Al Pacino’s Locker Room Speech In Any Given Sunday

by Doktor Spinn on 2022-04-08 · View Comments

Yeah, I know. I blog this clip up every now and then. I think this is the fourth time I’m publishing it. But I like it so much. Not because teamwork is so important (it is!), but because there’s so much truth to the fact that life is game of inches. Everything you accomplish, you accomplish inch by inch.

That’s why I blog in English these days. Because I need to get better at it. More coherent, faster, clearer. And in key. Because I know that my English, just as everything else, improves inch by inch. Not in great leaps. That’s why I keep at it, every day, day in and day out. At any given moment, all we have are those small inches.

Make no mistake about it. Lucky breaks are for losers. Inspiration for amateurs. Flow in life is all about fighting for those inches, no matter what you do or what your dreams are. Do you know how the film Any Given Sunday starts? It starts with a Vince Lombardi quote:

“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.”

Now I want to be able to write like that—in English.

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  • Pontus

    Jerry,

    Great post! I had never seen the clip, so thanks for being a repeat offender :)

    On the topic of English, I think it’s equally important to draw a clear line between the language you grew up with (Swedish in my case) and the language you are trying to master (e.g English), so that you don’t drag your idiosyncrasies from one language to the next, but try and capture it fresh.

    Thanks, Pontus

  • Viktor

    That is a great speech. However, I think this one is even better (but it doesn’t talk about the inches though…) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX39J_YyKbs

  • http://www.doktorspinn.net Doktor Spinn

    Great feedback. However, I’ve made a habit of not fighting my demons. I simply go to bed with them instead! ;)

  • http://www.doktorspinn.net Doktor Spinn

    You’re right, that’s a good one.

  • Pontus

    Nice one!

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