I Believe in Practice by Nick Bogenreif

I believe in practice. In any type of sport you need to practice to be good at it. However, some sports, it would appear that they are easier. For instance, most people can pick up a basketball and shoot it. But to be good at the sport of basketball, it takes practice, as we know most basketball teams practice everyday. This is not saying that everyone can be good at basketball, but almost everyone has the ability to shoot and improve with practice.

I pole vault and pole vaulting is one of those sports everyone can't do. With this sport it is very technical, which makes it very complicated. One of my former coaches told me that there are 32 things you have to consider when pole vaulting and all in a matter of two to three seconds. When you're vaulting, it's hard enough to think about one thing to do, let alone 32 things to do. This is why practice is so important, when it comes to pole vaulting.

The way I learned to pole vault is first by learning how to run with a pole in my hands. Surprisingly, it's not as easy as it may seem to some of you. When vaulting in the out doors, it starts to get harder because of the wind factor. The wind actually does more than you could imagine. It blows the pole and the vaulter all over the place. The next few things I had to learn when vaulting were learning how to plant the pole, swing, drive the knee, and much more.

I believe in practice. In the sport of pole vaulting we practice almost all year, with the exception of about a two or three month break. The reasoning for practicing so much is because it's a very addicting sport. Before we start practicing, we usually warm up because there are so many different muscles you use in your body. Jason, my coach, tells me With the vault, there are muscles in your body that you work that you didn't even know you had. That is very true.

In conclusion, there is the phrase, Practice makes perfect. This phrase is a concept we should all follow, as practice is vital to perfecting any talent we possess. Obviously none of us will ever be perfect, but practice gets us closer to that perfection that we strive to achieve. I believe in practice and know that is the key to success.