An unfortunate, but important truth about competitive sports is the fact that it ends for most athletes by the conclusion of the high school. Statistically speaking, only about 5% of all high school athletes play at the college level, and just under 2% of college athletes are successful enough to compete at the professional sport level. While only a very select few athletes will play at an elite level, it is important to note that all athletes — regardless of talent or skill level — can learn invaluable life skills and lessons from sports that will help them find success with all their future non-sport life endeavors. Skills learned in sports that can be used outside of sports are called athletic transferable skills, and they might be the difference when it comes to kids and their chances for success during these difficult times.
A healthy way to view youth sports
While there is nothing wrong for parents to hope their child one day has a chance to play college/pro sports, it may not be wise to put “all your eggs in one basket” because of the remote odds associated with this goal. While encouraging your child to play his or her best, you might expand the way you view youth sports to include specific focus on the many life skills that can be learned through healthy competition. By helping your child identify skills like goal setting, relaxing under pressure, communicating effectively with teammates and coaches, and bouncing back from adversity, you are actually helping your child learn life skills that will have a positive impact on school, non-sport activities, and even future careers. This process-focused sport approach differs from an outcome-focused approach that only views a college/pro opportunity as “success,” while missing all the important life skills and lessons learned along the way.
What is perhaps most interesting about learning life skills through sports might be the fact that so often these discoveries go unnoticed, or the skills are viewed as having little value beyond the playing field. This is quite unfortunate, of course, as the skills learned in sports are literally transferable to just about every life experience. For example, if your child learns how to stay composed in pressure game situations, then she can use that same skill when warding off test anxiety, or keeping nerves in check when required to give a speech to her class. The skills are the same, but what sometimes gets lost is the transferability of these skills — this is where parents and coaches can step in and show kids how to unpack what they learn on the field and apply it to other life challenges.
Start a conversation
Student athletes are faced with some really tough and complex situations as they start the school year off under a cloud of uncertainty. Some kids are in school, some are in a hybrid-learning environment, while others are online exclusively. Additional challenges loom for student athletes — will there be a season? How long will the season go before it shuts down? Or will we be able to complete the season? While these questions seem to go on and on, it is important that we help teach kids that they have many of the necessary skills to not only endure through these trying times, but to continue to experience success while leading others to do the same.
Now is the time to sit down with your kids and talk about all the skills they have learned through sports that can apply to this very exact situation we are experiencing today. How do you stay focused? What do you do to keep your attitude positive? How are you handling this adversity, and what are you doing to inspire teammates to do the same? How can you take a negative situation and turn it into a positive? What is resiliency, and how can you use resiliency in this very moment when things are so stressful? Ask kids powerful questions, then allow them time to think and respond — you might be amazed at what they come up with simply by being prompted to do so.
Final thoughts
Don’t assume that kids who play sports know that what they are learning on the field can be applied to outside life challenges, as many kids never make this connection. Because of this potential missed opportunity, it is important for parents and coaches to talk regularly about the importance of athletic transferable skills, and provide examples of these skills with situations where they can be applied. These kinds of conversations can go a long way, and help your child not only become a better student athlete, but a more successful overall person.
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