“Hold the Rope”

Every 4 years an Olympic softball team wins the gold medal. Every year a college softball team wins the NCAA title. Every year the best high school team from each state wins the state crown.  All these teams have one thing in common. No matter how tough it became throughout their season they all had one thing in common—they held the rope.

What is holding the rope? Imagine that you are hanging from the edge of a cliff with a drop of twenty thousand feet. The only thing between you and a fall to your death is a rope with the person of your choice on the other end. Who do you know that has the guts to pull you to safety?  Who will hold the rope?

The next time your team is together look around and ask yourself, who could I trust to hold the rope? Who is going to let their hands bleed for me? When you can look at every member on your team and say to yourself that they all would hold the rope you are destined to win a lot of ball games. You see, the team that holds the rope when the going gets tough are champions. When you are down by three runs with two outs in the last inning, they don’t give up. Yell at your teammates to hold the rope—let it burn—but don’t let go.

If you are supposed to workout and run three times per week—do it. If you have to hit or pitch three times per week—don’t push it off. Once you start letting up at practice or start missing your workouts you’ve killed the team because you didn’t HOLD THE ROPE! Remember you are being counted on, don’t let yourself or your teammates down—hold the rope!