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John Wooden once said,

You have to work hard, and you have to enjoy what you’re doing. If you don’t enjoy it, no matter how hard you seem to work, you’re not going to be working as hard as you can because you’re not enjoying it….Work without joy is drudgery. Drudgery does not produce champions, nor does it produce great organizations.

This is why point #6 in Passing on the Game is…

Make learning fun.

I have spent virtually my entire life playing basketball, so I suppose I don’t have a lot of experience out in the ‘real’ world (I think it should be called the ‘normal’ world by the way, because the professional sports world is plenty real), but it seems to me that no matter what you do, you inevitably do things better when you do them with joy. When you really love what you are doing, really believe in it, you are able to pour more of yourself into it. And it shows. You reap what you sow. Your energy and enthusiasm shines through your product.

This seems to be true on all levels. Whether making a work presentation, writing a blog post, caring for your kids, playing music or even doing a menial job. In anything. Your delight in your work may be the most important factor to doing good work. How much you enjoy doing what you do has a definite and even practical impact upon how well you do it.

Well, if this is true in most or all of life, it is especially true in sports. For good athletic competition demands your all. Indeed, as most athletes (of every level) will attest to, the joy of sports is found in giving your all. Wholehearted competition is where the freedom and fullness of play is found. And losing yourself in the game is hard to do if you are holding back.

Good practice is meant to be an extension of that sweet joy. It is not simply something you are supposed to endure because you have to, but something you should enjoy, something you should be able to lose yourself in.

This doesn’t mean it is always easy or even something you always want to do. It just means it is something you can find delight in. Sure, it might be difficult. But I think it is very human and very normal (or at least it should be normal) to find delight in doing difficult things or in mastering specific and very defined skills. In fact, I tend to think that we all have a few skills (or things) we would really love to master (and I mean legitimate things, not video games – though I have a few of them as well).

As a Christian, I believe the Lord created us not simply to develop the potential around us, but to also develop the potential within us. And if there is the potential and desire for athletic greatness (or even athletic half-decentness), then diligent practice is required. And not just any practice, but practice inundated with joy.

So with all that said, it is my belief that if we want to pass on the game well, we will do all we can to make learning fun. To make it easy to practice with delight.

How can we do so in a healthy manner? Here are a few thoughts…

1) Know that we can’t ultimately do so.

What I mean by that, is that when all is said and done, we don’t have full control over whether or not our child (or player) really loves to practice or play. I mean, a delight in the game isn’t something we can force on anyone. All we can do is fuel the fire. But if there is obviously no fire to begin with, well, what are you going to do, force one to burn? Practice until it does? Come on. We all know how that ends up.

The first step to making learning fun is to recognize that you aren’t the author of another’s love for the game. Healthy practice techniques start here.

2) Always come up with games and competition.

No matter what age or level, we all love to play games and to compete. At the very least we love a challenge. So on one hand, I could tell a kid, “Dribble with your right hand 100xs.” Or I could say, “See if you can walk around the court and dribble with your right hand without missing the line.” Chances are he will dribble 500xs walking around the court and enjoy it 5xs more.

Or I could say to my son, “Shoot 100 jumpshots.” He might make it to shot 27 and half-heartedly shoot most of them. So I like to say, “I am going to shoot at this end of the court and make 60 free throws. Do you think you can make 40 shots on your hoop before I do so?” Chances are he will fire up a ton of shots and enjoy every minute of it because he is trying to beat his dad.

This line of thinking also works well in the team realm. Not simply emphasizing play, but also emphasizing the challenge of mastering certain fundamental skills, both individually and as a team. The big key to this point, however, is that it usually requires more thought up front by the parent or coach. You can’t be lazy and employ this point well.

3) Emphasize imagination.

This might not have direct application to practicing every sport, but when it comes to practicing hoops, there is a definite link between a healthy imagination and a healthy delight in practice – especially when you are practicing by yourself. Think about it: How many great basketball players have spent hours upon hours in the gym or on the courts by themselves? What do you think they were doing? Just drills? No, they were playing hundreds of games and hitting thousands of game-winning shots with their imaginations.

At least that is what I did for hours on end as a kid. My home court at Kindle School wasn’t just a playground. When I was there, it turned into a place where imaginary games were played and won. I can’t tell you how many game winners I hit there (and how many I missed and had to go chasing because the ball bounced over the fence).

Of course I did my drills, but I spent more time at play, using my imagination, scoring all sorts of points, winning all sorts of championships. My imagination was key. Indeed, it was the primary reason why I usually didn’t want to leave.

I want my son to enjoy the same sorts of moments, so I will do all I can to fuel the fires of his imagination and to put him in the position to lose himself in such play. For even now I find that such imaginative times are the best practices of all.

In his book, The Breaks of the Game, David Halberstam spends some time profiling former Portland Trailblazers’ player, Lionel Hollins (now the coach of the Memphis Grizzlies). He writes,

Lionel Hollins had been in high school when Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe comprised the New York backcourt and the Knicks were the most exciting team in basketball. Television had loved the Knicks then, a great team in a major media market, three blacks, two whites in the starting lineup, and it had beamed their images into the tiny home in Las Vegas where Lionel lived. He soon came to idolize both guards. Walt Frazier’s poster – huge and in color, showing the great New York backcourt man, eyes sly as could be, almost hooded as if to conceal their devious intent, the steal –had adorned Lionel’s room. Hour after hour, Lionel had practiced on the court, not what some local coach told him to, but in the new modern manner, what he had seen, not Monroe’s spinning whirling dervish moves (for they were not natural to him) but the graceful moves and steals of Walt Frazier.

I think that serves as a great example of what I focused upon in one of my posts last week regarding the power of imitation in coaching/teaching. And there is no way he is the only one who can serve as such an example. Lionel Hollins owned his development as a player by in large part just practicing what he saw his favorite player do. It worked well for him not simply because he was talented, but because in doing so, he was tapping into the natural learning process. Imitating the moves of your heroes and practicing those moves time and time again is, in my opinion, not only a simple way to get better, but maybe the most effective of all.