What’s the secret of an athlete? Speed? Strength? Size? Training? Any of those will provide an edge, but none are the real secret. The most powerful secret of an athlete is actually a spiritual discipline—prayer. When was the last time we really pressed into prayer? Not the prayers that say, “God, help me with the big game today,” or, “Help me to play well.” I’m talking about intense prayer—a time of truly seeking God’s face and asking for His will.

Many athletes may want to pray but simply don’t know how. Here are eight simple tips for praying:

When you are a sports legend like Coach John Wooden, the opportunity to give of your time and resources can be found waiting around every corner. People have been looking to attach his name to charitable causes and have been chasing him down for personal appearances ever since he became synonymous with college basketball greatness.

Wooden, being the servant leader that he is, has graciously accepted many offers over the years. He has visited numerous veterans’ hospitals and children’s hospitals. In fact, it’s organizations that support kids that really get his attention.

Have you ever noticed that, when racing, runners tend to wear the lightest outfit or the least amount of clothing possible? From the weight of their shoes to the amount of hair on their heads. Why is this so important to them? The answer is easy: because the less you have weighing you down, the faster you will be and the more endurance you will have.

The same principle applies to the Christian life. Several times in his letters, Paul relates our lives as Christians to running a race. When running this race as Christians, God wants us to run with perseverance because He has so much set out for us to do. But, when we allow sin to cling to us, it slows us down.

Tomorrow, June 26, 2010, thousands will gather at a memorial service to honor the life of legendary coach John Wooden who passed from this life to the next earlier this month. Coach Wooden lived 99 full years. He lived well, died well and understood his eternal fate. He once said, “There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior.”

In my first year as a football coach, I was unsure of what to expect. But I went into the season with one goal: being satisfied not with producing a winning record, but with producing winning athletes.

Billy Graham once stated that one coach would influence more people in one year than the average person would in a lifetime. This was an idea I took to heart. At the beginning of the season, I had no idea who my players were or what their backgrounds were like, but I did know one thing: while they were on my team they were going to learn not only about football, but about life and God.

Despite not possessing any superb physical attributes, I discovered the Lord can still allow everyone to pursue their own path toward success. Not all men have been blessed with strong athletic physiques and growing up as a thin kid living on a cattle farm in western South Dakota, the odds were against me achieving any athletic success. However, the Lord had other plans for me!

In the previous devo "My Strength" I talked about how the dog (enemy) came out of nowhere at an angle and speed in which Abbie only had a few split seconds to react to the attacking dog. Ephesians 6:16 talks about “taking the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.” But a shield is only as effective as the soldier who is trained properly to use it. And even the greatest skilled soldier after numerous years of training and preparation can still be struck by the enemy’s flaming arrows if it is shot by a highly skilled enemy just like Abbie was attacked by the dog.