The case for playing an individual sport

I excerpted from an article in Esquire by Kareem Abdul Jabbar a while back. In it he advocates for young boys to play a team sport. He makes a valid argument, but I would like to make the argument for playing an individual sport, too.

In junior high (which now would be called middle school) Frank Fisher and I used to go up to Grandview Park in Sioux City, Iowa with one golf club and one ball each. I say "up" to the park, because it was set on hills with many trees. We would pick out a tree, and see who could hit that tree with the fewest strokes. Then we would pick out another tree, and another, until we had played nine holes.

In the summer before I entered the tenth grade, my parents joined a golf club. It was actually in South Dakota, across the Sioux River from Sioux City. I absolutely loved it. I learned one very important quality: perseverance! Practice, practice, practice, from dawn to dusk.

I eventually earned a full scholarship to play golf in college, where I learned I would not be good enough at the sport to play professionally. It was the era of the civil rights movement, something that caught my attention more than golf ever did. With all the changes going on in America, I surely did not want to spend my life as a golf pro at some country club where members were oblivious to the struggle for civil rights!

I also attended an evangelistic church, where I learned that following Christ could be a joyous experience.

I went on to get my Masters of Social Work degree, and the field of social work held my attention until I decided to start my own business. Owning my own business coincided with listening to conservative talk radio, where the emphasis was on individual responsibility and achievement.

Nevertheless, it was golf that taught me to persevere, take my lumps and joys with an even temperament, and gave me the confidence to take on new challenges.