Do great basketball players make sacrifices? The short answer is yes they do! As coaches, we hear it all the time. “I want to play in the NBA”, “I want to shoot 40% from three this season”, or my personal favorite “I just want to win a championship!” HA! I have to hold back my automatic response when I hear these things sometimes because, in my head, I’m saying, “NO YOU DON’T!”. I hear these claims from young players and then watch the way most of them work and things just don’t add up.
So, what does this have to do with sacrifice?
I can’t tell you how many times back in my high school days I would walk to practice on a beautiful afternoon and see my classmates throwing the frisbee or laying in the sun studying. What does it mean to sacrifice?
You can’t imagine how badly I wished I could do something like that when I wanted. Players will find that there are countless times throughout their playing days that the temptation to do something “more fun” or “less stressful” or “less demanding” will rear its ugly head.
Sooner or later it will hit you that the goal you have chosen is forcing you to sacrifice so many things in life that you might find more enjoyable in that moment. It takes a special personality to maintain that focus and make constant sacrifices.
Time is one big thing you will have to sacrifice to achieve your goal.
As I just mentioned, the temptation to do other things. Do you want to start on your varsity team or spend your summer by the pool? Do you want to be an all conference player or hangout with your friends all day?
Basketball teaches us to sacrifice our time…and sooner or later (hopefully!), we all learn the lesson that anything great we want to accomplish in life will do the same thing.
Watch this 20-second Under Armour ad and it looks amazing! Watch it for 2 hours straight and you’ll be bored to death about 15 mins into it. But that’s what it takes to become one of the greatest shooters in the world. DAY IN,... DAY OUT!!
Do you got what it takes to "RULE YOURSELF"?
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