Prepare You Child For the Path

I was talking to a father of a youth soccer player. His son had just received his first mid-year evaluation. His son is 10 or 11 and a multi-sport athlete on a team where most other kids are full-time soccer players. Dad said that the coach killed his kid in the evaluation, and part of it had to do with the fact that his son split time with other sports.

Player evaluations from coaches, even at this age, can be tough. A lot of the time, it's the first time someone outside of the home is critical of an athlete, and it can be tough for a kid, and parent, to hear.

Dad's response to his son was spot-on. He told his athlete that he had two choices: he could either get his head down, pout, and feel sorry for himself, or he could learn from what the coach told him and use it to fuel him and get better.

Hearing this reminded me of the quote, "Prepare your child instead of preparing the path for your child."

Part of a coach's job is to tell you what you need to hear to get better. If you want to be the best that you can be, you have to receive and appropriately respond to criticism. Some coaches feed it to you smooth, and some give it to you raw. It's important to prepare our athletes to receive it no matter how it comes in a way that will help them get better.

Hear the message, not the tone.