Sample Student Essay—CAUSE-EFFECT (CAUSAL ANALYSIS)

Participation in Ice Hockey has Benefits Outside of the Rink

One of my favorite quotes can be found on the wall of an ice arena outside of Vancouver, Canada. The quote reads “it is better to build a boy than mend a man.” The quote is a reminder that by participating in ice hockey, children learn lessons that will by useful to them in their adult lives. For my part I have found that participating in hockey teaches valuable lessons that are relevant to the world outside of sports. These lessons include practicing in order to improve a specific skill, working well with others to accomplish shared goals and also becoming an effective leader that people look up to for direction. These three lessons can be learned while participating in hockey and then transferred to other activities. I strongly believe that there are lessons learned in ice hockey that are valuable to activities outside of the rink.

As a boy growing up in Canada I played ice hockey starting at a young age. Hockey is not an easy sport to play because the ability to skate is a learned one. It is not like running, which pretty much comes naturally. In order to skate well, a tremendous amount of practice is required. I discovered that if I wanted to be a good skater, I would have to practice several times a week with my team. In addition I would also beg my parents to take me public skating on days that my team wasn’t playing. As a result of all of my time on the ice, I became a very fast skater. My commitment to practicing paid off because the better I became at skating the more I enjoyed playing hockey. Through hockey the benefits to practicing became obvious to me at a young age. Dedication to improving through practice was an asset that I was able to use again when I turned sixteen and wanted to get my drivers license. When the majority of kids gave up on driving a standard because it was too hard, I became the first one of my friends to learn on a “stick shift”. I used the same approach to practicing that I had used in learning to skate and applied it to learning how to drive a car. I spend so much time behind the wheel that when it came time to take my drivers test I was full of confidence. I firmly believe that my work ethic towards obtaining my license was a result of my involvement in playing hockey.

Another lesson that I was able to learn from playing hockey was how to work well with others in order to accomplish a common goal. In hockey, as is the case with most team sports, it is imperative that everyone works together in order to succeed. It is a certainty that when any group of people is constantly around each other, issues are going to arise that will test the group dynamic. Playing on a team taught me how to put aside differences and work to achieve shared goals. Looking back now, I know the years when my team had the most success were the years we all worked together as a unit. As an adult I found myself working for a small start up company a few years back and the same principles of teamwork were required for us to get the business off of the ground. With seven people sharing a small office, the opportunities to get on each others nerves were plentiful. The key to our success at obtaining new customers was that we all made the commitment to work as a team, placing the company’s goals above our individual goals. Because of this we were all able to benefit. Having played hockey all my life, I was able to adapt to this business environment and thrive within the group setting.

Hands down though the most important lesson that participating in hockey taught me is how to be an effective leader. As a young man I found myself involved with hockey as a head coach. I coached for four years and that role was far and away the most instrumental for developing my leadership skills. As the head coach I was responsible for the individual development of seventeen kids and for molding the players into a team. Another challenging task was dealing with the concerns of over thirty parents. Accomplishing these tasks required that I set goals, manage everyone’s expectations and work though the ups and downs of a grueling season. When I became the manager of a company a few years ago, I found that a lot of the leadership skills I had developed through coaching were necessary for directing the employees that I was responsible for overseeing. When I took on the manager’s role, I used some of the same techniques that worked as a coach an applied them to leading my team of workers.

Many people may not immediately associate ice hockey with anything other than a just another sport. I feel however that a closer look reveals that the many lessons hockey can teach also transcend sports to impact daily life. Whether it’s learning the benefits of practicing, learning the ability to work as a team or even developing the skills necessary to lead a group, the lessons picked up as a child though participation in hockey can build a solid foundation that is useful in many situations later in life.