The Little Things

      I've been playing more and more sports recently thanks to the weather getting better. The weather is still too cold for spring I think, but people from my church still play soccer on Sundays so I often join them. I also continue to play a lot of basketball, especially since I can use the gym at my school for free. I really enjoy both playing and watching sports, and I hope I can keep playing for a long time.
      The more I play basketball, the more I realize what makes a good player and a good team. When I play at the recreation center at my school, I see people ranging from very good to very bad. Also, I see a big difference when I play with people at the gym and people at my church. I've been watching a channel on Youtube called "Bballbreakdown" where a high school coach will look at footage from NBA basketball games and breakdown the different parts of the game. This really helped me learn and understand more about how to play good basketball.
      Why am I talking about this? The reason is because I noticed something very important; the best teams are the ones that have players that do the little things. In basketball for example, the team that usually wins is the one that plays good positional defense, takes good shots, and gets rebounds. Rebounds are a great way to judge if a person is putting effort into the game. While getting rebounds is tedious and unexciting, without rebounds a team will never win games. It's a small thing, but you have to do it to win games.
      People often judge players by how athletic or skilled they are. However, I don't believe physical ability is the only thing that is necessary to become a great player. I came up with a rule for sports; the 60-30-10 rule. It pretty much says that (most) sports are 60% mental, 30% effort, and 10% physical. A person can have the greatest athleticism ever, but if he doesn't know what he is doing and doesn't put effort into the game, they will be very bad. In order to become great one has to learn how to do the little things.
      This goes beyond just sports though. If you want to do well in life, you have to do the little things. No one enjoys studying, eating well, going to work on time, exercising or the like, but these things are necessary to becoming a better person. Jesus commanded us to love one another, and a great way to show our love is through small things. For example, you could hold a door for someone, smile at someone, let someone in front of you, and the list goes on. All it takes is a little effort, but it's a great way to show people you love them.
-Smart