Keep Our Kids In The Right Environment

The environment

The culture and environment that our kids are in plays a big role in their growth, their development, and their experience.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard about a kid who was struggling on one team with confidence, bully issues (from teammates and coaches), and playing time to the point where they wanted to quit playing, and went to a different team and started to blossom because they were in the right environment.

I have also seen kids who are in great environments but for whatever reason (more exposure, more competition, false promises, a great salesman of a team manager) left and started to suffer from all of the negatives listed above to the point where an athlete with a world of potential was ready to quit playing.

The environment is important, and it is our job as coaches and parents to help put our kids in the right environment and to help them navigate through adversity the right way.

I am not saying that we need to move our kid from team to team each season, I am not saying that coaches need to be soft and not hold kids accountable. I am also not saying that a kid should be forced to stick out a bad situation season to season.

We just have to be mindful of healthy adversity, healthy challenges, and healthy environments and use sports to help our kids learn how to navigate appropriately through all situations so that when they get older, they have the gifts of discernment and wisdom because of the experiences that they have gone through, and that they still have joy, optimism, confidence, and ,hope because of the experiences as well.