays’ horrible World Series gaffe, YanksGoYard.com, October 27, 2025.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）