September 23, 2019 - “Playing tired = poor performance!”

This week’s ponderings are the result of discussions I had this weekend with one of our InBounds coaches… and to be fully transparent, my personal and present state of mind… trying to rush and get things in…


As a coach it is imperative that you “read” where your players heads are at… it is easy to get frustrated when a player is making uncharacteristic mistakes in a game or practice… or maybe he is not dealing with his teammates or even the coaching staff well… or maybe he simply seems out of it.


I believe the number one reason players “get stupid” is fatigue. The simple rule is that “Playing tired = poor performance!”


This is true in all areas of life… I try to remind teachers of this when students are acting out… or parents… and I even remind kids/students/players that their leaders are human and subject to the same rule. (Spend time with an infant and you will see this in its purest form… I took my granddaughters to Alabama this weekend to surprise Lisa’s parents. The oldest of the two is just a year and 4 months. She did AWESOME, even on the long 8-hour road trip (each direction); awesome, except when she would start getting sleepy… and then we were all very aware that she no longer wanted to be in her car seat.)


Honestly it didn’t take my granddaughter crying to remind me of this truth… I had been corresponding with my co-laborer Coach Trenton Green, he has recently completed his time with InBounds as an intern and is faithfully serving in ministry back in his home state of Alabama. A group of young people he works with were faced with issues this past week as they realized that they were worn out… Trenton contacted me to ask me what I thought, yet before I could try to give some guidance Trenton started sending Scripture to me and simply asking, “would this be good to share with my friends?” (So, in essence he is helping write this week’s devotion.) Check out these Biblical reminders… (I’m going to use The Message paraphrase because it gives great description to why Trenton mentioned these verses.)


Mark 6:30-31 The apostles then rendezvoused with Jesus and reported on all that they had done and taught. Jesus said, “Come off by yourselves; let’s take a break and get a little rest.” For there was constant coming and going. They didn’t even have time to eat.

(Trenton’s commentary he sent me, “Once they rested, they were able to serve accordingly.”)


Psalm 127:2 It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late and work your fingers to the bone. Don’t you know He enjoys giving rest to those He loves?


As I was driving through the afternoon and evening, I was trying to think about what I was going to write on tonight… I was planning for trying to do something that is good… yet I said I would be transparent… the longer I drove the more irritable and negative my thoughts turned. This tired old man was ready to say forget about this week’s devotion. (We’ve been doing these every Monday since the beginning of 2002… and fatigue started distorting my thoughts! Then as my granddaughter got a bit “crazy” and I thought about how I was a bit “crazy,” I remembered the conversations I had been having with Trenton about fatigue making us “play stupid”!


Get rest my friends!!!