“Whatever you do, do well.” (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

I spent the first fifteen years of my teaching career in a high school English classroom. I was never a strong English student in high school, so it must have surprised some when I chose that career path. I learned to love writing late in high school, and that love became a passion that drove me to excel in college. A college professor recommended me to check out John Irving – a highly successful writer and a former wrestling coach – and it was from my study of his works that I stumbled upon a favorite quote of mine: "Repetition without cease is obligatory, until the moves become second nature."

This is a line from Irving's Trying to Save Piggy Sneed, his 1982 collection of memoirs, fiction and homage. Irving writes that he learned more from the sport of wrestling than he did from creative writing classes. The crux of his message is that his success came from his ability to be diligent. "Good writing means rewriting, and good wrestling is a matter of redoing."

This scripture also reminds me of a famous Bruce Lee quote: "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." We do not accidentally do things well on a consistent basis; it takes hours of practice and countless repetitions to truly do things well on the field, on the mat, on the court, or wherever competition takes place.

One of the chief principles of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, the organization I chose to join as an undergraduate at Baker University, is diligence. This principle resounded with me as a naïve eighteen-year-old college freshman. It was something that had been engrained in my personal philosophy. I'd built much of my personal success on my value of careful and persistent work and effort.

The Book of Ecclesiastes discusses this idea, and perhaps one of the reasons it is my favorite book of the Bible is because I fully believe that hard work is good in itself. It goes right along with Christian principles in that when we make the effort to do our part in life, we are fulfilling our Christian duties. We must maintain this effort while keeping faith and reliance in God.

The Old Testament tells us that persistence and effort are the opposite of sloth, one of the seven deadly sins. God means for us to be industrious in life, and He loves when we devote our industriousness to the creation of good for humanity. The word industry comes from the Latin industria, meaning diligence, activity, and purpose.

In my experience as a wrestling coach and as a soccer coach, I've found great value in drills and games that require repetition. Yes, there's the risk of redundancy, but when done the right way, the idea of diligence and persistence can pay huge dividends.

It's a life lesson, in fact. We engage in sports as a means to prepare us for life, and as coaches, we recognize the value in the lessons that our respective sports impart to our athletes. An oft quoted line attributed to Aristotle is, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." With patience and dedication on the field of competition, our athletes can learn to apply these habits to their lives beyond sports. In the grander scheme of life, if we can teach our athletes to do everything to the best of their ability, we are fulfilling our role as Christian coaches. Our athletes will become champions in life as well.

Moment of Kaizen:

• Many drills that we run in our practices reinforce techniques, strategies, and concepts through repetition, but what can we do to minimize redundancy and boredom with these practices?
• What strategies do you utilize to teach your athletes the importance of diligence and hard work as a means to prepare for athletic success?
• How have you found success in getting your athletes to buy into your system and to believe in the process?

Related Passage: "So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up." (Galatians 6:9)

Reiterate to your athletes that your system is purposeful and designed to maximize their success. Get them to believe in the process and to be patient. After all, doing what's right and what's good is part of living a Christ-like life. This process is meant to reinforce behaviors that will do something greater than enable athletic success; it will bring us closer to Christ.

September 26, 2021

This article is a part of a series of Coaches Devotionals that I will be writing over the course of the next year. Please click here if you would like to receive email notifications when a new devotional is published.