Category: Sports

How Competitive are You?

On By bennettsportsgaloreIn competition, Sports, Team, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Competition, it’s everywhere, its in your schools. It finds ways into your friendships and it is most definitely in your athletics. Competition can be a good and bad depending on how you take it. Competition could drive you to do your best or it could push you to meet a specific goal. It also can be a bad thing like if you are so competitive that you start to cheat to win or even hurt your opponent just so you can beat them, that’s when it starts to get out of hand. I know sometimes I start to take competition the wrong way, like sometimes I’ll look at my opponent and try to be like them or perform as well as them instead of focusing on myself and how I can improve my own abilities.  Sometimes I start to compare myself to them and if I’m not as good as them in almost every physical aspect, then I will sit there and only focus on that while they are probably only worried about getting themselves better.

Litchfield Green Babe Ruth Baseball

I know a lot of times during football I would start to compare myself to other players. There was one game we lost this year against NLS. I looked at them coming onto their field and noticed how much bigger they were then our team and how fast they were so during our warm ups I spent a lot of the time just watching them and asking myself if I can be as fast as them instead of actually getting prepared for the game. So when the game came around It kinda hit me like a truck because I wasn’t prepared and ready to face a team of that size because the whole warmup instead of getting ready I was staring at them.  So it took me almost half way through the game to actually get focused and by then they were already up by too much for us to make comeback. If I would have just focused on myself and used the competition I had to push myself to get more prepared and ready I could have maybe played better and our team could have won that game. For the rest of that year instead of comparing myself to others or trying to get a head start to beat someone so it looked like I was faster, I started to use other team mates and motivation to drive myself to my goals.  I focused on getting myself faster and bigger. I started to focus on how big I was at the time instead of how much bigger others are then me and feeling bad because I am not like them.Dragon Football vs GSL Panthers

Don’t Doubt Us!

On By bennettsportsgaloreIn Doubt, Hard work, SportsLeave a comment

There are many times in our lives when we either experience people doubting other people or people doubting you specifically. We even end up doubting ourselves and the skills we lack at times. I see it happen all the time during sports, whether it is during a baseball game or a hockey/football practice, doubt is everywhere and you can’t avoid it. I know I have doubted other people whether it be that they do not have the right skills for a certain job or task. I even having a little problem doubting myself. A large part of the times during sports if I see a kid bigger or faster than me I start to doubt myself and say there is no way I can beat him. Once this happens I start to lose confidence, which lowers my ability to play and then I actually have no chance of keeping up with the opponent. Lately though I have been trying to tell myself I can do this, I kind of hype myself up and get ready to play against a good opponent. If I do not doubt myself and come in confidence I Play much, much better and usually end up either keeping up or beating the opponent.

Dragons Football vs WM Royals

One real life example could be last year during the hockey season, we were doing fairly well but Luverne was doing very good and winning many of their games by multiple points. At the beginning of the season we all set a goal for  ourselves that we were going to make to the state tournament no matter what. After almost every practice we would run sprints and do dry land for almost an hour trying to make sure that no team was more conditioned than us. It was showing too, almost every game we played you could see that in the third period each team was dog tired except for us. We ended up marching our way through the playoffs and making it to the finals. The team we had to go up against was Luverne. The game was pretty even throughout the whole thing until the third period hit. We had been working them the whole game and it showed because during the third period they could hardly skate while we were still fresh and cruising around. We ended up beating Luverne and moving on to the state tourney. Almost everyone that saw that matchup was doubting us because of how good they looked during the regular season, but when it came down to it we buckled down and defeated them.

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How Privileged are you?

On By bennettsportsgaloreIn Education, Privileges, SportsLeave a comment

There are many times in my life where either something doesn’t go my way or I don’t get what I want and I start to complain, but I never stop to think that there are many kids that don’t have what I have. There are many kids in the world that would like to play sports like I do but don’t have the privileges to. I know my life would be tough without sports so just to think that there are kids out there that don’t have the privilege to play or even try the sports they want to try is sad. Even with school, I always complain about how we get so much homework or how dumb school is, but there are many kids in the world that don’t ever get the chance to go to school and never get to get a good education.  I also have the privilege to say what I feel or think without getting into trouble unlike some countries where speaking your mind is illegal and not allowed.

LDC Boys Hockey vs Redwood Valley

I know our coaches in hockey and football are constantly reminding us that playing the sport is a privilege not a right and that there are many, many kids throughout the world that would kill to be where we are at, to be able to play sports but they are either not allowed or can’t afford it. Sometimes I get into my spoiled moods where I want everything to go my way, but when this happens I need to remember to think about all the kids that would die to be in the position I am in. Same with what we were, I have a cousin that goes to a school where they have uniforms and can’t wear what they want. I never realized how many privileges we have compared to other people. Like there are people who can hardly find a way to get food and water in the world and I am here complaining about getting too much homework. When I stop and think about what I am complaining about most of the time it is a pointless reason.

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Should You Really Do That?

On By bennettsportsgaloreIn Peer Pressure, SportsLeave a comment

Lets say you are at a party, all your closest friends are there and everyone is having a good time. An hour or two passes by and you notice that a chunk of your friends are gone. You go out to look for them and soon enough you find them. The only problem is a majority of them or smoking, they invite you over to talk and ask if you want to try a cigarette because every cool kid is doing it. Before you do that think how this could affect your social life, sports, and your family so first ask yourself, Should you really do that?

It seems like this generation of high school students has takin a liking to doing stuff that isn’t good for you such as drinking or smoking without thinking of the consequences that could affect their life. Such as sports, Litchfield I know is a school that has no patience for that sort of behavior. If coaches hear about one of their star players smoking or drinking they will have no problem with telling that player they are not allowed to play for a couple of games or more extreme cases the rest of the season.

Dragons Football vs DC Chargers

Our football coaches in Litchfield always talk about how you need to be strong both physically and mentally. They say that being mentally strong is key to winning games. I believe when it comes to peer pressure you defiantly need to be mentally strong. If you get asked to do illegal stuff and you’re not mentally strong I feel like you would crash and end up agreeing to do that stuff when if you are mentally strong you will have no problem saying no to that person who is asking you.

Both my brothers were three sport athletes when they were in high school and they constantly tell me about how making the wrong decision can destroy your social life and sports career. My older brother Jordan went to college to play football at the University of Crookston he was told by futile coaches there that if you keeps his grades up and stays healthy he has the skills to possibly play at the professional level. Sadly he ended up getting a major concussion that restricted him from playing the rest of his senior year. So now that he never even had the chance to try out for a big named team he is hoping I get the opportunity to, but the last thing he wants is for it to all be ruined cause of some alcohol or drugs.

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