Sport-Specific Contexts
The ball is on the ground.
Nobody scored it there intentionally. It got there through a missed catch, a blocked shot, a check that separated stick from hand. And now there is a loose ball and two players converging on it and whoever comes up with it changes what happens next in this game.
Ground balls are decided by effort and will more than by skill. That makes them one of the most revealing plays in lacrosse.
Read this passage slowly.
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.
Luke 16:10 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Trusted with very little. The ground ball is the unglamorous small thing — the play that doesn’t produce a highlight, doesn’t register in the stat that fans remember, doesn’t make the game recap. It produces possession. And possession produces opportunities. And opportunities produce goals. The player who goes to ground for every contested ball is building the foundation that the highlight plays rest on.
Ground ball percentage is one of the strongest predictors of lacrosse game outcomes because it is almost entirely a function of effort and competitive will rather than talent differential. Two players of identical skill level converging on a loose ball will produce very different results based on who wants it more in that specific moment. That makes the ground ball a character play in the purest sense: it reveals who is willing to pay the physical cost of possession without the guarantee of a reward at the end of it.
The player who goes to ground when the ball is contested, who attacks the 50-50 as if it is 100-0 in their favor, who picks up the ground ball that isn’t in their lane because nobody else is getting there — that player is doing the small faithful thing that the team’s larger plays are built on. Trust with very little. It shows up as trust with much.
Ground ball percentage predicts game outcomes because it’s almost entirely a function of effort and competitive will. The player who attacks the 50-50 as if it’s 100-0 changes games.
When the ball hits the ground in a contested situation, what is the first thought in your head? Is it competitive or is there a calculation happening about whether to go for it?
The honest answer reveals the competitive posture. Any calculation is a competitive vulnerability.
Attack the 50-50. Every time. That is where this game is decided.
The ground ball culture of a program is set by the most competitive players. This devotional is most effective when delivered alongside film of ground ball situations.