On the Value of Sport

[this may be the closest I get to a "this I believe"]

Sport teaches many things, not the least of which are the value and power of hard work, practice and teamwork.

To succeed in any aspect of life, one must work hard. Nothing is handed to you in life, just as nothing is handed to you on the field of play. Is an opposing linebacker going to let the running back run though for a touchdown unabated? Is an opposing point guard going to hold his dribble at the top of the key to wait for the defender to set up? The answer is no. So to succeed in sport, one must work hard to prepare one's self to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves when they present themselves.

Do some athletes get by on talent they are born with? Absolutely. But they will never achieve greatness. Not without hard work. Lisa has asked me about the purpose of making kids run sprints or swim laps when they're bone tired and they break. This serves many purposes, including getting the athlete ready to push as hard at the end of the contest as at the beginning. It also binds the team by giving them a shared experience (albeit a painful one).

This conditioning must happen at practices (for in the contest itself, conditioning is useless or, worse, disastrous). The purpose of practice then is to hone the skills necessary to succeed. Practice doesn't make perfect, John Wooden has stated, it makes "better". Think about your everyday job. Think of the task you are known for. Did you do it as well the first time as you do today? Of course not. Its repeated accomplishment has created for you a more efficient avenue through which to preform the act. The same is true--especially true--in athletics. Players are nothing if not muscle memory machines. The constant repetition allows the body to get used to doing a certain task so well and easily that it becomes "second nature"... and thus something that the athlete doesn't have to think about: it just happens "naturally," giving him a huge advantage over his opponent who is thinking about each move he is about to make.

Can an athlete be naturally gifted? Absolutely. But he cannot achieve greatness without hard work (in the person of himself) and practice (with the help of a coach).

The greatest concept sport teaches, however, is teamwork. Can you do it all alone? No. No one can. Can a single player win a team competition? No. Nor can he lose it. A water polo goalie can make a hundred saves, but if his teammates don't make shots, the team cannot win. Conversely, the goalie misses the final shot, it goes in and his team loses... Is it his fault? Is the loss his alone? Not at all. Can a single mistake or error in the final 3 seconds of play be more important than the 19:57 that came before it? No. If the offense had take more shots, making just one of them, the loss would be erased. The team wins or the team loses. Not the player. And the sooner teams realize this, the sooner they learn to help out each other, to allow no teammate to be "left behind."

Can a team have a star, a "go-to guy"? Sure, but without the support of his teammates, that player will only be able to amass personal statistics, not a championship or the respect of those teammates.

Sport can teach us so many things, if we only have coaches smart and caring enough to show the player the connection between what his happening on the field and what sport teaches.

Coach Wooden's formula for success was a simple one:

C + F + U = success

Conditioning plus fundamentals plus unity... hard work, practice, teamwork.

He never mentioned winning to his teams, only the success of bettering the team's performance, a performance made possible by hard work, practice, and teamwork. Work hard, practice your skills, and work as a team... and the athlete's growth is assured and the winning will take care of itself.

[soapbox rant over]