6 Lessons from Playing Sports - Part 3

After writing last week’s post, I thought of a few more life lessons I’ve learned from sports, so I decided to extend this topic one more week. Thus far, I have shared the following life lessons: (1) success looks different to different people, (2) winning isn’t everything, (3) we all need me time, (4) blue ribbons require sacrifice, (5) there will always be ball hogs, and (6) do what’s in the best interest of the team. This week, I’ll be sharing three final life lessons I’ve learned from playing sports.

7. Just Keep Swimming

After a few years of swimming over the summer, I decided to join the high school swim team. Every year, Coach Gueltig would sign up everyone on the team (against most of our wills) to swim the 500 yard freestyle event once during the season. I always dreaded this event. It was long and hard, and I got rewarded with the same number of ribbons I would’ve gotten for swimming the 50 yard freestyle event. It just didn’t seem worth the extra effort. But I think our coach was trying to teach us something. Swimming 500 yards without stopping was physically draining. As a result, we were forced to learn how to mentally overcome the physical challenges and keep on swimming, even when we felt like giving up.

Life Lesson: Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming…There are times when life gets really tough. In these moments, we wish we could throw up our hands and give up, resorting to something easier. But swimming the 500 yard freestyle event all four years of high school taught me to keep on swimming, even when it hurts. Afterwards, I was a much better swimmer and had learned the skill of perseverance, a skill which is highly prized in our lives.

8. The Water Bottle Belongs to the Team

I grew up dreaming of one day getting a chance to play ice hockey. When Amy and I moved to Findlay, my dream finally came true: I signed up to play in the Findlay beginner’s hockey league. After a few seasons of learning how to play, I decided I was up for a huge challenge, so I signed up to play on a team with a bunch of guys who had been playing hockey all their lives. It was a great learning experience for me, but it was probably frustrating for them. During the first game of the season, I went through my normal routine of filling up my water bottle and placing it on the bench. It didn’t take long for some of the other guys on my team to ask me if they could have a swig. As the season went on, they began helping themselves to my water without even asking. The first thought that went through my head was, “If you wanted water, you should’ve brought your own.”

Life Lesson: The water bottle belongs to the team. As I reflected on this frustrating situation, I began to realize something I hadn’t seen before. Every one of these guys was a very good hockey player, but none of them were puck hogs. They all shared the puck like it didn’t belong to any of them, but rather, that it belonged to the team as a whole. I decided that they must’ve been applying the same principle to the water: the water was not my water, but rather, it was the team’s water. In life, we tend to view things in our possession as belonging solely to us. But they don’t always belong solely to us; they belong to the team we’re on, whether that’s an athletic team, a husband and wife team, or a team at work. In order for a team to function at its highest capacity, every person on the team must see everything it possesses as belonging to the team, not to specific individuals on the team.

9. Teach Others How to Play

After learning tons of hockey strategy from playing with that elite group of guys, I decided to find ways to pass this knowledge of hockey on to some of the new beginners. How were they going to learn the game unless someone took the time to teach them? Although I continued playing in the higher league, I decided to start playing goalie in the beginner’s league so that I could continue to have a connection with the guys I had skated with previously. I began scheduling some time over lunch every couple weeks to go to the ice rink with a couple of the guys so that I could help them move their games to the next level. And wouldn’t you know it; one of these guys now scores more goals than me!

Life Lesson: Teach others how to play. Part of the fun in learning the things I’ve learned about hockey is that I’ve been able to teach others the same things in order to help them become better players as well. Regardless of what you’re doing in life, there will always be people in your life who you can add value to by teaching them how to do the same things you enjoy doing. Take advantage of these opportunities, even if it means that they may become better athletes, workers, or leaders than you.

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Is there a particular lesson that stands out to you? Are there any life lessons you’ve learned from playing sports that you’d be willing to share?