I play softball for my high school, and I love it. The game, the fans, my fellow athletes—everything about the whole experience. I love it all! Every now and then in a game I am faced with a situation in which I need to take one for the team. Whether that is allowing myself to be hit by an inside pitch to get to first base, or trying to hit a grand slam to get more runs, or sitting on the bench so that another player can play. There are many chances for me to do whatever I need to in order to help the team.

If you’ve never heard of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, don’t feel too badly. Even National Basketball Association (NBA) point guard Luke Ridnour, the town’s most famous product, wouldn’t expect many people to know much (if anything) about his birthplace.

Even though its population is anything but tiny (as of the 2006 census, there were a little over 41,000 inhabitants), only those living in the northwestern United States tend to know much about the city that sits along the edge of the scenic Coeur d’Alene National Forest. And it was in Coeur d’Alene that Ridnour first fell in love with the game of basketball. He lived there until he was seven years old and recalls attending a Christian school where his mother was a teacher.

In 2003, LPGA golfer Annika Sorenstam became the first woman in 58 years to compete with men in a PGA tournament. Although she missed the cut by four shots, she had a respectable tournament and finished as well as or better than several of her competitors. “I tested myself from start to finish,” she said afterward. “That’s why I was here.” Sorenstam put herself to the test to find out just how good she was.

We’ve all said it: The secret to success is practice, practice, practice. Sometimes we’ll put the word “perfect” in front of all of those “practices” to nail down an even more effective plan. We all know that without practice we’ll never reach the level of play that we desire.

When I was in high school, I trusted my coaches completely, so I practiced whatever they told me to. I desired success, which helped me to listen to them and heed their advice. In the same way, when we read that Paul urges us to “do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me,” we would be wise to heed his advice. A quick scan of the context reveals some of what Paul would want us to put into practice:

In the 1980s, the San Francisco 49ers made popular what became known as the West Coast Offense, an offense characterized by short, controlled-pass plays that gained only five to six yards. By running such low-risk plays, San Francisco nibbled away at their opponents. Even strong defensive opponents who never gave up “big plays” were humbled by the 49ers’ consistent gains. San Francisco’s strategy earned them five Super Bowl titles between 1982 and 1995.