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Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90 percent mental, and the other half is physical.” While Yogi’s math might be a little off, he is right on target with the importance of training the mind.
Unfortunately, American culture has created weak-minded, undisciplined, unfocused people. We think multi-tasking makes us more productive, but it destroys concentration.
Clemson volleyball star Brittany Ross sat on the home bench in street clothes watching her team play in pre-season matches. The bench felt mighty uncomfortable.
Ross was an All-ACC starter as a freshman and the team’s top outside hitter last season as a sophomore, leading the team with 535 kills. Going into the 2006 season, everyone was expecting Ross to have her best year yet.
Failure threatened to expose Coach Scott Glabb. He slumped against the door frame of the Santa Ana High School wrestling room and watched the last of his wrestlers exit the school after practice. But could he even call it a practice? He’d wasted the first 15 minutes searching for the keys to his office after his athletes had locked him out … again. And when he’d finally gotten to the wrestling room, he’d found that half of his team was missing. Of the few who had shown up, two were set to exchange blows over allegedly stolen wrestling shoes, and one appeared to be intoxicated.
When I was first approached by FCA to submit an article for Sharing the Victory magazine, I was (#1) humbled, but also (#2) excited to be able to publicly appreciate my wife. Little did I know that this would be one of the most difficult things that I ever venture to do. God has more than taught me through this process, and I feel as if I would be dishonoring what I’ve been led to do if I didn’t write from the heart. Besides, there is no real victory without real authenticity. So, that being said, I’d like to share the following with you.
There is a plot: Mike Sanford, in his second season as head football coach at UNLV, is working long hours in an attempt to stop a streak four straight losing seasons and transform the program into a Mountain West Conference power.
And there is a subplot: He will do it his way. He will do it the only way that will mesh with his beliefs. He will do it by offering his players a pipeline to God.
Offense wins games, defense wins championships. Every athlete and coach has heard and probably used this phrase. But that doesn’t change the fact that a productive offense generally overshadows defensive success. Both fans and media tend to focus on one thing: points scored. But after the Carolina Hurricanes’ final rally in game seven of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals, no one could deny the defensive presence. After all, it was the perseverance and calm leadership of blueliner Glen Wesley that helped clinch the win and allowed him to finally raise the Stanley Cup – something he’d waited 18 years to do.
Cal Ripken, Jr. has always said, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” When you look at his career, it’s hard to argue against that wisdom. If practice made perfect then Shaquille O’Neal wouldn’t have a career free throw percentage of just over 50 percent.
If you practice the wrong technique over and over again — even if you think you are doing it right — all you will become is very good at doing something the wrong way.
Mike Minter and Mike Rucker, two longstanding pillars in the Carolina Panthers’ defense, are the best of friends. But there’s one thing Minter, a safety, just can’t understand about his chum, a hulking defensive end.
Through the eyes of the world, athletic success is easily defined. It’s a simple pass-fail test that asks only one question: did you win it all? But the University of Nebraska volleyball team sees things differently. Despite its tremendous on-court success, the Cornhuskers remain a team that has learned to go deeper than wins and losses in order to define greatness. But the lesson didn’t come at an easy price.
On August 30, 2006, I traveled to Washington, D.C., to experience a day with FCA’s rapidly expanding inner-city ministry there. The ministry, spearheaded by FCA Area Representative David Kiehn, seeks to bring restoration and prosperity to the city by touching the lives of athletes and coaches in some of D.C.’s roughest areas. During my visit I met with football coaches at Dunbar High School and Anacostia High School. What I found was that change within D.C.’s inner-city doesn’t occur overnight by passing a bill or amending a law, but by reaching the hearts of its youth with the gospel.
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