life lessons learned through sports essay

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Life Lessons We Can Learn From Sports

• Updated on  
• Jul 2, 2021

More than often we associate sports with fun and a sense of leisure but they are not just about fun and games. It teaches you some invaluable lessons which will come in handy in every wake of life. From persistence to teamwork , there are many underappreciated perks of playing sports , whether you are an athlete or an amateur. This blog brings you the best life lessons we can learn from sports! 

This Blog Includes:

Hard work is the key to success, teamwork makes the dream work, you won’t always win and that’s okay, you can never win if you don’t play fair, focus determines your reality, confidence is a path towards victory and overconfidence leads to downfall., never give up, all your actions have consequences, believe in yourself, excuses earn you pity but not victory, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

You must have often heard the quote that “It doesn’t matter where you have come from but where you go from there”. It wonderfully captures the essence of sports because here you start as amateurs and with sheer hard work could break all the records. Hard work is the real core of every sport because without putting in hours you cannot really succeed at anything. Thus, one of the top life lessons we can learn from sports is the paramount importance of hard work ! If this doesn’t convince in favour of the importance of hard work then nothing else could. 

If you read about the inspirational journeys of famous sports personalities like MS Dhoni , PV Sindhu , Sunil Chhetri , Saina Nehwal and more, you will observe that one thing in common that sets them apart is hard work and passion! 

Can you win a match of football, cricket or basketball when there is no coordination between the team members? No, right? For that, you need to think and act like a team. In every team sport, the credit for both success and failure falls on each player’s shoulder. So, every move should be a team effort. What else would teach you the importance of hard work in such a practical manner? Also, even if you are an athlete who is not playing in a team sport, you still would have a training team behind the scenes to help you master different aspects of your play thus, one of the top lessons we can learn from sports is the quintessential role of team work in life.

Is there a sportsperson or a sports team which haven’t lost a single match in their entire career? The answer is no. But did it stop any of them from playing again? Still, the answer is no. And this teaches us one of the most significant lessons we can learn from sports that failures are a part of life but should not be mistaken as an end. No matter how many dead ends you encounter you need to keep thriving until you achieve your goal. 

Every sport is based on a set of rules. And if someone breaks them they are given penalty cards. In sports, losing is still acceptable but there is no compromise when it comes to playing fair. There is “no glory in playing dirty” and thus another lesson we can learn from sports is that playing fair is the best way to win!

Focus is the key to winning every sport. May it be a chess game or match of basketball, a moment of distraction could lead to failure. Also, focus in the sense that you should always be focused on your goals. Excelling in any sport is not something which happens in a day but comes with days and months and years of hard work. Even in life, we need to focus to thrive and excel at something. So, one of the major lessons we can learn from sports is the role of focus needed in every important aspect of our lives. 

How to Improve your Focus and Brain Power?

Sports teaches you to never be overconfident. It’s good to believe in oneself but nothing good ever comes from underestimating others. Also, victories should be a reason for your happiness but not an excuse to stop working harder. Being one of the best lessons to learn from sports, overconfidence might be needed in certain aspects of life but most of the time, we need to be confident yet humble to make it big!

Another important lesson to learn from sports is persistence and perseverance. Nothing good ever comes easy and the road to success is a long one. For achieving that end, the first step is to stay one that road and never quit. You will meet failures on the way but winning is always possible as long as you don’t quit. 

In sports, every move counts. Each moment could be the deciding moment. One wrong move and that could lead to you losing a game which was going in your favour. Thus, another lesson we can learn from sports is that of accountability and owning the consequences that will result from your actions

You need to believe in yourself before others start believing in you. It takes courage and belief in your own self to get into the field and face your rivals. And as you know, you can never win if you don’t show up. So, one of the best life lesson to learn from sports is to have an innate and strong belief in yourself and your strengths!

There will always be some excuse which will let you shy away from hard work and earn sympathy from others but it will never let you win. So, in a sense, winners don’t make excuses and those who make excuses never win. 

Risk is correlated with reward. You miss 100 per cent of the shots you don’t take. But also, you don’t necessarily succeed in 100 per cent of the shots that you do take. In all aspects of life, the principle holds that to achieve great success, you must take risks. However, this is not an excuse for recklessness. Sports are loaded with opportunities for risk-taking, and exposure to these opportunities is the best training for developing a sense of when it’s a good time to take the shot and when it might be better to pass.

What you face in the field will prepare you for the things that you are going to face in other aspects of your life. Hence, these are the top 10 lessons that we can learn from sports. If you are struggling with your career choices, our Leverage Edu experts are here to guide you at each and every step of your academic and professional journey! Sign up for a free session with us today!

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Home > Resources > Study > Skills > Essay Writing Service

How to Write a Non-Cliche Sports College Essay

Writing your college application essay about your experiences in sports is a popular topic. Admissions officers have read countless essays about the life lessons learned from being on a team, pushing through adversity, or achieving a personal best. While sports can certainly provide meaningful material for an essay, you need to be careful to avoid cliches and tell YOUR unique story in an original way.

Writing a non-cliché sports college essay involves highlighting personal growth, overcoming challenges, and showcasing unique perspectives, and with the support of professionals willing to write my essays for me , you can authentically convey your passion for athletics while standing out to admissions committees.

Here's how to write a compelling sports essay that will make you stand out.

Know the Cliches to Avoid

The first step is to recognize the overused cliches that make admissions officers roll their eyes when they see them. Some of the most common ones include:

• Learning about leadership/teamwork - Almost every sports essay mentions this one.
• Finding inner strength/overcoming adversity - While powerful when done well, this theme is very commonly used.
• Discovering passion/purpose - A cliche opening about falling in love with the sport at a young age.

Your goal is to avoid these trite cliches like the plague. Don't start your essay with "Ever since I was a kid dribbling a basketball..." or say your biggest accomplishment was "learning to be a team player." These have been done to death already.

Find Your Unique Angle

When writing a non-cliché sports college essay, focusing on introspection, specific anecdotes, and personal connections to the sport can set your narrative apart. The key is identifying a specific anecdote, accomplishment, or obstacle from your sports experience that allows you to share a fresh perspective and meaningful insight. Maybe your role on the team unexpectedly changed, forcing personal growth. Or an injury sidelined you for a time, teaching resilience. Or perhaps you dealt with issues of equity, access or discrimination.

The most engaging essays go beyond the expected cliches to shed light on the real challenges, meaningful setbacks, eye-opening revelations, and true stories of grit that made you who you are today. This could come from the big championship game or an easy practice day. The situation itself matters less than the depth of self-reflection and your ability to construct an insightful narrative.

Use Vivid Details

The difference between cliche and captivating often comes down to the vividness of your writing and your ability to construct scenes that immerse the reader in the experience. Don't just blankly state that you learned leadership—describe a specific moment when you had to take charge and motivate your teammates during a crisis. Use dialogue, smells, sounds, visual details and your most evocative descriptors to recreate key moments for the reader.

For example, instead of writing "I'll never forget the big championship game," try something like:

"The murmurs of the crowd swirled like a distant Universe in my ears as I dug my cleats into the hardwood floor, the squeaking of rubber soles echoing with each dribble. My heart thudded with the weight of possibility, knowing this could be our last game if we didn't pull ahead soon..."

See the difference? The latter example uses concrete details to place the reader in the arena and build suspense. Leverage techniques like this wherever possible to elevate your essay from bland cliches to a gripping narrative.

Reflect on What It All Meant

Beyond sensory details, the other key element is to elevate your essay with enlightening self-reflection and analysis on what you learned. High school sports teach countless life lessons, and admissions officers want to see evidence of your maturity, self-awareness, and ability to derive deeper meaning from your experiences.

In each essay, dig below the surface accomplishments to unearth the inner grit, mindsets, and philosophies you developed. What counterintuitive lessons did you learn about sacrifice, leadership, failure, or excellence that go against societal cliches? How were your perceptions about community, hard work, or your capabilities fundamentally altered? What about the experience equipped you with skills and perspectives that will propel success in college and beyond?

The best essays don't just assert that you learned perseverance, but provide a thoughtful examination of perseverance through vivid examples, anecdotes, and deep self-reflection. Leave the reader with a window into your values, intellect, and readiness to thrive.

Potential Subheadings

Here are some potential subheadings you could consider using to organize your sports essay:

• More Than Lessons in Teamwork
• Avoiding the Trap of Cliche 
• Finding My Unique Sports Story 
• Bringing the Reader Into the Arena
• Elevating My Essay with Deeper Meaning
• An Unconventional Education Through Sports
• Redefining Victory Off the Field
• My Philosophy Forged by Wins and Losses 

Any of these could work, just make sure your subheadings effectively segment and signal the points being addressed in each section.

Additional Tips

Here are some final tips for making your essay shine:

• Only briefly summarize your accomplishments. The focus should be on personal reflections.
• Avoid excessive use of sports cliches like "give 110%," "left it all on the field," or calling something the "biggest game of my life."
• Leverage self-deprecating humor about your shortcomings where appropriate.
• Conclude with insight on how your experiences will help you succeed in college.
• Have others read your essay to catch any inadvertent cliches you may have missed.

Writing about sports in college admissions essays can work, but you must do it thoughtfully and originally. By steering clear of cliche themes while embracing vivid storytelling and hard-earned wisdom, your essay will be a winner that gets you accepted.

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10 Life Lessons learned through Sport

Dan Macadam

Like many I was fortunate to have been introduced to sport at an early age, and I remain thankful for the lessons learned and the many ways these experiences prepared me for life…

1. Persistence .  At the age of ten I was introduced to the great sport of rugby. Lacking any concept of the game, or knowledge of the rules, I ended up throwing a forward pass in my first ever organized game. But despite my early struggles, and lack of innate talent I continued to play – eventually discovering my competitive spirit and a love of the sport.

Persistence may not predict success, but giving up guarantees failure .

2 . Commitment .  In High School my parents were no longer able to drive me to rugby games on weekends due to the challenges of running a small farm. Rather than quit, and let down my team-mates, I began riding my push-bike the six miles into town to be able to continue to play. By the end of the season I had achieved a fitness level that I still aspire to.

Commitment can be the fuel that focuses our efforts .

3. Integrity .  It was in sport that I learned not everyone shares the same values or principles, and that for some winning was everything. I was taught early the difference between playing ‘hard’ and playing ‘dirty’, and the importance of always playing ‘my’ game. And it was through sport that I began to see the parallels between how players conducted themselves on and off the field.

Consistency is key, but integrity IS everything .

4. Attitude.  Team sports also taught me the importance of attitude. I had some team mates that were always upbeat – while others quickly became deflated when on the losing end of a score. I saw how team mates with positive attitudes energized and inspired those around them. While positivity didn’t guarantee winning, it sure made the ‘games’ much more enjoyable to play.

Attitude is contagious – be careful what you catch.

5. Teamwork.  I had always thought that rugby had prepared me for working with others, but it wasn’t until I learned to row did I understand how integral teamwork was sometimes for success. In rowing, effective teamwork requires complete synchronicity with your team – which for me reinforced the importance of understanding the nature of your team, and your role in supporting your team mates.

There are people that are organized into teams, and then there are teams of people.

6. Trust .  In many sports trust is critical to success – whether trust in a team mate or in a coach. And in many sports a lack of trust in a team mate’s ability to play his/her position results in others not being able to fully commit to theirs – while in others trust is a matter of life and death. Rock climbing is where I came to truly appreciate the significance of complete trust – both in the process, as well as in my climbing partner’s knowledge and experience.

Life is not an individual sport – trust is a must.

7. Accountability.   When I participated in, or competed in any sport I did so with the support of others – such as my parents, coaches, and team mates – and it was through their support that I initially learned the importance of being accountable. However, it was only through the process of learning how to swim, and through training for my first triathlon that I truly understand the importance of being accountable to myself. There are many times when we need to invest 100% of our effort and energy despite nobody watching.

Be accountable for the life you want – we get what we give.

8. Patience .  Although I was introduced to the sport of boxing very late, it, like many of my endeavors came at the right time in my life. In one of my very first sparring sessions with my trainer – who had been a Flyweight Champion in his youth – I became frustrated at my inability to land a single punch. I learned quickly that anger and uncontrolled aggression don’t belong in a ring, and on the need often to ‘wait’ for the right opportunities to present themselves.

Patience provides us with possibilities.

9. Passion.  While it is interest that gets many of us started in sports – it is passion that sustains us. While in High School I was also introduced to competitive logger sports by my father – who loved both the industry and the sport. And while I continued to compete for several years because of our relationship, it was eventually my lack of passion (and putting an axe into my shin) that caused me to stop.

Our full potential requires all of our passion.

10 . Fun. We often play games and sports as children because they’re ‘fun’, and sometimes move onto different games or sports when we no longer enjoy them. I’ve been fortunate to have enjoyed a variety of sports and activities throughout my life, and have learned that sometimes it isn’t the game itself that is fun – but instead is our ability to have ‘fun’ playing it.

Fun is sometimes more about the how than the what .

Life is like a game – with a start, a middle, and an end. It is up to each of us how we play it…

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Five Essential Life Lessons You Can Learn by Playing Sports

Playing sports is fun, but the practice field teaches more than just athletic skills. As any athlete will tell you, learning to play within the confines of the rules of a game teaches invaluable life lessons that will apply to just about anything you pursue for the rest of your life.

Practice Makes…Better

The discipline to practice a skill isn’t about perfection. In sports as in life, perfection is a concept often discussed but rarely seen. But the pursuit of an ideal is valuable in and of itself, both on the field and off. Playing sports reinforces the idea that honing a skill is valuable not just because it will increase your efficacy, but also because becoming better at something is a reward all its own. So training doesn’t just improve the mechanics of your free throw or your putt, it resets your instincts so that when you get into the game, you respond the right way.

Check Your Priorities

Becoming a skillful player of any sport requires significant sacrifices of time and energy. It requires commitment and, above all, prioritization. In order to make time to practice, a certain amount of leisure time will have to be given up. And once you’re practicing, every minute of batting practice means forgoing a minute of fielding practice. This means players have to understand how and when to spend their best energy and must know when it’s time to say no. The skill to discern between what is absolutely necessary in the moment and what can be sacrificed is absolutely essential to any academic or professional pursuit. How many professionals can you think of who have difficulty saying no or managing their own time? Playing sports directly develops this skill.

Play Well With Others—and Share the Credit

Nobody likes a ball hog. It is a cliché at this point to say that sports teach teamwork, but it’s such a commonplace expression for a reason. Not only that, but “learning teamwork” isn’t just about learning to trust others. It’s also about learning to share credit for success…and for failure. Being a good teammate means passing the ball to somebody else. If they score a goal? Their success is your success and everyone celebrates. And if they miss the net? You pass it to them again next time. Knowing how to congratulate others and celebrate their wins is as vital as forgiving them for their losses, and negotiating the divide between these is an essential life skill.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Risk is concomitant with reward. As the saying goes, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. Unspoken in this old adage is the fact that you definitely don’t make 100 percent of the shots that you do take. This isn’t just true on the courts and fields where your game is played. No matter where you go in life, the principle holds that in order to achieve great success, you must take risks. But this is not a recommendation for recklessness: Sports are filled with opportunities for risk-taking, and repeated exposure to these opportunities is the best training for developing a sense of when it’s a good time to take the shot and when it might be better to pass it up.

You Won’t Always Win—and That’s Okay

On both micro and macro levels, sports teach us about the value of failure. Whether practicing or competing, athletic pursuits are built out of moments of triumph and moments of defeat. No matter what game you’re playing, it’s important to accept success with humility and to experience defeat with dignity. Accepting that every risk won’t pay off, that every game will not be a W and that every play won’t go your way is key to being able to play effectively. Becoming paralyzed by loss is not an option. The same holds for life.

Experiential learning opportunities don’t end with team sports. If you’re interested in making sports part of your impact on the world, consider the online Master's in Sport Management* program from the University of Kansas.

*This program is a Master of Science in Education (M.S.E.) degree in health, sport management, and exercise science with an emphasis in sport management.

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Finding Success in Sports and in Life

What My Life In Sports Has Taught Me

An exclusive guest-post for  Thought Economics

By:  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar  – The NBA’s All-Time Leading Scorer, 3x Award Winning Columnist of the Year, NY Times Best-Selling Author & Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

Sports has dominated my life for most of my seventysome years, not just as a career, but as set of values and teachings as codified as any philosophical or religious text. The lessons I learned as a player and fan helped shape my moral path as an adolescent and later as an adult. As with many kids, for me sports started as a way to distinguish myself from other kids, to establish my own identity. As I matured, I found that playing competitive basketball taught me many more vital lessons about how to live my life for maximum happiness and fulfillment. But the older I got, the more I realized that these lessons were not the glib and simplistic one-size-fits-all, sports clichés often displayed on uplifting posters. Rather, they were nuanced and complex ideas that evolved as I did.

I first became aware of the complexity of sports lessons when I arrived at  UCLA .  Coach John Wooden  sat all the freshmen basketball players down in the gym and proceeded to teach us our very first sports lesson: how to properly put on our socks. One of the winningest coaches in college basketball was lecturing some of the most elite athletes in the country on  how to put on socks . We all exchanged worried glances. But Coach Wooden explained by quoting one of his favorite people, Benjamin Franklin: “ A little neglect may breed mischief …for want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost. ” [1]  Huh? we all thought silently, wondering if it was too late to transfer. “ If you do not pull your socks on tightly, ” he told us, “ you’re likely to get wrinkles in them. Wrinkles cause blisters. Blisters force players to sit on the sideline. And players sitting on the sideline lose games. ”

Coach Wooden’s little lesson wasn’t just about socks, but about how everything in life was basically a  Rube Goldberg contraption  with many seemingly unrelated parts that form a greater interrelated machine. Neglecting what appears insignificant can create a domino effect of failure. That’s how sports is: seemingly insignificant games that have become a major part of the foundation of our society, like schools, government, and selfies. Sports has never been “just a game,” it’s also a celebration of community, a benchmark for human achievement, and a teacher of social values.

Finding My Way

The first lesson every coach teaches is about teamwork. They pepper us with platitudes like “ There is no ‘I’ in teamwork ” and “ Teamwork makes the dream work. ” Pretty much the same scrubbing-clean-of-individuality approach as in the military, religions, and Kardashian cults. The purpose is to give us a shared common goal by teaching us to play together rather than showing off by trying to be the hot-shot star. We’ve all witnessed sports teams in which one run-and-gun player consistently scores a tremendous amount of points, but the team still mostly loses. That player, clearly chasing a sports shoe endorsement, has never learned to put the benefit of the team above personal gratification. They don’t understand that—here comes another sports platitude—“The rising tide lifts all boats.” When the team wins, each member of that team benefits more. Being a star player on a losing team focuses the blame on you.

As a child, I was eager to accept this teaching because I wanted to belong to a team. I was developing my identity as a player, as a too-tall teenage boy, and more importantly, as an African-American. As a player, I started as a gangly, uncoordinated kid. Belonging to a team was a safe place to learn the fundamentals and to thrive. The team was a meritocracy in which performance alone was rewarded. As I got better and my team started winning championships for my school, my status as freakishly tall black kid became a badge of accomplishment and inclusion.

That was the opposite of my experiences as an African-American in which I was daily negatively judged based on appearance alone. My height, which was an asset on the court, was seen as a threat by white people on the street. This was the Sixties and there were only two teams in America: black and white. You were born into your team and one team did its best to make sure you never competed with it on a level playing field. The game was rigged. There was no meritocracy.

It was a confusing lesson. On the court, teamwork was crucial to our success. We all had strengths and weaknesses and we learned how to capitalize on each other’s strengths and help protect our teammates’ weaknesses. Victory never felt like a personal triumph but a group accomplishment. All those sports clichés and cheezy posters about teamwork were right.

Up to a point.

Because that was also a way to exploit people. We were hip-deep in the  civil rights movement ,  the women’s movement , and  the anti-Vietnam War movement . Black people were being told they needed to be patient and wait if they wanted the same rights as the white team. Women were being told they weren’t physically or mentally capable of joining the Men Team. Patriotism was being touted to our youth as a form of teamwork. Enlist. Be part of the military team.

But the way white people treated blacks—including me—never made me feel like I was part of Team America. Maybe that’s why being on a sports team meant so much to me. On the court, there was no prejudice, just your contribution to the team. Off the court, teamwork seemed like a parody of what we did. So, the lesson I eventually learned was to distinguish between which teams are sincere in promoting true teamwork, and which are jingoistic self-serving pretenders. Teamwork does make the dream work, but not every team is worthy.

Life in Sports

In the baseball movie,  Bang the Drum Slowly , the professional players like to fleece fans of their money by inviting them to play a card game they call tegwar ( The Exciting Game Without Any Rules ). Unbeknownst to the fans, the players just make up rules and terms as they go. The fans, too embarrassed at not knowing the game they’re told every real fan knows, just let the players take their money. What makes that scene so effective is that life itself seems like tegwar, in which we face an indifferent Nature that punishes and rewards the good and evil equally. In the movie, this is illustrated by one of the young athletes ( Robert De Niro ) dying of cancer.

Rules in sports create a world of fair play that doesn’t exist in nature and those of us who’ve spent our lives in sports appreciate that distinction. Yes, we push the limits of the rules sometimes in the heat of the game, but what makes any sport exciting is learning how to excel by staying within the confine of rules, not by winning through ignoring them. Not all players agree, some believe that winning is all that matters.

This is where we go back to that notion of teamwork. When you’re a child, you define your team as those wearing the same jerseys and your team’s goal is to defeat anyone wearing different jerseys. But as you get older, your notion of what constitutes a team evolves. If you cheat by breaking the rules, you may be promoting your personal team, but you’re undermining the sport itself, and all sports. The team isn’t just the one with your jersey, it’s everyone who wears a jersey. Then you realize that harming the sport also negatively affects the fans, especially the kids who look up to athletes as role models. Then you understand that you’re damaging our national value of all people being created equal and our country’s commitment to creating fair play where history may have robbed some people of equal opportunities. For want of a nail.

Having said that, I also realize that rules are not always fair and those making them sometimes have agendas that benefit them rather than the sport. The  NCAA  makes about a billion dollars a year while the college athletes who risk their health, education, and even lives are paid nothing. [2]  The NCAA top ten basketball coaches’ salaries range from over $2 million to over $7 million. [3] When I was playing for UCLA, I was so broke that I hardly had enough to eat. The rules were that those who were on academic scholarships were also allowed to work jobs to earn money; those on athletic scholarships weren’t.

Between 1967 to 1976, the NCAA banned the dunk. This rule became unofficially known as the “ Lew Alcindor rule ” ( my name was Lew Alcindor in 1967 ) because of my ability to dunk and the frequency with which I did it. The rule-makers justified the decision by complaining that my height gave me an unfair advantage. But there were a couple dozen players at that time about my height or taller but who weren’t as effective ( today there are 43 NBA players 7’ and taller ) [4] . The decision was based on my use of the shot to help UCLA win championships.

Rules are good. We need to obey rules. But we also need to be vigilant in changing rules as the game, the players, and our society evolves. It’s the same principle as the  U.S. Constitution . What makes the framers so brilliant is that they recognized that whatever their values were at the time, history has a way of revealing the flaws in our beliefs. Therefore they made provisions for changing the Constitution to reflect an enlightened population. We amended it to, among other things, protect freedom of the press, end slavery, and give women the vote. Sports taught me that, rather than be blind followers of rules, we need to constantly question them as to their purpose and validity and be bold enough to change them if they don’t serve our value of fair play.

Life After Sports

Since leaving the NBA, I’ve used many of the lessons I learned as an athlete to pursue my career as a novelist, columnist, and screenwriter. The discipline my coaches instilled in me to practice, practice, practice is crucial when it comes to writing. No one wakes up eager to write because it often reveals your shortcomings. It’s like staring at your face in a mirror for two hours—after a few minutes, all you see are flaws. Discipline sees me through those self-doubts.

So does teamwork. Sometimes I work with a partner on projects and we send each other pages, critiquing each other and then rewriting. When I wrote on the  Veronica Mars  TV series reboot, I was in a room with five other writers and we pitched ideas that were refined or rejected, always with the goal of what was best for the script, not our egos. By the end, it was difficult to distinguish who had done what, but we all felt pride in what we had created together.

But the biggest lesson from sports that I’ve focused on in recent years is the responsibility of the athlete to the community, whether local or national. When I was growing up, athletes were generally portrayed as muscle-bound lunkheads and locker-stuffing bullies. Their opinions were whatever the coaches’ opinions were and anyone who disagreed got a beating.

While I was still at UCLA, I was invited to join a group of athletes known as the  Cleveland Summit , a self-appointed “ team ” whose purpose was to judge the veracity of  Muhammad Ali’s refusal to submit to the draft based on his religious convictions as a Muslim . At 20, I was the youngest member, but I was determined to be as impartial as the others, despite my admiration of and friendship with Ali. After very aggressive and sometimes hostile questioning, we agreed that Ali was sincere in his convictions. White America might have taunted us as just a bunch of athletes, but black America understood we were vetting Ali’s position as an African-American hero.

In the 50 years since, athletes have struggled to find their voice as Americans without some group trying to silence them with phrases like, “ shut up and dribble ” and “ stick to (insert appropriate sport here). ” But the lessons we learned as athletes were meant to drive us to overcome obstacles and adversaries and to persevere. Which brings us back to that childhood notion of teamwork that we learn at t-ball leagues and toddler soccer camps. However, once again, the concept of what a team is has morphed.

Team owners want athletes to stay silent for the sake of ticket and merchandise sales. Politicians want athletes to stay silent to protect their exploitative policies. And some fans want athletes to stay silent because they don’t want to be reminded of the social injustices that the athletes are talking about. They want athletes to stay silent for the sake of profit and power and they try to bully the athletes with oppressive rules, fines, and attacks on their careers.

But what’s admirable about these athletes is that they have redefined teamwork to go beyond the jersey, beyond the political party, beyond tradition to embrace the entire country as one team and the rules of the game are laid out in the U.S. Constitution. They want fair treatment for people of all colors, gender identities, religions, and immigrants in need. Not special treatment—just fair treatment. The level playing field.

They have learned the lessons and values of sports well and are willing to risk their own careers to help others share in the bounty of victory rather than never be picked to participate. Sports made me believe in the potential of America and inspired me to help bring about that potential for everyone. Because that would be our ultimate championship season.

[1]   https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/663977-a-little-neglect-may-breed-mischief-for-want-of-a

[2]   https://www.businessinsider.com/ncaa-college-athletes-march-madness-basketball-football-sports-not-paid-2019-3

[3]   https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/the-10-highest-paid-ncaa-basketball-coaches.html

[4]   https://www.talkbasket.net/27289-tallest-players-every-nba-team-heights

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

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Game of Life: Lessons We Can Learn From Sports

Once upon a time, when you first suited up for a youth sporting event, your parents probably weren’t expecting you to become a pro athlete. They signed you up for T-ball, soccer or gymnastics despite your butterfingers or ox-like agility , in hopes that their kid might learn lessons about winning graciously, losing with dignity and sticking to it when things got tough. Yes, playing games was good exercise, but it was the life lessons that mattered most.

For too many of us, as recess became a distant memory, so did the idea that sports can transcend fitness. Instead of looking to improve our minds and spirits, we began gauging progress solely by the size of our muscles or the numbers on a scale. The notion that athletic competition is about greater life lessons and the building of character has been further undermined by headlines about professional athletes who abuse steroids, run into trouble with the law and demand ever-bigger paychecks.

And yet there’s still strong evidence that “sports strongly reinforce certain personal characteristics, things like respecting your opponent, responsibility, persistence and self-discipline,” says Angela Lumpkin, PhD, professor of health, sport and exercise sciences at the University of Kansas and coauthor of Sport Ethics: Applications for Fair Play (McGraw-Hill Humanities, 2002). And that’s true for athletes of any age.

Amateur sports provide a nonthreatening place for competition, with clearly defined rules and low stakes. They also provide a practice ground for managing stress.

The benefits of participating in a sport can seep into your professional life , too. In basketball, for example, “getting everyone to play the right role on the court is the key to success,” says Alan Arlt, founder of the Life Time Fitness basketball program Ultimate Hoops, which includes an adult league. “That certainly translates to the corporate world, where everyone understands their role in the organization.”

Career benefits notwithstanding, playing games like soccer or engaging in individual pursuits such as martial arts can also improve your emotional well-being. In 2005, 89 percent of Canadian adults who participated in sports reported a life satisfaction level of at least 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, compared with only 75 percent of nonparticipants.

This statistical variation may be due in part to the fact that the culture of sportsmanship tends to give participants positive feelings about themselves, win or lose. Those who engage in sports often gain a sense of self-confidence from their experience. “Adult athletes look at sport as helping define themselves as human,” says Lumpkin.

On the following pages, we hear about the unique experiences of three distinctly different athletes, including Saunders, a former basketball player and pro coach; world-champion triathlete Andy Potts; and Olympic tae kwon do martial artist Paige McPherson. They share the wisdom and life knowledge they’ve each gleaned from their respective games, and, in the process, illuminate what each of us might harvest  from the sporting activities that shape our own life stories.

Colorado Springs, Colo. 2004 Olympic Triathlete, 2007 Ironman 70.3 World Champion

Lesson 1: Seek new Passions

As a child, Andy Potts tried everything from football to tennis before he realized his talent and passion for swimming. Potts competed on the University of Michigan swim team and then made it to the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials, where he placed fourth, one spot short of qualifying for the Games in Atlanta.

In 2000 the sport of triathlon debuted at the Olympic Games. Despite having no cycling experience (save riding his bike to school) and little training as a runner, Potts began pondering a career as a triathlete. It would be several years until he acted on his urge, though. “At 26 years old, nine months into a stint as a sales rep for a payroll company, I said, ‘I can’t do this. I’m going to buy a bike and do triathlons,’” recalls the 35-year-old.

Three races later, Potts was trying out for the United States Triathlon resident training camp in Colorado Springs, and in 2004 he competed at the Athens Olympic Games. Since then, Potts has won an Ironman 70.3 (Half Ironman) World Championship and has multiple victories in triathlons of that distance under his belt, as well as Olympic and Ironman triathlons.

“Sports have given me the opportunity to pursue my passions and see where my potential is,” Potts says. “Finding new passions is part of evolving as a person. If you ask my 5-year-old son his passion, he’ll tell you cars — he wants to be a racecar driver. And that passion is going to change through his experiences. But the one thing that will always stay is his thirst for learning and adventure. If you have this, you’ll be a much happier person and get more out of life.”

Lesson 2: Know the Limits of Your Control

“In life and sports, there’s a lot of uncertainty. One thing I’ve learned and continue to relearn is how to respond to the things I can and can’t control,” Potts says.

“In a race, the things you can control are your attitude and effort. I’m always measuring these: ‘Was I excited and passionate to race? Did I bring my training to the race, or did I leave something at home?’”

There’s also an endless list of things you can’t control, though. “A few years ago at a race in Chicago, someone rode his bike into Andy and he went down,” says Mike Doane, Potts’s coach since 2002. “At first, Andy was upset. His season was in jeopardy. But he put all his energy into healing — letting go of his frustration and the uncertainty of racing [at the world championships] in Kona. That is the lesson he drew from the mishap: Focus on healing, be positive and let go.”

Just a few months after Potts and his wife, Lisa, were married — and right before his Olympic debut at the 2004 Games — Lisa found a cancerous lump on her neck. She didn’t want to affect his race, so she waited until after the Olympics to break the news, while she and Andy were honeymooning in Greece.

“When the love of your life tells you she has cancer, you really acknowledge your mortality. But you’re 27 years old and not supposed to be thinking about dying,” Potts says. “So we didn’t. We knew it would be a long road to eradicating cancer, but we decided along the road we would build experiences, as opposed to living in fear of the worst or in constant paralysis of the unknown.”

Potts continued his career as a triathlete while supporting Lisa through two surgeries and radiation ablation therapy. She has been cancer free since 2009, and the couple has added 5-year-old Boston and 2-year-old Sloan to their family. “ We decided to call the shots,” says Potts. “We’re only here for a short time, so let’s make the most of it.”

Paige McPherson

Miami, Fla. 2012 Olympian, Tae Kwon Do

Lesson 1: Persevere

Paige McPherson, 22, an Olympic tae kwon do bronze medalist, is one of those people who make you believe you can do anything you set your mind to — even if it means defying other people’s expectations.

Adopted at four days old, she was raised in Sturgis, S.D., a town of 6,500 best known as a motorcycle mecca. But from an early age, her interests ran toward something entirely different: martial arts.

Initially, that path didn’t seem feasible for her. When a 5-year-old McPherson showed up for her first tae kwon do lesson, she was so hyperactive that the instructor sent her home for two separate, six-month “maturity periods.”

“He said, ‘I can’t teach a class and watch her, too,’” recalls Paige’s father, Dave McPherson. But Paige was persistent. She eventually got back on the mat and stayed there.

Seven years later, the same coach was taking McPherson and a small team to the tae kwon do national championships.

Gradually, McPherson’s friends dropped out of the activity to play other sports, but she believed she was on to something. She stuck it out and, for a few years, went to nationals by herself.

In 2007 she made her first USA Juniors team and competed at the Pan Am Championships, where she won in her weight class. In 2009 she moved to Miami to pursue her Olympic dream.

Beyond all her medals and awards, though, McPherson says her athletic pursuits have given her something far more valuable — the opportunity to identify and hone her own inherent strengths, including the inclination toward perseverance she now sees as one of her defining traits.

“Sport gives you a chance to really see and understand who you are and what you are capable of,” she says. “There have been times when I’ve wanted to give up, when I’ve wondered if it’s worth the sacrifice, but those moments of victory make it feel worthwhile.”

Lesson 2: Be Confident, not Cocky

When you’re one of only two women in your sport to represent the United States in international competition, it’s tough not to get a big head. But McPherson, who competed this summer in her first Olympic Games and took home a bronze medal, doesn’t do conceit.

“When I was a teenager, whenever I was cocky before a match, I never won. When you’re cocky, you feel like you have to live up to that,” says McPherson. “When I was probably 17, I was like, ‘Lord, help me. This attitude isn’t working.’”

McPherson’s reference to a higher power is not rhetorical. She feels a strong tie between her athleticism and her relationship with God, and this informs her sense of humility. Rather than counting victories before they happen, McPherson approaches each match without expectations, drawing her confidence, in part, from her faith.

“I just trusted in myself and in God. That’s when I made my first Juniors team,” she says. “I realized that when I was simply confident, I felt a lot less pressure.”

For some people, it’s hard to distinguish between confidence and arrogance, but McPherson, whose nickname is “McFierce,” draws a thick black line between the two. She never doubts her abilities. Yet she is known for treating everyone as her equal. “If you were to show up at the end of a match and couldn’t see the scoreboard, you would never know who won,” says her father.

McPherson also counts on her support system to stay grounded. “I know I didn’t make it here alone. God, my parents, coaches, teammates, friends — all those people around me. It’s not a personal victory,” she says. “Having resources around you makes the victory more important.”

Flip Saunders

Brooklyn Heights, Ohio Former NBA head coach of the Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves

Lesson 1: Prepare

One thing Flip Saunders recalls from playing high school basketball was the sense that the team had his back. “I had a coach who said, ‘Just go out and do what you have to do; don’t worry about making mistakes .’ I always played at a higher confidence level because of that,” he says.

“When I became a coach, I never wanted my players thinking I was questioning what they were doing. I wanted them to go out and play as hard as they could.”

But for Saunders to feel that sense of confidence in his players (and himself), everyone has to do his homework — on the court and off.

“Because basketball is a game that relies so much on reaction, preparation gives you a calming effect, both from an imagery standpoint of thinking about the game you’re going to play, and from an experience standpoint, knowing that you’ve been in that situation before,” says Saunders.

Winning isn’t just about calling the right plays, he says; it’s about what happens during practices, meetings, workouts and even the moments in the locker room just before a game.

“[Flip] learns the other team’s tendencies and he lays down that foundation for all his players,” says Don Zierden, Saunders’s longtime friend and assistant coach. “This contributes to his teams’ success.”

The 57-year-old Saunders, who is married with one son and three daughters, says he takes the same approach toward family life: “There’s no question that in order to have success in life, you need to prepare — to get a job, to take care of the people in your family, to put money away for your kids to go to college. In athletics, the preparation never stops. It’s the same in real life: It’s ever-changing and you’re always working.”

Lesson 2: Respect Your Team

At every level of play, teamwork and good sportsmanship are the goals . “At the pro level, everyone has a different type of ego,” Saunders says. “Sometimes players have to set part of that aside for the betterment of the team.”

Saunders says during his childhood, his parents and brother instilled in him a strong value for cooperation and collaboration. As a coach, Saunders has grown to appreciate the individual sacrifice and dedication it takes to keep a group moving in the same direction.

“Part of teamwork, more than anything else, is understanding what everyone’s role is. For a team to have success, one player might have to score 30 points a game, but in order for him to score 30 points, someone else has to pass him the ball, someone else has to rebound the ball and get it to him, someone else has to set screens to get him open,” he says. “Some roles might be more prestigious, and some people might have to do more dirty work, but ultimately, it’s not the individual glory that matters, it’s the team’s success.”

That’s a lesson that transcends the locker room, he notes. “It happens in a lot of families, too,” says Saunders. “Mothers tend to be the ones who hold the family together, but a lot of times they might not get the glory.”

He believes the main ingredient necessary for success is respect: respect of the game (whether it’s basketball, your job or your family life), your team and yourself.

“If you respect the way the game is played, you’re going to respect your team; you’re not going to play as an individual. The two go hand in hand,” Saunders says. “Teamwork is the ultimate goal.”

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How Sports Can Prepare You for Life

Sports are fun activities that help kids learn skills, like how to shoot a free throw or skate backwards. But what if sports could teach us more than physical skills and prepare us for life? If the environment is safe and welcoming, sports can also teach us skills that we can use in our lives— life skills ! Participating in sports can teach us about teamwork, being a leader, how to relax if we are upset, and much more! In this article, we discuss different ways that life skills can be developed through sports. We also talk about what you and your coaches can do to help you develop life skills. As you learn these skills in sports, you can use them anywhere, like at school or home. Life skills learned in sports can help you become a good person on whatever path you choose in life.

How Sports Can Prepare You For Life

Sports can be fun activities that help kids to learn different skills, like how to shoot a free throw, skate backwards, or hit a fastball. But what if sports can teach us more than physical skills? What if they can prepare us for life? Kids across the world engage in different types of organized sports, whether at school or in their communities. This makes sports an important context to help prepare kids for life. You might have heard the phrase “sports build character” before. Building positive character does not always happen by accident. It requires hard work from the kids participating, but also from their coaches and teammates.

Coaches play an important role in sports. If coaches make sports safe and welcoming, kids can have fun, learn new skills, and be part of a team or club. If coaches do not structure sports well, sports can lead to negative things, like not having fun, cheating, or bullying. In this article, we discuss how coaches can help kids learn life skills through playing sports.

What are Life Skills?

If the sports environment is safe and welcoming, sports can teach kids skills they can use in their lives— life skills ! Life skills means different things to different people. Sometimes people use words like values, assets, lessons, or character traits. In this article, we will call them life skills. Within sports, life skills can include:

• Respect : showing consideration and being kind to people (teammates, opponents, referees) and things (rules of the sport, equipment, sports facility);
• Honesty : always telling the truth to yourself and others;
• Teamwork : working together as a group to achieve a goal;
• Emotional regulation : having control over your emotions and staying calm; and
• Perseverance : always trying your best and never giving up.

You may learn about some of these skills at school, when you are working on a group project, or at home, from your parents and family. Learning life skills in many different contexts is an important part of your development. Developing life skills is a process , which means they take time and practice to develop. Sports can be one part of the process of developing life skills. Life skills can be learned, practiced, and improved upon in any sport, whether team or individual. Yet, for these skills to be called life skills, kids need to transfer these skills. Life skills transfer means that life skills learned in sports are used in other areas of your life, like at school, at home, or in other sports or activities [ 1 ].

Why is it Important to Develop Life Skills?

You may be asking yourself why developing life skills is important. Learning and practicing life skills in sports can help you be a good teammate and player, but they can also help you to be a good person outside of sports. Even if you do not become a professional athlete or play sports your whole life, you can still use life skills in other contexts. For example, learning relaxation techniques can be very helpful in sports. When stepping up to the plate for your first pitch in cricket or standing on the basketball free-throw line, you can learn different ways to relax, such as taking deep breaths or calming your mind by counting to five. Learning about relaxation techniques in sports can also help when you feel nervous or anxious at school. Before a test, you can take deep breaths to relax and calm your nerves. If you get into an argument with a friend or sibling, relaxation techniques, like deep breathing, can also help you act calmly, so you choose your words carefully and come to a peaceful solution.

How Can I Develop Life Skills in Sport?

There is a lot to focus on while playing sports—the rules, your position—without thinking about life skills. But do not worry; you do not have to go through this process on your own! As mentioned, coaches are important in helping kids develop life skills when playing sports. Life skills can be developed through sports in two different ways.

First, life skills can be developed based on how the sport is structured, including the rules, competition, and relationships developed with coaches and teammates [ 2 ]. In this implicit approach , coaches focus mainly on teaching sport-specific skills, like passing and shooting. They do not place any specific effort on discussing or practicing life skills. In cheerleading, kids can learn to communicate with their teammates during a routine. In golf, kids can learn to be respectful through the rules about respecting the course and one’s opponents. In these examples, coaches are not doing anything specific to support the development of life skills. Essentially, if coaches use this implicit approach, they leave life skills learning in sports up to chance.

Second, life skills can also be developed explicitly [ 2 ]. This explicit approach occurs when coaches take specific steps to teach kids life skills. There are different ways for coaches to teach life skills through sports. Below, we give an example of Coach Jane using an explicit approach during a handball practice or competition. This approach has five steps. First, Jane picks one life skill to teach—leadership. The theme of the entire session is to learn how to be a leader. Second, Jane works with players to define that life skill. Together, they come up with a definition of what it means to be a leader in handball, at home, and at school. Third, Jane gives players opportunities to practice being leaders during the session, including asking them to lead the warm-up or to act as the team captain. Jane provides feedback while they practice being leaders. She asks players to consider if their way of leading includes all of their teammates. Fourth, Jane finishes the session by reviewing the chosen life skill. She asks players questions like, “What activities required you to be a leader in today’s session?” and “Where else can you be a leader beyond handball?” Together, Jane and the players talk about how they can be leaders at home, at school, and even at work as they get older. The point of these discussions is for players to develop connections between their sports experiences and their lives outside of sports. Finally, Jane can provide opportunities for players to practice the life skills learned in handball in other contexts. As mentioned earlier, this is called life skills transfer. For example, to practice transferring leadership, Jane arranges for the players to lead activities at a younger team’s practice. Jane also works with the players’ teachers and parents to encourage players to practice being leaders in school, at home, or in other extracurricular activities, like mentoring a classmate who is struggling with their math homework. Overall, Coach Jane explicitly supports players’ leadership skills, within and beyond handball.

Researchers have found that using a combination of implicit and explicit approaches is most useful for kids to learn life skills in sports ( Figure 1 ) [ 4 ]. When coaches use both approaches, kids can have more opportunities to develop life skills based on how the sports environment is structured and what kinds of skills coaches choose to teach. Coach Jane supports her players’ leadership development by using the five steps outlined above (explicit approach), along with strategies like being a role model and setting clear rules about playing fairly (implicit approach). Research shows that using both approaches can help to increase kids’ awareness of how to transfer their life skills and strengthen their abilities for life skills transfer beyond sports, like at home and at school [ 5 ]. For example, if a player sees a classmate being bullied by a peer at school based on their gender identity or skin color, the player can transfer his or her leadership skills developed in sports by standing up for that classmate and leading the conversation toward kindness and inclusion rather than bullying.

• Figure 1 - We can imagine coaches who use implicit and explicit approaches as climbing a staircase.
• The first two steps represent the implicit approach, and the last two steps represent the explicit approach. Coaches need to climb the stairs in order to explicitly teach life skills. The stairs build on each other—to be on stair three, coaches need to also be using strategies from stairs one and two. This allows coaches to use a combination of implicit and explicit approaches for teaching life skills (Image credit: adapted from [ 3 ]).

So Now You Know!

In this article, we talked about ways sports and coaches can help you develop important skills that you can use in life. These life skills, like respect, leadership, and honesty, can improve your ability to perform in sports, but they also go beyond sports. What is important to remember is that YOU, as the athlete, also play an important role in this learning process. First, think about the different skills you are learning in sports. What are they? Look for important connections between your sport and your life in school or at home. Second, take initiative and use your life skills without your coach having to ask you. Stand up for a teammate who is being bullied or try to focus while waiting to receive a serve in tennis. Third, keep these skills in mind as you grow up. As you go to high school or secondary school and work your first job, there may be different life skills that are useful for you to transfer from your sports experiences. So, next time you are about to give a big class presentation, think about what you did on the court or field to help you relax and prepare. Practicing these life skills in sports and life can help you be a good athlete and a good person, on whatever path you choose in life.

Life Skills : ↑ Values, assets, or skills that help us in life. They can include respect, honesty, teamwork, emotional regulation, perseverance, and many more.

Life Skills Transfer : ↑ The process in which the life skills learned in sports are applied in other areas of a kid’s life, like at school, at home, in other sports, or in their community.

Implicit Approach : ↑ An approach to teaching life skills in which coaches focus on teaching sport-specific skills, without placing any specific effort on teaching life skills or providing time to practice life skills.

Explicit Approach : ↑ An approach to teaching life skills that occurs when coaches take specific steps to teach kids life skills.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

[1] ↑ Gould, D., and Carson, S. 2008. Life skills development through sport: Current status and future directions. Int. Rev. Sport Exerc. Psychol. 1:58–78. doi: 10.1080/17509840701834573

[2] ↑ Turnnidge, J., Côté, J., and Hancock, D. J. 2014. Positive youth development from sport to life: Explicit or implicit transfer? Quest 66:203–217. doi: 10.1080/00336297.2013.867275

[3] ↑ Bean, C., Kramers, S., Forneris, T., and Camiré, M. 2018. The implicit/explicit continuum of life skills development and transfer. Quest . 70:456–470. doi: 10.1080/00336297.2018.1451348

[4] ↑ Holt, N., Neely, K. C., Slater, L. G., Camiré, M., Côté, J., Fraser-Thomas, J., et al. 2017. A grounded theory of positive youth development through sport based on results from a qualitative meta-study. Int. Rev. Sport Exerc. Psychol. 10:1–49. doi: 10.1080/1750984X.2016.1180704

[5] ↑ Bean, C., and Forneris, T. 2016. Examining the importance of intentionally structuring the youth sport context to facilitate positive youth development. J. Appl. Sport Psychol. 28:410–425. doi: 10.1080/10413200.2016.1164764

LIFE LESSONS SPORTS TEACHES US

Now more than ever, we are reminded how many life lessons can be taught by participating in sports.  Coaches are teachers that can lead others in lessons such as how to stay positive, how to overcome adversity, how to work together for a common purpose, how to be resilient and how to be there for others.  Achieving goals and overcoming obstacles can help teens persevere in uncertain times like these.  Students can find a sense of belonging and accomplishment through individual sports and team dynamics.

Sports are symbolic of life.  Life requires teamwork, discipline, resiliency, respect, compassion, and character.  Sports can develop those skills to apply on the playing field and in their life.

We recently spoke with several different coaches from all over New Mexico, in a variety of sports, about the importance of sports and the lessons it can teach.

For coaches, sports are an extension of the classroom.  They encourage their athletes to always do their best on the field, in the classroom, and in life.  Champions can be determined by their commitment to goals.

“I remember a conversation with a former athlete of mine and they were contemplating dropping out of college.  Then this person told me, ‘Coach, I thought to myself that is not who I am.  I never quit! I will fight to the end!’ I was never more proud as a coach and, yes, he graduated!” -Ryan Galindo, Carlsbad High School Tennis

Self-Discipline

Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.  It’s a saying coaches are used to preaching.  Get up when you get knocked down.  The self-discipline taught in sports allows a person to thrive in life with a work ethic to improve.  Self-discipline spills over into every aspect of life and is a highly common trait among successful people.

“For me, the example that resonates over and over is that of the kid with a less than optimal home life. A kid that doesn’t have the nice clothes, fancy shoes, or even a car to drive to school. This specific kid has every excuse to ‘not make it’ and no one would judge him for that. Yet, he decides to get involved in sports and realizes that dreams can come true through hard work and determination. Through the experiences and lessons learned in sports, new things are possible and maybe even attainable with the right mindset. Goals can be reached regardless of where you begin. Success can be achieved at any level if the proper self-discipline and work ethic are put in place. This example happens very often. A player falls in love with a sport, a coach, or a program and it drastically changes their attitude towards life and propels them to seek a future that once wasn’t an option for them.  I guess this life lesson can be summed up in one word that sports can provide… HOPE. Players need HOPE.” -Heath Ridenour, Sue V. Cleveland High School Football

Mental Toughness

Sports can teach a person to be strong in body and mind.  Athletes learn to push their bodies beyond what they ever believed they could to achieve their goal.  Whether it’s in practice or competition, a person can learn to overcome adversity they may not have faced without sports.

“The life-lesson I learned through volleyball came my Junior season in college when I tore my ACL & MCL during a spring workout.  Volleyball was my life, my days revolved around the game and my teammates.  I was devastated.  However, through this injury and set back I learned what mental and physical toughness truly meant.  My rehab took 9 months, many hours a day, was very painful and caused separation from my teammates.  Nevertheless, it taught me so much about what I was really made of.  The injury helped me develop a stronger faith in God, established new friends outside the game and led me to other passions as well as volleyball.  I came back to the game stronger and a more complete player.  I now use my injury every time a player in our program is injured…because, I lived it as well.” -Kristen Scanlan, Texico High School Volleyball

Learning To Work With Others

Everyone doesn’t come from the same place.  Everyone has different skills and talents to contribute, but everyone has value.  Athletes learn quickly that a team can achieve success when everyone contributes.  Through collective hard work, kids learn to contribute to a greater good.

“I had a young lady from our program who authored ‘How to Survive Piedra Vista Softball: A guide by the 2016 Varsity Team’.  I opened it up and read it again and, as always, got choked up on some of the things the girls wrote.” -Kevin Werth, Piedra Vista High School Softball

Sample from the Guide

• “I want everyone in this program to know the joy of a hard-fought win, and also learn how to be gracious in defeat. I want everyone in the program to understand that adversity is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t kick its butt. I want everyone in the program to believe in themselves and each other.” -Haley Parson
• “Probably just knowing that there’s going to be a next pitch coming, there’s going to be another day to come, that things are going to get better no matter what.” – Katie Jensen
• Try to gain respect by giving respect the best you can, and love your teammates.” – Tyra Garcia

Sacrificing one’s personal gain for the better of the group is a lesson taught in all team sports.  Athletes understand how they can best contribute using their strengths. Together Everyone Achieves More (T.E.A.M.).  Players learn quickly that their best chance at success will be through cooperation with the teammates.

“I had a young man back in 2001 by the name of Phil Sakala who had won the 800 meters and 1600 meters at the State Track Meet.  He was favored to win the 3200 meters the next day and become one the first distance runners to sweep all three distance events.  My 800-meter anchor leg, Frank Hemingway, in the Medley Relay developed a stress fracture in the prelims and could not run the Medley in the finals the next day.  I spoke with Phil that night explaining to him that I know he has a chance of becoming a state champion in all three distance events, but we really need him to anchor our Medley since we had no other backup 800-meter runner.  The next day, Phil sacrificed his personal individual 3200-meter opportunity for the principle of teamwork and he anchored our Medley relay to a state champion finish. Phil was quoted in our local paper as saying ‘I just helped three of my best friends win a state title’.  Phil went on to attend and graduate from the West Point Academy where today he carries a rank of Major continuing to apply the concept of teamwork, leading soldiers in military endeavors.” –David Nunez, Onate High School Track and Field

Handling Fear and Failure

Whether it’s striking out, making an error, or just losing a game, failures happen in sports as well as life.  Learning that not everyone gets to win can be a valuable lesson in someone’s early development.  Life isn’t always fair.  Injuries happen, calls are missed.  Players learn that getting angry or frustrated doesn’t always help and can affect their performance.  Losing with dignity is just as important as winning with class. A person can find success after learning from their failures.

“I try to give as many life lessons through the game of baseball.  I think sports closely parallels everyday life and the lessons you learn on the field can be applied to successful living.  We teach kids to deal with frustration, controlling their emotions and adjusting to change.  By playing sports you can learn maturity, honesty, loyalty, and patience.” -Gil Padilla, Las Cruces High School Baseball

Not everything always goes according to plan.  Sometimes you get thrown a curveball at the plate, and in life.  Athletes need to know how to bounce back.  It’s ok to make a mistake, but how you come back from the setback will define you.

“The biggest life lesson that I have learned as a coach is that the sun will come up the next day.  No matter the outcome of the day, process it, learn from it and make the best of the next day that has been given to you.  Bad things are going to happen as a competitor and as a coach; how you react to those bad things are ultimately going to shape and mold you into the person you are.” -Evan Copeland, Cleveland High School Wrestling

Goal Setting

Setting a goal in place and finding a way to accomplish that goal in the face of adversity is a useful skill.  After setting a goal, an athlete knows to work hard to reach it.  That goal can be a motivator for improvement.

“The best example I can think of was when our golf team played in the 2017 NMAA State Championship in Roswell.  Our boys team put in the work all year and gotten their brains beat in by Cleveland High School, which was the best team in the state by far.  The boys played with poise and a ‘no-fear’ attitude and ended up winning the tournament by 8 shots…until they didn’t.  One of our players got disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard and we ended up losing by 3 shots instead of winning the school’s first blue trophy in boys golf.  The team had to juggle an emotional roller coaster of the highest high and the lowest low and also console a devastated teammate.  The boys not only handled it with grace, but also put together a plan on the bus ride home to start preparing the very next day for 2018. They named the season ‘The Redemption Tour’ and ended up working harder than this coach thought was possible.  In 2018, they left no doubt in winning their first ever state championship at Pinon Hills Golf Course.  I have never seen a group of boys handle adversity of that magnitude and then channel their emotions into a positive goal for the next year.  It truly was a story of redemption and it was quite a journey as a coach…and one I will never forget!” -Tom Yost, Piedra Vista High School Golf

Time Management

Being a successful athlete takes a lot of dedication, but it also takes a lot of time.  Athletes have to juggle their time between school, practice, and sometimes a job.  Being on a team can be a job in itself.  Sports teaches a person how to organize, prioritize, and focus on the importance of academics.  Athletes know what they need to do and when to do it.

“ I had a student-athlete that wasn’t living up to the expectations of our volleyball team and herself. As a result, she did not attend a week-long summer trip/team camp as an upperclassman, and it definitely sent a message to the player. Years later, and after college, the player contacted me and said ‘Thank you, coach. That was an experience that changed my life for the better, I owe a lot to you coach. My path to be successful began with the expectations/discipline that you provided a young kid.’ ” -Toby Mananares, Rio Rancho High School Volleyball

Every athletic season has a beginning and an end.  Coaches preach to their kids to finish what you start.  It’s one of the foundations of sport.  Everyone wants to quit at some point, but dedication to improvement and becoming the best you can be is what keeps the athlete going.

“Sometimes my kids don’t understand why I get on them for being ‘a few minutes late to practice’.  But in life, ‘a few minutes late’ here and there can cost you a job or an opportunity.  Life is about dedicating and committing yourself to something you believe in and giving yourself to that belief even when it is hard and isn’t maybe always going your way.  You don’t quit, you keep moving and giving everything you have.” -Stacy Salinas, Rio Rancho/Sue V. Cleveland Swimming

Overcoming Adversity

In sports, there are hurdles to get over, much like in life.  Sometimes things can surprise you or catch you off guard.  They say life is not about what happens to you, but how you deal with it.

“I had a player who lost both his parents.  He lost his mom when he was 5 and dad when he was 15.  This young man had several offers from families to move in with them, but he was a very proud young man and refused.  Well, he was able to find housing and remained in the school district and on the team.  The year after his dad died, he had many ups and downs but fought his way through it as he had a lot of support from friends, families, and coaches.  This young man ended up contributing to 3 Cross Country Championships, 1 State Track Championship, and 2 State Basketball Championships.  He more than overcame his adversity!” -Ira Harge, Espanola High School Athletic Director

Perseverance

Having the tenacity and determination to accomplish something despite the level of difficulty doesn’t just apply to student-athletes, sports can teach the same perseverance to coaches too.  Fight through it, don’t run from a situation when adversity strikes.  There will be setbacks.  There will be obstacles, but success doesn’t happen overnight.

“There was a girl who I coached almost 15 years ago, she was a good player, and was starting at the beginning of the year. But through the end of September, she could not keep her breath and was having a hard time running.  Well, she went to the doctor and they could not find out what was wrong, but she was not getting any better.  She was so loyal to the team, never missed practice and was at every game. Even her senior year she still was around for everything, but would get sick quite often and had a hard time playing, but we kept a great relationship through all this.  She went off to college and we always would meet when she came back into town. We talked life lessons each time, and each time she said how playing soccer taught her so much. She now has a wonderful professional job in New York City and what she has learned through sports has helped her with everything she has accomplished in her professional life.  She still gets sick and has a hard time with her heath, but she never gave up and always pushed forward. Sports teaches you things like that.” -Amber Ashcraft, La Cueva High School Soccer

Winning takes time.  Championship teams aren’t built overnight.  In sports you have a coach and in life you have a boss.  You learn to take instruction, develop patience and become a member of a team.

“I tell my players that when we do something, we do it right and we do it that way every time.  I give our players and parents a booklet every year.  It talks about how to perform under pressure.  They understand that the role of discipline and self-sacrifice play an important part of being successful.  Experiencing the pains of commitment and the thrill and joy of success is an integral part of being a basketball player; those same feelings that will be experienced in the real world.” -Marty Zeller, Los Lunas High School Girls Basketball, 41 Years of Coaching

Athletes must respect their coaches, officials, teammates, and their opponent.  It is important to recognize the worth of another.

“As an athlete, I think the biggest thing I gained was confidence to pursue. I learned how to set my sights on something and be willing to put in the work even if I had underlying doubts.  It’s the idea of relentlessly putting one foot in front of the other, even when things get hard.  Along with that came an ability to give to and receive from others in a collective effort.” -Kathy Hipwood, Los Alamos High School Cross Country

Morals and ethics come into play every day in sports.  Honesty and adherence to the rules is a foundation of every game. Many coaches will tell you that with some athletes it takes time and patience for them to realize their self-worth and value, but people can develop into some of the strongest members of their team when they realize there are no short cuts.

“My suggestions are to smile when the headwind makes us work harder, laugh when we fall down bleeding, and never let anyone else control our emotions.” -Tim Host, ATC Cross Country

Responsibility

Taking accountability is a major characteristic of successful student athletes. Participating in sports brings many obligations, to your teammates, to your coach,  and to your academics.

“I had a athlete that started wrestling his sophomore year with no prior experience. He was failing in school and was ineligible to compete. His junior year, he was 2.8 GPA student with a less than .500 win percentage. His senior year, he was a 3.4 GPA student and made the state finials! I believe the lessons he learned on the mat has transformed him to the man he is today, being a highly well-respected police officer.” -Nate Sellers, Miyamura High School Wrestling

Athletes can learn about caring for another as their coach cares for them.  Young adults can witness, first hand, the sympathy and care for the suffering of others.  Coaches themselves can relate to another’s pain because it’s something they might have gone through themselves at one time.

“ The one incident that stands out to me was a life-long lesson learned by one of my athletes that decided they were going to run away from home with their significant other as a sophomore in high school.  The couple had purchased bus tickets, and this athlete informed their grandparents they were living with, that they were leaving.  The athlete was begged to stay and of course did not.  The grandmother called me in the middle of the night begging me to talk to this individual as the departure time was getting closer.  At first I was hesitant, but then I thought – ‘what if this was my kid doing this and I had the confidence in their coach to try and assist during this time of need?’  So, of course, I jumped in the car and headed to the bus station. By the time I arrived, my athlete was on the bus, the grandmother was crying in the parking lot and I was thinking to myself – ‘What am I going to be able to say to change their mind?’  I boarded the bus, looked my athlete in the eye and explained how disappointed I was that they could disrespect their grandmother like this, disrespect themselves and let their teammates down.  The responsibility/commitment they made when becoming a part of the team was just about to be broken.  I cried, they cried….we talked about feelings, respect, etc., and just as the time for departure arrived, the athlete grabbed their belongings and got off the bus.  At this point, I don’t know who cried more…me, the athlete or the grandmother.  This event that happened was unfortunate, however, I believe the athlete learned some very valuable life lessons, as did I, having children of my own.  This individual had a very successful high school career both on and off the court and went on to play at the next level on a scholarship, graduated from college, married and has 3 beautiful children.  To me, this is what coaching is all about.” -George Maya, Mayfield High School Girls Basketball, 37 Years of Coaching

Dream Big, Anything Is Possible

At all levels, sports have given us memorable moments when we say ‘I can’t believe that just happened!’  Athletes think about what they want and forget all the reasons why it can’t become a reality.  They work hard to make their dreams come true.  If you believe it, you can achieve it.

“I had a student athlete who happened to have down syndrome.  She was on the dance team all 4 years of high school.  She participated in everything but competition.  Every year she would put on her uniform and get hair and makeup done for State.  She would join me up front and cheer on the team.  Her senior year, this young lady got to do the one thing left undone.  She walked down the ramp and this time her teammates joined me upfront and cheered her on as she performed on the PIT floor in front of 15,000 people.  I hope the lesson learned by my team and others, is that nothing is impossible.  We can all achieve our dreams, and maybe help someone else achieve theirs.” -Nicole List, Cheer/Dance Coach

All of those lessons we learn from competing.  We haven’t even touched on how sports can teach loyalty, leadership, and maturity. Sometimes self-improvement can’t be measured in wins, losses, time or distance.  Self-improvement is connected to one’s determination in the face of unexpected obstacles.

I’d like to finish with this thought.  Adversity is a part of life. Never quit.  That’s the lesson Heath Ridenour says sports taught him, both as a player and a coach.  “Find the light amidst the darkness,” he reminds others.  “Overwhelm the negative thought with a positive action.  Choose to wake up and win every single day.  This applies to athletics, but it is 100% relevant in every aspect of life as well.”

Spoken like a true coach.

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Exploring Life Lessons Learned Through Sports: An Essay

Sports have long been a beloved pastime, bringing individuals and communities together to enjoy the thrill of competition. However, beyond the excitement of the game, participating in sports can offer invaluable life lessons that extend far beyond the playing field. In this essay, I will explore the powerful connection between sports and life lessons , highlighting how this relationship can foster personal growth, build character, and enable individuals to navigate life’s challenges with confidence and resilience.

Whether it’s learning the value of hard work, developing teamwork skills, or overcoming adversity, sports have the power to teach individuals important life lessons that can be applied far beyond the boundaries of the game. Through this essay, we will delve deeper into this connection, examining how sports can impact individuals both on and off the field.

Key Takeaways:

Enhancing personal growth, teamwork, and resilience: the importance of sports in life, life lessons from playing sports, life lessons in sports, sports and character development essay, what are some life lessons that can be learned through sports, how does participating in sports contribute to personal growth, can sports teach important values such as perseverance and sportsmanship, do the life lessons learned through sports translate into success in other areas of life, how can sports help in character development, can you provide examples of famous athletes who exemplify the life lessons learned through sports, is it necessary to be a professional athlete to learn life lessons through sports, related posts:.

• Sports offer invaluable opportunities for personal growth and development.
• Participating in sports can teach individuals important life lessons, including the value of hard work and perseverance.
• Teamwork and collaboration in sports can translate into success in other areas of life.
• By fostering resilience and character development, sports can play a vital role in helping individuals navigate life’s challenges.
• Sports and life lessons are deeply interconnected, highlighting the transformative power of this beloved pastime.

Participating in sports provides numerous benefits beyond physical fitness. Sports can offer opportunities for personal growth, teamwork, and resilience that extend far beyond the playing field. As someone who has played sports throughout my life, I can speak to the transformative power of sports in shaping character and instilling valuable life lessons.

One of the most important lessons I have learned through sports is the value of discipline. To be successful in sports requires dedication, commitment, and a willingness to put in hard work. These same qualities are essential for success in other areas of life, including academics, career, and personal relationships. Through sports, I have learned to set goals, work towards them consistently, and to persevere through obstacles and setbacks.

Teamwork is another critical skill developed through sports. In team sports, success depends on the collective effort of all players working together towards a common goal. Learning how to collaborate effectively with others, communicate clearly, and support your teammates is essential not only in sports but also in professional and personal situations. Sports teach us that success is not just about individual achievement but also about the contributions we make to the team.

Finally, sports can teach us the value of resilience. In sports, we experience both victories and defeats. The ability to bounce back from losses and setbacks, to learn from mistakes and to keep going despite challenges is a valuable lesson that applies to all areas of life. Sports can teach us to cultivate a growth mindset, to view failure as an opportunity to learn and to continue striving towards our goals.

In conclusion, participating in sports can offer great benefits beyond physical fitness. By providing opportunities for personal growth, teamwork, and resilience, sports can help us develop essential life skills and character traits that extend far beyond the playing field. As we continue to explore life lessons learned through sports in this essay, I hope to inspire others to recognize the value of participating in sports and the positive impact it can have on our lives.

Reflecting on the lessons learned through sports, it is clear that participating in athletic activities is about much more than just winning games or competitions. Sports can have a profound impact on character development, teaching us valuable life lessons and skills beyond just physical ability.

From teamwork and communication to perseverance and leadership, playing sports can help individuals develop essential life skills. Through the ups and downs of competition, players learn the importance of resilience and the value of hard work. These lessons extend far beyond just the realm of sports, shaping who we are as individuals both on and off the field.

Through sports, we learn important life lessons about resilience, teamwork, and discipline. We discover how to overcome adversity and work together towards a common goal. These lessons often translate into success in other areas of life, be it in education, career, or personal relationships.

Participating in sports provides opportunities for character development, instilling values such as respect, responsibility, and perseverance. Through sports, we learn how to work with others, overcome challenges and set goals for ourselves. These experiences help shape us into well-rounded individuals, equipped with the skills and mindset necessary to succeed in life.

In conclusion, sports have a transformative power to shape our lives and teach us valuable life lessons. By participating in athletic activities, we gain important skills and experiences that help us become better individuals, leaders, and team players. The impact of sports on character development cannot be overstated, and it is clear that the lessons learned through sports can last a lifetime.

Through sports, individuals can learn important life lessons such as teamwork, discipline, resilience, and leadership.

Participating in sports can contribute to personal growth by helping individuals develop essential skills, gain confidence, and learn how to overcome challenges.

Yes, sports can teach valuable values such as perseverance, sportsmanship, fair play, and respect for others.

Absolutely, the life lessons learned through sports, such as teamwork and discipline, can translate into success in various aspects of life including academics, careers, and personal relationships.

Sports can help in character development by teaching individuals important traits such as integrity, resilience, humility, and accountability.

Sure, some famous athletes who exemplify the life lessons learned through sports include Michael Jordan (perseverance), Serena Williams (resilience), and LeBron James (leadership and community involvement).

No, you do not have to be a professional athlete to learn life lessons through sports . Participation in sports at any level can provide valuable experiences and opportunities for personal growth.

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Life lessons sports have taught me, they will be everlasting..

When my sister and I were younger, our parents encouraged my sister and I to participate in many sports so that we were able to make the decision of what we wanted to focus on. Obviously, you don’t stick with all of them. Either you pick your favorites or your parents pick for you. I was fortunate enough to be able to pick what I wanted to do myself. However, athletics taught me important life lessons that I carry with me every day. I will never forget these life lessons that my sports have taught me. They have made me a better person and shaped me into the person I am today. I am still learning new lessons every day from sports and my team. Sports, in my opinion, consistently make you a better person.

Here are the life lessons that they have taught me:

1. Sportsmanship

I learned this one very early on. It may not be easy, but it is important. It makes you a better person. But what is sportsmanship? When I did gymnastics, during awards, I shook the other gymnast’s hands. I did not only shake the hands of those I had beaten but also the hands of those who had beaten me. Although we are all competitors, this lesson has been instilled from childhood that everyone is trying to succeed and that there is always someone better. Good things will come to those who congratulate others on their effort and victories.

2. Hard Work

I have always been known as the hard worker no matter what. My parents have a good work ethic, so I guess it was natural for me to take after them. I really live by the saying “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” Even if you aren’t the most talented person, hard work means more. You must work hard in life in order to achieve your goals and fulfill your dreams. It sounds corny, but hard work does pay off.

3. Optimism

Optimism is not always easy. It is very easy to get down on yourself, get mad at your coaches, or say “I can’t.” However, sports teach you that you can’t just throw your hands up in the air and give up. This type of negative attitude is detrimental, and I have learned the same in real life situations. Negativity only hurts you. Positivity is what will help you. I am a “look at the glass half full” kind of girl thanks to my sports.

4. Confidence

I have learned that in sports you have to believe in yourself. Whether it was me doing a beam routine in gymnastics (I hated beam) or doing a 5k on the rowing machine, confidence is necessary. When I was doing gymnastics and had to do beam routines, I had to be confident. If you weren’t, the judges would know it, and you would probably fall. After all, the beam is four feet high and only four inches wide. In real life outside of sports, you can’t walk into a job interview without confidence. You need to be ready to answer questions and prove to the interviewer that you deserve the job, which could have hundreds of other applicants. Confidence will set you apart from the others.

5. Fight For It

When the going gets tough, the tough get going -- that is what my old gymnastics coach used to tell me. In gymnastics, I needed to fight for every tenth of a point. People win meets by a fifth of a tenth or something ridiculously close. Fight to stay on the balance beam, even if you have a huge wobble. The wobble usually won’t be as big of a deduction as the fall. Fight for that A in your Spanish class. Fight for that dream job. Fight for everything, because everything in life matters, and you are supposed to fight. You were put on this Earth to fight and to make the best of your life.

6. Teamwork

In gymnastics, you had a team you practiced with, conditioned with, and showed up at meets with. However, you didn’t win with this team and this team didn’t cheer for you. If they did cheer for you, it was meaningless. They were out for themselves. They wanted to win for themselves. Gymnastics being a team sport is a facade, pretending to be something it’s not (unless you are on a collegiate team). When I transitioned to the sport of rowing, I learned what a team truly is. You aren’t on your own in the sport of rowing. You are pulling for you and eight other girls (or you and four other girls). That is a team sport. I want to be a broadcast journalist when I grow up, on television anchoring the news or reporting on a sports event. To do that, I will need a team. I will need producers, cameramen, and a crew. I will no longer have my rowing crew, but I will have a crew. I will have a team. You won’t get anywhere on your own in life. In every career, you need a team. You need other people to reach your goals and you need other people to win in life.

7. Dedication and Commitment

Sports have taught me dedication. Once you start something, you need to finish it. Even if you want to quit or give up on something, you need to finish what you started. In gymnastics, if my teammates wanted to quit the sport, they would wait until the end of the season to do so. It is disrespectful to give up on yourself and on your teammates mid-season. This applies to real life as well. If you are in the middle of a project, you won't quit. You need to finish the project to get the grade.

8. Time Management

Sports have taught me how to manage my time wisely. When I did gymnastics, I would practice for at least five hours a day. I would practice 30 to 40 hours a week and needed to do homework in addition to that. I would get my homework done before practice, and at one point, I even went on a modified schedule to be able to have more time for schoolwork. I grew up with the mentality that academics came first. I could participate in my sports as long as my grades were up to par.

I feel very privileged that I was able to be so involved in sports growing up. I can’t imagine what I would do without them in my life. They have shaped me into the person I am today, and without them, I may not have ever learned these valuable life lessons that I carry with me.

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25 beatles lyrics: your go-to guide for every situation, the best lines from the fab four.

For as long as I can remember, I have been listening to The Beatles. Every year, my mom would appropriately blast “Birthday” on anyone’s birthday. I knew all of the words to “Back In The U.S.S.R” by the time I was 5 (Even though I had no idea what or where the U.S.S.R was). I grew up with John, Paul, George, and Ringo instead Justin, JC, Joey, Chris and Lance (I had to google N*SYNC to remember their names). The highlight of my short life was Paul McCartney in concert twice. I’m not someone to “fangirl” but those days I fangirled hard. The music of The Beatles has gotten me through everything. Their songs have brought me more joy, peace, and comfort. I can listen to them in any situation and find what I need. Here are the best lyrics from The Beatles for every and any occasion.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make

The End- Abbey Road, 1969

The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are you

Dear Prudence- The White Album, 1968

Love is old, love is new, love is all, love is you

Because- Abbey Road, 1969

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be

All You Need Is Love, 1967

Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend

We Can Work It Out- Rubber Soul, 1965

He say, "I know you, you know me", One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come Together- Abbey Road, 1969

Oh please, say to me, You'll let me be your man. And please say to me, You'll let me hold your hand

I Wanna Hold Your Hand- Meet The Beatles!, 1964

It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. They've been going in and out of style, but they're guaranteed to raise a smile

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band-1967

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see

Strawberry Fields Forever- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Can you hear me? When it rains and shine, it's just a state of mind

Rain- Paperback Writer "B" side, 1966

Little darling, it's been long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it' s been here. Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun, and I say it's alright

Here Comes The Sun- Abbey Road, 1969

We danced through the night and we held each other tight, and before too long I fell in love with her. Now, I'll never dance with another when I saw her standing there

Saw Her Standing There- Please Please Me, 1963

I love you, I love you, I love you, that's all I want to say

Michelle- Rubber Soul, 1965

You say you want a revolution. Well you know, we all want to change the world

Revolution- The Beatles, 1968

All the lonely people, where do they all come from. All the lonely people, where do they all belong

Eleanor Rigby- Revolver, 1966

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

With A Little Help From My Friends- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better

Hey Jude, 1968

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday

Yesterday- Help!, 1965

And when the brokenhearted people, living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be.

Let It Be- Let It Be, 1970

And anytime you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain. Don't carry the world upon your shoulders

I'll give you all i got to give if you say you'll love me too. i may not have a lot to give but what i got i'll give to you. i don't care too much for money. money can't buy me love.

Can't Buy Me Love- A Hard Day's Night, 1964

All you need is love, love is all you need

All You Need Is Love- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly. all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird- The White Album, 1968

Though I know I'll never lose affection, for people and things that went before. I know I'll often stop and think about them. In my life, I love you more

In My Life- Rubber Soul, 1965

While these are my 25 favorites, there are quite literally 1000s that could have been included. The Beatles' body of work is massive and there is something for everyone. If you have been living under a rock and haven't discovered the Fab Four, you have to get musically educated. Stream them on Spotify, find them on iTunes or even buy a CD or record (Yes, those still exist!). I would suggest starting with 1, which is a collection of most of their #1 songs, or the 1968 White Album. Give them chance and you'll never look back.

14 Invisible Activities: Unleash Your Inner Ghost!

Obviously the best superpower..

The best superpower ever? Being invisible of course. Imagine just being able to go from seen to unseen on a dime. Who wouldn't want to have the opportunity to be invisible? Superman and Batman have nothing on being invisible with their superhero abilities. Here are some things that you could do while being invisible, because being invisible can benefit your social life too.

1. "Haunt" your friends.

Follow them into their house and cause a ruckus.

2. Sneak into movie theaters.

Going to the cinema alone is good for your mental health , says science

Considering that the monthly cost of subscribing to a media-streaming service like Netflix is oft...

Free movies...what else to I have to say?

3. Sneak into the pantry and grab a snack without judgment.

Late night snacks all you want? Duh.

4. Reenact "Hollow Man" and play Kevin Bacon.

America's favorite son? And feel what it's like to be in a MTV Movie Award nominated film? Sign me up.

5. Wear a mask and pretend to be a floating head.

Just another way to spook your friends in case you wanted to.

6. Hold objects so they'll "float."

"Oh no! A floating jar of peanut butter."

7. Win every game of hide-and-seek.

Just stand out in the open and you'll win.

8. Eat some food as people will watch it disappear.

Even everyday activities can be funny.

9. Go around pantsing your friends.

Even pranks can be done; not everything can be good.

10. Not have perfect attendance.

You'll say here, but they won't see you...

11. Avoid anyone you don't want to see.

Whether it's an ex or someone you hate, just use your invisibility to slip out of the situation.

12. Avoid responsibilities.

Chores? Invisible. People asking about social life? Invisible. Family being rude? Boom, invisible.

13. Be an expert on ding-dong-ditch.

Never get caught and have the adrenaline rush? I'm down.

14. Brag about being invisible.

Be the envy of the town.

But don't, I repeat, don't go in a locker room. Don't be a pervert with your power. No one likes a Peeping Tom.

Good luck, folks.

19 Lessons I'll Never Forget from Growing Up In a Small Town

There have been many lessons learned..

Small towns certainly have their pros and cons. Many people who grow up in small towns find themselves counting the days until they get to escape their roots and plant new ones in bigger, "better" places. And that's fine. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought those same thoughts before too. We all have, but they say it's important to remember where you came from. When I think about where I come from, I can't help having an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my roots. Being from a small town has taught me so many important lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

1. The importance of traditions.

Sometimes traditions seem like a silly thing, but the fact of it is that it's part of who you are. You grew up this way and, more than likely, so did your parents. It is something that is part of your family history and that is more important than anything.

2. How to be thankful for family and friends.

No matter how many times they get on your nerves or make you mad, they are the ones who will always be there and you should never take that for granted.

3. How to give back.

When tragedy strikes in a small town, everyone feels obligated to help out because, whether directly or indirectly, it affects you too. It is easy in a bigger city to be able to disconnect from certain problems. But in a small town those problems affect everyone.

4. What the word "community" really means.

Along the same lines as #3, everyone is always ready and willing to lend a helping hand when you need one in a small town and to me that is the true meaning of community. It's working together to build a better atmosphere, being there to raise each other up, build each other up, and pick each other up when someone is in need. A small town community is full of endless support whether it be after a tragedy or at a hometown sports game. Everyone shows up to show their support.

5. That it isn't about the destination, but the journey.

People say this to others all the time, but it takes on a whole new meaning in a small town. It is true that life is about the journey, but when you're from a small town, you know it's about the journey because the journey probably takes longer than you spend at the destination. Everything is so far away that it is totally normal to spend a couple hours in the car on your way to some form of entertainment. And most of the time, you're gonna have as many, if not more, memories and laughs on the journey than at the destination.

6. The consequences of making bad choices.

Word travels fast in a small town, so don't think you're gonna get away with anything. In fact, your parents probably know what you did before you even have a chance to get home and tell them. And forget about being scared of what your teacher, principle, or other authority figure is going to do, you're more afraid of what your parents are gonna do when you get home.

7. To trust people, until you have a reason not to.

Everyone deserves a chance. Most people don't have ill-intentions and you can't live your life guarding against every one else just because a few people in your life have betrayed your trust.

8. To be welcoming and accepting of everyone.

While small towns are not always extremely diverse, they do contain people with a lot of different stories, struggle, and backgrounds. In a small town, it is pretty hard to exclude anyone because of who they are or what they come from because there aren't many people to choose from. A small town teaches you that just because someone isn't the same as you, doesn't mean you can't be great friends.

9. How to be my own, individual person.

In a small town, you learn that it's okay to be who you are and do your own thing. You learn that confidence isn't how beautiful you are or how much money you have, it's who you are on the inside.

10. How to work for what I want.

Nothing comes easy in life. They always say "gardens don't grow overnight" and if you're from a small town you know this both figuratively and literally. You certainly know gardens don't grow overnight because you've worked in a garden or two. But you also know that to get to the place you want to be in life it takes work and effort. It doesn't just happen because you want it to.

11. How to be great at giving directions.

If you're from a small town, you know that you will probably only meet a handful of people in your life who ACTUALLY know where your town is. And forget about the people who accidentally enter into your town because of google maps. You've gotten really good at giving them directions right back to the interstate.

12. How to be humble .

My small town has definitely taught me how to be humble. It isn't always about you, and anyone who grows up in a small town knows that. Everyone gets their moment in the spotlight, and since there's so few of us, we're probably best friends with everyone so we are as excited when they get their moment of fame as we are when we get ours.

13. To be well-rounded.

Going to a small town high school definitely made me well-rounded. There isn't enough kids in the school to fill up all the clubs and sports teams individually so be ready to be a part of them all.

14. How to be great at conflict resolution.

In a small town, good luck holding a grudge. In a bigger city you can just avoid a person you don't like or who you've had problems with. But not in a small town. You better resolve the issue fast because you're bound to see them at least 5 times a week.

15. The beauty of getting outside and exploring.

One of my favorite things about growing up in a rural area was being able to go outside and go exploring and not have to worry about being in danger. There is nothing more exciting then finding a new place somewhere in town or in the woods and just spending time there enjoying the natural beauty around you.

16. To be prepared for anything.

You never know what may happen. If you get a flat tire, you better know how to change it yourself because you never know if you will be able to get ahold of someone else to come fix it. Mechanics might be too busy , or more than likely you won't even have enough cell service to call one.

17. That you don't always have to do it alone.

It's okay to ask for help. One thing I realized when I moved away from my town for college, was how much my town has taught me that I could ask for help is I needed it. I got into a couple situations outside of my town where I couldn't find anyone to help me and found myself thinking, if I was in my town there would be tons of people ready to help me. And even though I couldn't find anyone to help, you better believe I wasn't afraid to ask.

18. How to be creative.

When you're at least an hour away from normal forms of entertainment such as movie theaters and malls, you learn to get real creative in entertaining yourself. Whether it be a night looking at the stars in the bed of a pickup truck or having a movie marathon in a blanket fort at home, you know how to make your own good time.

19. To brush off gossip.

It's all about knowing the person you are and not letting others influence your opinion of yourself. In small towns, there is plenty of gossip. But as long as you know who you really are, it will always blow over.

Grateful Beyond Words: A Letter to My Inspiration

I have never been so thankful to know you..

I can't say "thank you" enough to express how grateful I am for you coming into my life. You have made such a huge impact on my life. I would not be the person I am today without you and I know that you will keep inspiring me to become an even better version of myself.

You have taught me that you don't always have to strong. You are allowed to break down as long as you pick yourself back up and keep moving forward. When life had you at your worst moments, you allowed your friends to be there for you and to help you. You let them in and they helped pick you up. Even in your darkest hour you showed so much strength. I know that you don't believe in yourself as much as you should but you are unbelievably strong and capable of anything you set your mind to.

Your passion to make a difference in the world is unbelievable. You put your heart and soul into your endeavors and surpass any personal goal you could have set. Watching you do what you love and watching you make a difference in the lives of others is an incredible experience. The way your face lights up when you finally realize what you have accomplished is breathtaking and I hope that one day I can have just as much passion you have.

SEE MORE: A Letter To My Best Friend On Her Birthday

The love you have for your family is outstanding. Watching you interact with loved ones just makes me smile . You are so comfortable and you are yourself. I see the way you smile when you are around family and I wish I could see you smile like this everyday. You love with all your heart and this quality is something I wished I possessed.

You inspire me to be the best version of myself. I look up to you. I feel that more people should strive to have the strength and passion that you exemplify in everyday life.You may be stubborn at points but when you really need help you let others in, which shows strength in itself. I have never been more proud to know someone and to call someone my role model. You have taught me so many things and I want to thank you. Thank you for inspiring me in life. Thank you for making me want to be a better person.

Waitlisted for a College Class? Here's What to Do!

Dealing with the inevitable realities of college life..

Course registration at college can be a big hassle and is almost never talked about. Classes you want to take fill up before you get a chance to register. You might change your mind about a class you want to take and must struggle to find another class to fit in the same time period. You also have to make sure no classes clash by time. Like I said, it's a big hassle.

This semester, I was waitlisted for two classes. Most people in this situation, especially first years, freak out because they don't know what to do. Here is what you should do when this happens.

Don't freak out

This is a rule you should continue to follow no matter what you do in life, but is especially helpful in this situation.

Email the professor

Around this time, professors are getting flooded with requests from students wanting to get into full classes. This doesn't mean you shouldn't burden them with your email; it means they are expecting interested students to email them. Send a short, concise message telling them that you are interested in the class and ask if there would be any chance for you to get in.

Attend the first class

Often, the advice professors will give you when they reply to your email is to attend the first class. The first class isn't the most important class in terms of what will be taught. However, attending the first class means you are serious about taking the course and aren't going to give up on it.

Keep attending class

Every student is in the same position as you are. They registered for more classes than they want to take and are "shopping." For the first couple of weeks, you can drop or add classes as you please, which means that classes that were once full will have spaces. If you keep attending class and keep up with assignments, odds are that you will have priority. Professors give preference to people who need the class for a major and then from higher to lower class year (senior to freshman).

Have a backup plan

For two weeks, or until I find out whether I get into my waitlisted class, I will be attending more than the usual number of classes. This is so that if I don't get into my waitlisted class, I won't have a credit shortage and I won't have to fall back in my backup class. Chances are that enough people will drop the class, especially if it is very difficult like computer science, and you will have a chance. In popular classes like art and psychology, odds are you probably won't get in, so prepare for that.

Remember that everything works out at the end

Life is full of surprises. So what if you didn't get into the class you wanted? Your life obviously has something else in store for you. It's your job to make sure you make the best out of what you have.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, writing an essay about a sport.

Hey everyone, I want to write an essay about my experience playing a sport in high school. How can I make sure my essay stands out and doesn't come across as cliché? Any tips for showcasing it in a unique way? Thanks!

Hi there! It's great that you want to write about your high school sports experience in a unique way. Remember, it's not the topic itself that's cliché, but rather how the story is told. Here are some tips to help your essay stand out:

1. Focus on a specific moment: Instead of writing about your entire sports journey, concentrate on a singular event, experience, or turning point. This approach will allow you to delve deeper into the emotions and lessons that arose from that situation.

2. Reflect on personal growth: Use the sport as a backdrop for a larger story about your personal development. Maybe playing on the team taught you valuable time management skills or it helped you forge meaningful relationships. Discuss how these experiences have shaped you and contributed to your personal growth.

3. Be authentic and genuine: Don't exaggerate your achievements or experiences. Authenticity will always be more engaging than hyperbole. Be honest and share your true feelings and thoughts in the essay.

4. Show, don't tell: Use sensory details, anecdotes, and dialogues to paint a vivid picture of your sporting experiences. Instead of simply stating what happened or how it impacted you, engage the reader with descriptive elements that immerse them in the story.

5. Avoid common themes: Steer clear of emphasizing sports victories or injuries as the central theme of your essay. Focus on unique aspects of your experience that are less likely to be covered in other sports-related essays.

6. Connect to your future goals and aspirations: Tie your sports experience to your future academic or career ambitions. Explain how the skills and lessons you've learned through sports can be applied in college and beyond.

For example, rather than discussing how your team won the state championship, you could write about a specific moment when you overcame self-doubt or anxiety during a critical game. Reflect on how this experience taught you to trust yourself and your abilities, and how this newfound confidence can be applied to various aspects of your life, including college and your future career.

You can also read more about how to creatively approach the sports story, and other common essay topics, on CollegeVine's blog: https://blog.collegevine.com/cliche-college-essay-topics. If you still aren't sure if your essay is unique enough, consider utilizing CollegeVine's Free Peer Essay Review Tool, or submitting your essay for a paid review by an expert college admissions advisor through CollegeVine's marketplace.

By following these guidelines and crafting your story in a unique and personal way, you can avoid the cliché pitfalls and create an engaging essay that leaves a lasting impression on college admissions officers. Good luck with your essay writing!

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

Life Lessons Learned from Sports

Do you think of Sports as only Fun and Games? Well, think again. Life lessons come entirely from living a life. Life is very simple but we tend to make it more complicated. Sport helps shape a person’s personality in meaningful and positive ways. Sport has often been called a metaphor for life. More often than not, the situations one faces in a game or on the field have plenty in common with life’s situations.

Ambition, Competition, Perseverance, Maintaining a ‘Can-do’ attitude . . . Sports teach us these plus many other necessary qualities needed to succeed in the journey of our lives. Overcoming obstacles is not easy—often not fun—but fortunately loaded with life lessons.

Character-Building through Sports

Our personality defines and impacts the course of our lives. Our destiny is in our own hands since we make choices and decisions every minute we live. These choices and decisions may seem to be the only options to us at the time we make them, but there are always options we have rejected due to our thinking patterns.

During our growing-up years, we form habits (both external and internal) and these define our personality for the rest of our lives unless we consciously work on changing them at some stage.

Every sport presents us with a goal and a challenge. When faced with a challenge, a person responds to it in a set manner according to his personality and internal habit. For example, there is a set pattern of responding to victory and defeat. How much one will strive to achieve a goal will also depend upon a person’s personality. One can learn a number of things about a person from the way he plays a sport.

Life Lessons from Sports

So, what are the key lessons we can learn from Sports that will apply to our lives as well? Setting realistic and high goals is one.

Stretching one’s limits enables a person to overcome wrong self-beliefs and achieve new heights in life. Persevering towards the achievement of that goal is another.

Tackling obstacles is an important aspect associated with persevering towards a goal. As we see so commonly all around us, some people give up too easily when faced with an obstacle, some try for some time and then give up, while there are some who try and try until they succeed.

Team work is another important aspect associated with Sports and one learns to work in a cooperative manner in order to succeed. “Teamwork is the ultimate goal.”

None of these qualities and life lessons can be dismissed as fun and play since these are the very foundations on which a successful life can be built.

Abhinav Bindra on Sport

As Abhinav Bindra says, “I believe that in an athlete’s life, winning is important, but the journey is more meaningful! The constant pursuit of overcoming one’s own limitations and always challenging the part of you that says you will not or cannot win! I am convinced that everybody has, at some time in their life, faced an equivalent.

Something that feels insurmountable. My, perhaps unsolicited, advice is to enjoy the ride! Let’s face it, roller coasters are far more thrilling than merry go rounds!”

Conclusion – Life Lessons , Sport

Sports are like life, in a nutshell. We can shape our own as well our children’s personality positively by imbibing the necessary qualities required for succeeding in any sport. Applied to our actual lives (off the sports field), these very qualities can transform a person from an Average Joe to a Superstar!!

• personal skills

About the Author

Richa mukherjee.

Richa is a writer and a life skills coach with seven years of work experience in training corporate professionals. She has trained employees in Soft skills, Sales and Business English.

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Home / Essay Samples / Sports / Training / Building Character Through Sports: Lessons for Life

Building Character Through Sports: Lessons for Life

• Category: Sports , Life
• Topic: Lebron James , Personal Growth and Development , Training

Pages: 4 (1774 words)

• Downloads: -->

Work Cited 

• Bieler, Des. “ LeBron James Turns 'Shut up and Dribble' Insult into Title of Showtime Series.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 7 Aug. 2018, 
• Doty, Joseph. “Sports Build Character?!” Journal of College & Character, vol. 5, no. 3, Apr. 2006, pp. 1–10. Google Scholar.
• Eime, Rochelle M, et al. “A Systematic Review of the Psychological and Social Benefits of Participation in Sport for Children and Adolescents: Informing Development of a Conceptual Model of Health through Sport.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity
• Fauzee, Omar. “The Strategies for Character Building through Sports Participation.” International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 2, no. 3, Mar. 2012, pp. 1–12.
• “Who Is LeBron James? Everything You Need to Know.” Facts, Childhood, Family Life, Achievements
• Wls, et al. “Teen Overcomes Incredible Odds to Become Valedictorian, Attend Alabama State.” ABC11 Raleigh-Durham, 10 Aug. 2018

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