If you’re a sports parent or coach and only gauging the value of sport participation on wins and losses, you may be missing the bigger picture. When kids play sports, they develop in so many ways, including physically, emotionally, and cognitively; and the skills they learn through competition serve as the foundation for future life success. Unfortunately, many kids are unable to make this connection because they haven’t experienced enough in life to see the value of sport skills applied to life, and that’s where parents and coaches can help.
Athletic Transferable Skills are skills learned through sports that can be applied to school, career, and many other aspects of life. A brief list of some of these skills are provided below:
- Setting and achieving goals
- Working successfully with teammates
- Developing motivation, perseverance, and resiliency
- Learning the importance of multi-tasking, communication skills, and conflict resolution
- Developing leadership skills
- Learning the importance of integrity and playing by the rules
- Improving focus skills
The reality is that most kids will see their sports careers end quite early in life, but the skills learned through sports can be used for the rest of their lives. Think about this for a moment — if you were an employer and a job applicant talked about having the skills I listed above, how quickly would you want to hire that person?
Why Athletic Transferable Skills sometimes get overlooked
Sports provide so much emotion — both good and bad — that we sometimes lose sight of the real growth opportunities that are experienced nearly every day kids compete. In some instances kids have become so used to the skills they are learning that they take them for granted, while other kids wrongly assume that all kids (including those not involved in sports) have learned the same skills rendering them not very valuable.
Start a conversation…
In my experience I have found that the more we talk about Athletic Transferable Skills with kids, the more value kids place on them. If you want to help a kid develop confidence beyond the sports field, start a conversation about these skills and show them him specific ways to improve in other areas of life as a result. For example, the confidence developed in sports can be applied to the confidence needed to give a speech in class if we teach kids exactly how to use their focus, relaxation techniques, and concentration skills in new ways.
Don’t wait another day — have a conversation with kids about the importance of Athletic Transferable Skills today!
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Learn more about Athletic Transferable Skills by checking out our popular e-book here!
