The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: Going Balls Out

Occasionally, I come across random pieces of information that may or may not (but most likely may not) be useful in everyday life. Generally, this makes me feel like I have a lot of completely random, often useless information stored in my brain. Every so often, I get to bring this info out and drop some random knowledge on unsuspecting folks engaged in conversation with me. Then this conversation ensues:

"Why do you even know that...?"

"I have no idea."

"Where'd you learn it?"

"No clue."

While passing along something I learned this week to Stacie, she suggested that I should start a weekly segment called "The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week." Now, those of you who follow me know that in the title alone lay several potential problems. First off, the title requires me to post weekly. That may be a stretch. And secondly, the title requires that what I learn and communicate be interesting - obviously that can be very subjective, leading to much debate about the meaning of the word "interesting." Nonetheless, I am not one to back down from a good idea, so I'm going to give this a shot. And all of you that know me shouldn't be surprised that we are starting with something classy.

GOING BALLS OUT

Being a former high school and college athlete (and surrounded by former high school and college athletes in the sales industry), I hear the phrase "going balls out" on a fairly regular basis. Generally speaking it is in reference to going as hard as you can to accomplish your goal. You know, doing everything possible at the highest possible level.

Every time I heard the phrase, I assumed two things:

A) This had to have something to do with the male anatomy.

and

B) I was not cool enough to know how having those out would cause me to do anything but worry about their safety. But apparently when they're out, you perform tasks much better.

As it turns out, I was wrong on both of my assumptions. And I have a feeling my high school coaches and former sales managers all made the same incorrect assumptions. Some people just live in the meaning of the cliche without ever caring about the source.

Thank God for the History Channel.

As it turns out, old steam engines had governors on them that looked like this:



They had large brass or iron balls that would spin around as the engine was operating. Centrifugal force would cause the balls to move out from point they were spinning around. Once they reached their farthest point, the engine was performing at its top speed. Often when a steam engine operator wanted to run at full capacity he would simply shout for his crew to go "balls out."

Here's another look at a the real thing:



The same type of history lies behind the phrase "balls to the wall" as well. From my research, this indicates when a fighter pilot wanted to achieve maximum speed. The throttles had ball shaped grips on the handles, so if the order was given to go "balls to the wall" it meant to push the throttle all the way forward to the wall of the cockpit.

So, the history of these phrases, as it turns out, is very mild and benign. That being said, I'd still advise caution in the circumstances in which they are used. Most people assume otherwise.

Stay classy, fine readers.