Person > Player

Can you take character development into the most pressurized environments in athletics?

When you grow a kid's character and emphasize character and personal development, the athlete always wins.

The video below has really helped me refocus my purpose as a sports parent.  It's very easy for us to find our identity lost in how our kids play.  So much of my weekend levels of joy are based on the results of my kids' games.  This is not healthy, and this is not fun.  Like most kids, mines are inconsistent and so my weekend joy has been inconsistent.

This video has taught me to emphasize and focus on who my kids are as people, and to re-purpose sports as another tool to help my kids live happy, healthy lives by learning how to set goals and work for them, by learning how to play well and work well with others, learning that how hard you work and how much grit you have has a positive correlation with success, and learning how to have a healthy relationship with failure.

The video above is a speech from Brett Ledbetter.  He works with high major athletes and coaches all year, and he specializes in character development and using character as a vehicle to improve performance.  When he works with an athlete, the first thing he asks is, 'What is your biggest struggle?'

So many athletes say that their biggest struggle is that they identify as athletes and their worth is based on their performance as a player and not based on who they are as a person.  When they play well, they feel great about themself, and when they don't play well they don't feel very positive about themself.

He then asked, 'Who lead the nation in scoring three years ago?'

Most people can't name that person.

He then asked, 'Who was your favorite teacher and why?'

Most people can name their favorite teachers, and many high-level athletes choose a teacher they had when they were very young.

This shows how impactful a teacher or coach can be. This also shows that people remember who you are as a person and people forget stats.  Our impact is so much bigger than sports, and people don't forget how you made them feel.

Know how you want to be remembered and align your energy and your actions to match this.  Help your players care more and identify more with who they are as a person than who they are as a player.  It's hard when your identity is based on results because you can't always control the result, but you can control and be proud of the process and the work that you put in and your effort.

If you focus on the person, you grow the person and the player, because when the person grows, the player grows.  The better the character a person has, the better habits they have and the more likely it is that they will do all of the things it takes to get better in their sport.

What do you do with athletes that struggle because their identity is based on results that go up and down regularly?  Help them identify more with who they are than what they do.  Re-purpose sports so that they have a healthy relationship with their game so that they focus on the right things, and so that they grow to be happy, healthy, productive people long after they finish playing.