Why I Compete

Topic of day: Competition.  Ready for this? 

Tomorrow is District Auditions for piano and in a couple weeks we have State for volleyball.  I really enjoy competing. Sports didn't become competitive for me until middle school and in the beginning, it was the same as gymnastics and soccer and swimming; just for fun.  Now, as I play in my next to last year of volleyball, there is no such thing as playing volleyball "for fun" (I'm half kidding;)  Competing requires time and energy and passion.

Being a Christian and being competitive is a fine line.

I'm very competitive and really don't like losing.  Whether it be Flashlight Tag with my siblings or a volleyball match against Veritas, I'm going to give it my all.  As I've gotten older, I've been able to let things go :) but it'll always be there.

Sports provide countless opportunities to practice/learn patience, respect, perseverance ... things that are good.  Its not bad to want to win.  But how you do it is important.

Here are some things I've learned through sports:

Being a leader is not being the best.  As we learned at Worldview, a leader is anyone who has influence.  Being a leader sounds important, but you aren't a leader if you don't have followers.  And you won't have followers if you don't prove yourself to be worth following.  Nobody wants to follow a self centered, prideful person, even if they are talented.

Put in the time off the court and you'll put in time on the court.  Conditioning, practicing - it's part of being on the team. One of the things that bug me most are people (and this is NOT limited to volleyball) who expect to play without working or just because they joined.  That's one of the joys of varsity sports. You don't play if you don't work. People will say that's not fair, but is it?  Is it fair to ignore hard work?  Is it fair to reward laziness?  Hello - no. Sports aren't rewarding if that isn't true. If my coach wanted it all to be fair, he would have to let me play as a middle hitter.  That isn't fair to me not the team. Some of us are talented at sports, some of us are talented at school, some of us are artsy, some of us are mathematicians, and that's okay. But in the sports are a, you let the athlete play the most. And in the math arena, you let the math whiz shine.  (Okay, I just realized how long this paragraph is compared to others ... I'm a *little* opinionated on this topic:)

Thinking you are right doesn't make you right.  Ahh, yes, humility again.  Sometimes, players think they can see things that the coach another teammate can't. The player may be right, but more often than not, they aren't. And part of sports is accepting criticism and willing to learn new things, even if they seem "wrong."  Honestly, I prefer people correct me. Even if I don't like them or the criticism, I usually do need to fix whatever they're talking about.

You respect hard work more than you respect talent.  Even if a person isn't a good volleyball player, I know they'll do well down the road because they practice good character traits in practice and in games.  Even though a person may be a natural setter, if they aren't a hard worker, an encouraging team mate, or a respectful player, their talent will only take them so far.

Your parents can be your biggest fans.  I LOVE having my mom and dad come to games.  They're gut honest with me about me and the game and I really appreciate that.  And ever since JH, they've always acted like my games are important. And trust me, my JH games were sloooooow.  But they didn't act like that at all!  

As for piano competitions, it's different than volleyball because its all me. If I mess up, no one can save it. There's the upside of being responsible for the outcome and the downside of being by yourself.

Competing can be hard.  I get frustrated with myself. I get frustrated with my teammates and coaches. It's not all character building and fun, but it's worth it.  One of the biggest thing about competing with the team is the friendships.  I've been offered to play in other sports, but I keep coming back to volleyball because if the girls there. Nothing can replace the people.

 

Did you/are play(ing) sports?  What was/is your favorite thing about it?