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I have gotten away from my series for the past few weeks, Passing on the Game. So by way of reminder, my focus in this series is how we can love something and, in a healthy way, seek to pass on that love to our children. In my circumstance, I am talking about basketball, but my hope is that these principles will apply to many other things as well.

You can check out the outline here. Today we move on to point #7:

Emphasize the Importance and Rewards of Practice

I suppose I could say that as a professional basketball player, I have a somewhat unique style of play. At least on the offensive side of the ball, I tend to be effective, but usually not in the typical fashion. I score, but the way in which I score usually isn’t ‘normal.’ Oftentimes, I score in transition or make shots that most players won’t normally take. I might take a three from 28 feet, for example, or shoot a fadeaway jump shot off one foot.

Because I play this way, I often get some very interesting reactions from fans and even coaches. Oftentimes people have said, “I love to watch you play, but I do think you are a bit crazy!” Or my coaches may say, “That is never a good shot.”

The interesting thing about these statements (and the thing that applies to our point here), is that there is usually a thought process behind them that forgets about the importance and the rewards of practice. For more often than not, people assume a certain shot is crazy (and not a good one) simply because most players don’t shoot that kind of shot. They don’t ask themselves how much I have practiced that shot or for how many years I have been doing it. They just think, “I haven’t seen that much before, so it must be crazy.”

Naturally, I think this is a mistaken view of things. So if I have the chance to respond, I usually say, “I know it might seem crazy, but I don’t think you would think it so crazy if you could have seen the thousands and thousands of times I have made that shot before. Or if you considered the fact that I have been shooting many of those shots on a consistent basis for 18 years of my life. I agree it might be crazy for some people to shoot those shots. But that is because they never practice them. From my vantage point, I would be crazy not to shoot such shots, for I have been practicing them for years!”

More often than not, people will say, “Huh, I never thought about it that way before.” (Though coaches aren’t so quick to come around!) It’s an honest and faithful reply. And a very human one. For somehow, someway, we as human beings oftentimes forget the law of sowing and reaping. Especially, when it comes to sports, we often see only the reaping and thus, forget the thousands of practice hours that were invested into the few hours of play.

And our children do the same. At least when it comes to my children, they don’t naturally ‘get’ the law of sowing and reaping. Or they don’t want to. So I make it a point to emphasize time and again the importance and rewards of practice.

I might do it more than I need to, but I do not want my children to watch any sort of sport or listen to any musician and think only, “My, how gifted they are.” True as it may be, it is certainly not the whole truth. For often enough there is more talent sitting on a couch somewhere watching the same game. While recognizing the gifts, I also want them to recognize the hours of practice that went into developing those gifts.

So when a big free throw in made at the end of a game we are watching, I turn to my son and ask him, “Elijah, why did he make that free throw? Why was he prepared to do well in that moment?” He knows the answer, so he smiles and says, “He practiced.” Or when he watches Lionel Messi (the best soccer player in the world) score some incredible, even outrageous and unique, goal, I ask him the same. And he responds, “Practice.”

And so it goes for sports or math facts or music or whatever. I am desperate for my children to understand that if they want to reap well, they better sow well. If they want to enjoy the pleasures of greatness (or proficiency), they better practice.

But there is one more thing: I want them to understand that although there are many rewards to practice, proficiency really is one of the best. I want them to realize that if I am viewing things rightly, I practice with a view towards more pleasurable play. I want them to realize that when all is said and done, greater freedom and joy in playing the game can only be found when you put in the practice.

That makes sense right? Shooting a basketball is more fun when it actually has a good chance of going in. Playing a game (or an instrument) is more fun when you don’t have to think about what you are doing. You can just play. And guess what? You won’t have to think much if you put in good practice. Practice serves the pleasure of proficient performance (say that 10 times fast). Joyful play is the end goal. The pleasure of knowing God’s pleasure is what it is ultimately all about. Or at least what it should be about.

O how desperate we are for a generation of kids who will understand the importance and rewards of practice (in every area of life)! Let’s serve them well by emphasizing this point the way we ought.