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Many athletes, myself included, keep a journal or log of their workouts. This allows us to set goals and track our times, distances, results, resting heart rate, etc. From this journal, we can see how we’re progressing (or not) and adjust accordingly. It is a valuable tool for training, race preparation, or other goals we’re trying to achieve.
When I was 8 years old, I did a lot of dreaming. My dad would take me to college lacrosse games, and I would stand by the field saying, “One day I want to play on that field!”
When President Thomas Jefferson was traveling with companions across the country on horseback in the early 1800’s, he approached a large river that needed to be carefully crossed. A stranger appeared and wondered how he was going to get across. He looked at the President and asked if he could get a ride across the river. Thomas Jefferson said, “Sure, hop on!” As the stranger slid off the horse on the other side, one of the companions questioned why he asked the President for a ride. The stranger replied, “I didn’t know he was the President. All I know is that his face said yes, and all your faces said no!”
Athletes desire great things. This desire drives them to compete, pursue, and strive toward their ultimate goal for the season. I call this the “want” to achieve. The trouble comes in a team sport when the “wants” of different athletes don’t match. The goal of a coach is to get the entire team to “want” the same thing and strive toward that end.
Paul had quite a resume in life. He was a who’s who of people of his time, but his desire or “want” in life was much different than others of his day. All the accolades others aspired to, Paul did not want. He was focused on one area only: the desire to know Jesus Christ better each day.
In sports, the term “maxing out” is commonplace and usually refers to some type of physical activity. This could occur in the weight room, track, court, or anywhere else that an athletic event takes place. When maxing out, an athlete gives his best performance to show that his preparation has paid off. These preparations could include weight training, running sprints, agility drills, practicing sport skills, and so on. Only through proper preparation will an athlete be successful at maxing out.
We all have experienced tests. Tests in school, sports and probably most difficult, in life. Regardless of what area we are tested in, we all want to pass. Whether it's testing our speed in track, our endurance in cross country, our strength in wrestling or football, or our coordination in basketball, we want to succeed.
Maybe you’ve heard the statement, “Tradition never graduates.” One of the keys to leaving a legacy is to treasure the past and the memories of our “founding fathers” whose shoulders we have stood upon. We must appreciate the important role that others have played in our lives.
While drawing strength from our past, we must also stay focused on a vision for our future. If we want to stay on the cutting edge of fruitful kingdom living, we must constantly review our ministry commitments, learn from our past experiences, and seek the best advice from others—all while humbly praying for God’s Spirit to guide us. To become more effective, coaches must also skillfully balance time and resources while carefully planning for the future.
Staying humble is one of the most difficult things to do. Whether it's doing good on a test in school, landing a job interview, or succeeding in sports, our first instinct is to praise ourselves. In most scenarios, it is very acceptable to be proud of yourself.
For example, if you hit a homerun in baseball, you will reflect on all of the training and hard work you put in. Because you took the time, you had the ability to hit your homerun; and that is great. You should always be proud of yourself and have a great self-esteem, but should you gloat to all of your teammates and friends about your accomplishment? Probably not.
After 22 years of playing and coaching football, I won a championship ring while serving as team chaplain for the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College football team. Under the leadership of Steve Campbell, that team finished number one in the national JUCO poll. They possessed a rare quality—honor. After every victory we gave God the glory. All year we honored our coaches, one another, our teachers, and parents. We made mistakes, but always came back to honor.
How do you react when you make a mistake on the field? Do you get down on yourself or angry? Sometimes on the golf course, especially during college, I’d hit a bad shot at a critical moment and get frustrated. Then I would follow that mistake with a bad decision on the next shot and get into even more trouble. With experience, I got better at controlling my emotions.
A godly coach is a rare but valued blessing in American sports. Our son’s little league coach is one such blessing. His coaching overflows with life lessons that will bear fruit far beyond the baseball diamond. As I listen to his challenges, I know that I am hearing the wisdom of the Holy Spirit right along with the kids.
“There are no spectators here. Everyone has a job.” - Just as each member of a baseball team has a position, each individual has a role to play in life. Our words, our actions and our attitudes all have an impact on the hearts of the people around us. God has given each of us the job of sharing His love with others. There is no time to sit around watching others; our work is ongoing and has eternal consequences.
Why do we do what we do? And how are we to do it? These questions arose while I was painting lines on FCA’s nine summer camp football fields. My initial answers were, I’m doing this because it has to be done—and as quickly as possible. When finished, I was disappointed in both my attitude and the poor quality of my work. My wife suggested I line the fields as if God were going to play on them. So, three days later I set off to line the fields for God. However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t paint a perfectly straight line. I grew angrier with each mistake while practically screaming that I was doing this for God. After seven fields of beating myself up, God intervened and I realized I had missed the point.
I'm sure you can remember some part of your physical training program that you thought was surely designed to kill you. Maybe it was a set of "gassers," or running the lines on the court, or a 10-minute run. These torturous drills were always at the end of a hard practice. My least favorite was a timed quarter-mile run at the end of a season-starting football practice. Coming around the last turn my legs would burn like they were on fire, and it would feel like someone had stabbed me in the side with a knife. I was certain the coach's goal was to kill us. But those coaches weren't overly interested in how much we hurt that day. They were looking ahead to the season and were getting us ready for not just our first game, but our last game, as well.
3 Reasons Why Competitors Need To Be Inadequate
In an age that is obsessed with leadership, it is hard to find someone willing to talk about leadership in an authentic, transparent way – especially in the world of sports. When is the last time you heard a coach or athlete say any of the following statements?
I don’t know.
I think I am going to need some help.
I have some weaknesses.
This weekend, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees will lead his team onto the field to take on the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV. In a recent interview with FCA’s Sharing the Victory magazine, Brees talked about faith lessons from the field.
Starting today, the daily Impact Play will run Sharing the Victory’s four-part video study series featuring clips from Brees. Click the video link below to watch the clip and then answer the questions. Finish by reading the related Scripture and asking God to work in your heart as a result of what you’ve learned.
Question: Would you rather have one incredible sports season filled with recognition and awards, or five average seasons filled with good, solid consistent performances? How we answer that challenging question reveals how we are wired as competitors. Are you the type of competitor who looks for the next big opportunity or who digs in right where you are? In the sports world today, we see players jump teams mid-season, coaches leave great programs for bigger paychecks, and even entire teams change cities. The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, doesn’t it? That is why we are quick to pursue the next big, great opportunity.
Two quick ways to ruin a team—create a culture of conceit and envy. Conceit is not confidence and envy kills unity.
To be winners, we must first prepare and develop a plan of action that will work, for proper preparation prevents poor performance. We must make sure our plans are God-directed by including two important offensive weapons—the Bible and prayer.
An imprint is a permanent mark—engraved, etched, impressed, or inscribed. As an 8 year old, I once had an opportunity to ride my brother’s motorcycle. Wanting to show how “big” I was, I took off recklessly. About 100 yards down the road, my front tire hit a hole. I flew through the air and landed in a ditch with the motorcycle on my back. Thankfully, as a result of being in the ditch, the muffler was the only part touching me. As the muffler burned through my shirt and my flesh, I experienced a world of hurt. I was branded! My brother rescued me, and I was banned from riding his bike. Even though that event happened 28 years ago, I still have a burn mark on my back. The muffler left its mark.
You step to the free throw line and look at the rim. “Just put the ball through the hoop, and we go to overtime,” you say to yourself. You've done this thousands of times in practice. Bounce the ball three times, spin it in your hands, look up at the rim and let her fly. But just when you're about to shoot, you take your eyes off the rim and gaze through the glass backboard at what seems like a million fans yelling, screaming, waving things, and doing whatever they can to distract you from making this shot. A home crowd would never try to distract you, but this is enemy territory, and they will do whatever they can to make you miss this shot.
You try to refocus. You let the ball go. It heads toward the hoop, bounces off the rim, and out…
I sat with a coach whom I had known for years, discussing how to help someone in the midst of crisis. He desperately wanted to help, but, almost in tears, he revealed he could not because of his own finances. He was enslaved to debt. I wish I could say his story is the exception to the rule, but sadly it is not today. We live in an age of credit. An entire industry is built on encouraging us to incur large amounts of debt. Many companies earn more from interest than from the products they sell. Debt service takes a huge part of people’s income. Proverbs 22:7 clearly warns us about debt: “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender.” Debt causes us to shift our allegiance to those we owe and away from God.
We all think about the fun and excitement of a big game, but we are at our best only if we have been committed to working hard in preparation beforehand. In baseball, we like to dream about getting the game-winning hit or throwing the rally-ending strike out, but that will likely only come true if we put sweat and practice into making ourselves better. Baseball success, like any other sport, comes when we do the behind-the-scenes work. This means that when we are at home, we need to be running, doing the exercises our coaches assign and getting enough sleep. And in practice, we must work on mechanics, think through game situations and do all the repetitions of batting, running the bases and backing up throws. All of this preparation gets us ready for game time.
Isn’t it funny how when something good or bad happens to us unexpectedly and we’re surprised by the news, we want to tell somebody? “You’re not going to believe what just happened!” Or, “I can’t believe this!” Whatever the situation may be, whether in life or in sports, most of us have a few people who we call immediately.
Now, take note of that word “immediately.” This is not a situation that calls for a text message and then waiting for a response. We want quick feedback! But, what happens when you can’t get ahold of any of those people to share your news? It’s kind of a devastating feeling, isn’t it? You feel like the situation is of such importance and that it is about ready to burst out of you, and not being able to connect with someone can leave you feeling empty.
Every team sets goals before the season. They work, strive, and stretch to reach those goals, but the reality is only one team wins it all in the end. Does that mean all the other teams were failures in their seasons? Not by any means. Most teams reach their goals each season. The key is to be focused on the established team goals as players pursue each game and contest. In this way each team is bound to end their season in glory.
As a young coach I had a sign on my office door: “Rules for Our Program. Rule 1. The Coach is always right. Rule 2. If you think the coach is wrong, see Rule 1.” My players always thought that was funny and, remarkably, true most days. Throughout athletics, rules govern the game. Our lives are no different.
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