How Playing Basketball Changed My Life

Through the Hoop Source: The Rec Center at Rowan Universityhttp://www.rowan.edu/studentaffairs/rec/sports/

Throughout my life, I have learned many life lessons which have helped me to be the person that I am today. I played basketball for almost ten years and through basketball it taught me many things besides learning how to shoot and dribble a basketball. Learning how to work with others has helped me with classes and with my job. I learned the importance of valuing everyone that was on the team and understanding what my role was on the team. I also had to learn to accept my role and do my absolute best to be successful at my role.
Being a hard worker was a skill that I learned from basketball. In order to get playing time during a game, I understood the importance of practice. I quickly figured out that I really had to fight to get playing time so I worked really hard in practice to show the coaches what I could do.The only way that I could get better was to practice. I also realized that I could use these skills for succeeding in school.
One of the last lessons that I learned was how to be a leader. I was the only senior on the basketball team during my senior year and this had forced me to accept the role of being the leader for the basketball team. I learned the importance of being there for my teammates and to keep everybody together when things were difficult. This pushed me to take on some leadership positions in my clubs in high school and also makes me want to have some leadership positions in my clubs in college.
When I first started basketball, I thought that all I would learn was how to play the game, but I learned many more things than that. All these skills that I learned from basketball has helped me to be a successful student and has taught me just what it takes to be successful.