My memories of sports, when I was at school, were always mixed. I used to love football, tennis and cricket, but hate Rugby, athletics and basketball.I also happened to not be very good at those sports. Coincidence? Maybe not. I would always put the effort in when playing any of those sports though, as letting the team down by not trying, whether I liked the sport, or was any good at it, was a no go for me. If you let people down doing your best, at least you know there was nothing else you could do at the time to avert a crisis. I found that my team mates would be respectful (during the sports that I did not like, and wasn't very good at), as long as they could see I was giving 100%. I in turn would offer the same respect to team mates I played with in my stronger sports, if I saw players struggling on the skill level, yet giving their all. Effort, to me, is the thing that drives us to get better, no matter what the odds against us are. It is what helps improve a shot or a sprint. It turns a slow time into a fast one.
Putting effort into a game, no matter how good you may be at a particular time, is what separates winners from losers. If you maintain a high level of effort in all you do, there will be many many things that you end up being good at. The things you are not so good at, will earn you respect for the passion you give to trying to be good at them. It is also easy. You don't need skill, effort is within all of us. Encouragement sometimes brings it out, derisery comments rarely do. Yet it is something we can all do. We can all as humans, as living creatures put effort into things, whether we think we are good at them,or not. On a sports team there is no excuse for not trying your best, and putting the effort into playing to a higher level.
It therefore puzzles me how many professional sports people, manage to look as though they are putting very little into what they are doing. Much of the time they are paid sums of money beyond the dreams of most people. They are also blessed to be far above the average in their chosen fields. So why do players, or athletes or any sports person not even have the audacity, at times, to put their all into what they do? Maybe it is because all the money drains ambition and effort. Maybe we all have off periods where we as humans cease to feel it necassary to commit the required hunger to improve and move forward with what we are doing. Perhaps certain people will suffer the sulks regardless of their standing within a sport and their rewards for it. It is a bad example to show the younger generation, who may learn that it is alright to stop putting the effort into something if you dont't like the way it is going, or simply don't have the heart for it that day. In my opinion there is never an excuse for noy trying and giving 100% in terms of effort. That is something we can all do.
