A Focus for Passing on the Game

I figure that in order for me to tackle this topic well, I need at least a two things: an outline and a focus.

The outline I will list in my next post. My focus I will explain right here.

Essentially, I have decided that in order to best address this topic, I will explain all I have to say through the grid of the game of basketball. Of course, sports in general are my focus, but I think I can serve everyone best if I use one particular game as one example through which we can make application to all other games (and hopefully, even other things in life). I have chosen to do this for a few reasons.

First, it is easily the game I know best and the one particular game that has always been preeminent in my family (and in my life). In fact, I don’t think it is exaggerating things to say that someone’s basketball season has been an important part of our family for something around the last 60 years. My Grandfather started it all with a College career and over 30 years of Coaching. My Dad continued to trend by playing and Coaching. My Uncles also did the same. My brother and I then moved things along by playing together at the collegiate level. My younger sisters are also still very involved in the game as well (my older sister coaches my younger sister with my Dad’s help). Not only that, but as far as I can tell, I will probably spend the rest of my life enjoying and imparting the game in some way, shape or form. For me, there is just no escaping the fact that I was created to spend my life in the world of basketball.

Of course, sports in general were always a big part of Crispin family life. We played (and my Grandfather and Dad and Uncle coached) baseball and football and soccer and others. But there was never any question which sport came first – basketball. In fact, when people ask me when I first started to play the game, I can answer honestly ‘From the time I could hold a baby-sized ball.’ In the Crispin family, it simply all came back (and still comes back) to hoops. Though we enjoyed other sports and often worked pretty hard at them, dinner conversations revolved around the game of basketball. The gym is where we headed first. Our backyard always had to have a basket. When my brother and I were kids, we thought the title ‘basketball ball boys’ was a badge of honor. There was just no escaping it. We grew up with the game. Though we were never forced to play, in hindsight, our decision to play seems somewhat inevitable. Basketball was simply the athletic air we breathed from our childhood on up.

There may have been times where our commitment to hoops was a bit out of balance, but in all seriousness, that was probably in large part due to me (more on that later). More or less, our love for the game has been a very healthy thing in our family, a uniting force as it were, and one for which I am very, very thankful. Indeed, I am thankful enough to want to pass it on.

Second, I think that by specifically addressing hoops, you will have an easier time making wise application to whatever your sport or ‘game’ may be. Of course, many principles are just plain obvious and timeless and applicable not only to sports, but to all of life. However, there are certain basketball practices that I will address in a very specific basketball way. I do so knowing that you know your ‘game’ better than I do. So I have to believe that you will be able to see how my basketball examples apply to your golf or baseball or whatever-your-game examples. If not, let me know, but I think you will see this to be the case. Not only that, but I think you will find such focus pretty helpful. I certainly hope I am right.