Inspiring a Boy to Practice and Acquire Character Through Sports

 This generation, more than any other, is a visual one.  Many will form their ideal views of what it means to be a hero or what it means to act with courageous character from the movies, video games or professional sports.  Sometimes this is good; there are occasionally depictions of good men who demonstrate courageous character.  But more times than not, these images lack clarity and often reinforce distorted images of courage and virtuous character.  If we leave this image to be constructed within the hearts and minds of our boys to the actor or the athlete, we will lose this generation and those to come.

We have many great opportunities to encourage the actions and behaviors of our sons, when they practice courage, good judgment, emotional control and concern for others in the course of playing sports.  Here is an example of what I would call a “Courageous Character Challenge Visual”. 



Add pictures of your son or player at the bottom, in the act
of practicing courageous character

 

This one, I put together for one of my sons who is beginning to consider the idea that being a strong and courageous man is not something he will wake up one day and “just be”.  As Vince Lombardi said directly about “winning” he more subtly implies that the development of courageous character, is “not a sometime thing”.  To determine to grow into a man of strength and courage, a boy must make practicing things that require strength and courage a regular thing, an “all time thing”.  This means that in the halls of school, on the playgrounds and in social settings and hundreds of times per practice and in games, he is given the opportunity to choose courage over cowardice and complacency.  Each time he chooses to act courageously, he reorients ever so slightly his nature from one of self-preservation that sticks to the path of least resistance to one of courageous character.

One typical challenge for coaches and parents is to ignite the imagination of their boys.  The typical youth athlete is extremely motivated to improve upon skills in the areas that provide immediate gratification.  In basketball, it is shooting and dribbling, for soccer it is scoring and handling the ball, in football it is running the ball, passing and catching.  Many of these young athletes do so in order to win, to dominate their opponents or to simply “look cool”.  And yet, what can be most important for our boys is to learn that practicing not just the “glory” things, but the little things “perfectly”, “all the time” (again as extolled by Lombardi) is what  changes the character of a boy into a productive man, a man of courageous character.  These “little things” might be practicing every drill hard no matter how tired one gets and after others have thrown in the towel; or it might be taking a charge for the team; it may be practicing a pick to perfection so that in the big game it effectively gets another open for the “glory shot”.  None of this comes from chasing perfection during a game, it becomes a reality only when one walks it, jogs it, and executes it at game speed hundreds of times in practice, sometimes failing and sometimes succeeding, so that the moment when everything rides on executing it, practice has birthed an instinctive reaction that “just does” and does so “perfectly”.

How a boy acts and plays during practice and in games shapes his character for life.  Challenge him and teach him the virtue of “perfect practice” in all things.