Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web CincySportsWorld.com

Patience in Sports

James 1:3-4 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

There are several qualities and/or character traits that parents, teachers and coaches would unanimously agree on as important for young men and women. Some of them are expected to be developed during the formative years, and then there is patience. Spiritually, patience is a major piece in building and maintaining faith. Or shall we say that faith is required to build and maintain patience? Faith is an intangible substance, but a requirement to please God. Both attributes are the reason for another expectation of fulfillment---hope. To steal a phrase from a movie, “hope floats”. You cannot sink a persons hope if it is grounded in faith and patience. Each trait individually could be the foundation of a lesson by itself. You will have to patiently wait on “faith” and “hope” lessons because the development of patience is where we are going.

As related to sports the term patience is always used in team and individual sports alike. In baseball both the hitter and the pitcher are encouraged to be patient. That is probably why an uninformed viewer would consider a pitcher/batter duel as boring. First the pitcher is patiently trying to set the hitter up. Likewise the hitter is patiently waiting on his pitch to hit. Basketball players are almost always coached to let the game come to them. This merely means to be patient and don’t force the action. Running backs in football are considered better if they can run really fast and hard, while patiently waiting for their blocking to develop. Individual sports like boxing, tennis and even golf speak of the virtues of patience. How can we teach this intangible trait? God teaches us that it will make us perfect, entire and leave us wanting nothing. It is also widely believed to be a virtue or a good moral quality. The most prevalent belief is that patience should not be expected of a young person. The reason for this misconception is the feeling that only experience can teach this quality. The fact is that patience can grow and manifest if you can look at the whole picture. An example would be freshman in either high school or college. Occasionally they feel that the older players are given first priority on playing time and practice repetitions. Younger players tend to be more focused on their isolated perspective and can’t understand the concept of “waiting your turn“. They look solely at the opinion that they, the freshman, has more ability and/or skill. This may or may not be true but that is in no way the issue in a team game. The program will always be stronger than any one individual. The upper classman has earned the right to at the very least begin the season ahead of the younger player. Younger players view this sign of loyalty and reward for service as either a terrible judge of talent or a personal attack on their abilities. This is a prime time for patience to help weather the storm or hardship. This is the time when patience is learned. A person must learn to understand that we all must persevere through times of definite unfairness. The part that is not going to be understood is that through the trials and tribulations of life you must fight to see the lesson to be learned. One would have to agree that this level of maturity takes time. But the request is not to understand the concept of hardships teaching wonderful lessons. The main prayer is that the young person has faith in the parent, teacher or coach to accept that the mentor in the situation has experience at determining what is best for all involved. This will often times seem unfair to a particular individual. Wait your turn. What happens far too often is a feeling of entitlement that prevents the impatient person from seeing the total picture. They remain in their own little tunnel-vision world and take the situation far to personal. Now they don’t practice as hard because they feel slighted. When fueled by an outsiders point of view they now have an attitude about the situation. What is not recognized by our young folks is that occasionally being put in a position to be patient is a deliberate test to observe their reaction. How will this young player react when there is some adversity? Will they show patience and continue to prove themselves or will they quit and point fingers? Granted, patience grows slowly and may only come with practice. Everyone must deal with different situations that require longsuffering and tolerance. Believe in yourself and your ability to withstand adversity. Confidence builds patience. Be confident that God will never leave you or forsake you. If the situation is seemingly not right, try to see the big picture. God believes in you so be patient! Have faith that even though you can’t always see or understand the benefit to patience------ there is always one. Life will always try your faith, hope and patience. But if you work at it God says that you can become whole, wanting nothing. Imagine that-----WANTING NOTHING!

                                                                                 Fred Tudor

Fred Tudor is a eighteen year employee of the Cincinnati Public Schools as a Health and Physical Education teacher. He has been coaching at the high school level in Greater Cincinnati since graduating from Wittenberg University in 1979. His coaching stints includes stops at his alma mater Walnut Hills High School, Hughes Center High School, and from 1990 until present coaches at Wyoming High School. His church home is Cincinnati Bibleway Church in Madisonville, Apostles James and Grace Blue Pastors.

Contact Information: 513.363.7675 E-Mail: Info@CincySportsWorld.com