By T.J. Jumper
*Disclaimer: I was originally going to write about how the language we use with ourselves can be beneficial or detrimental, but as I started my writing process I continued to be pulled back to how parents (something even myself went through) can become single minded-focused. Even with the best of attention we as parents can be pulled to the success of competitions and lose track of the big picture purpose as parents of athletes. Therefore, this short blog is about how we have to balance teaching what it takes to be successful (drive, commitment, determination, and mindset X2), giving our kids opportunities, and also preparing them to be successful adults.
As we have stated before in previous blogs, being highly successful in a sport is extremely hard and takes an enormous amount of time. As parents, we want kids to learn to work hard and to understand what it takes to be successful. Then we hope that those lessons learned from athletics carry over to real life as our kids get older. We spend a lot of time as parents of athletes working with them to be better and pushing them. Many times this consumes us. But there is a fine line of pushing too hard and pushing just enough. It is a delicate tightrope. As parents we have to provide the balance. It is highly important that kids know that a game or practice is not a final product and it is ok to make mistakes as long as they play as hard as they can and learn from their mistakes so they can improve.
We as parents help create an environment through our words and actions. These words help our sons and daughters know they are more than the sport they play. Their sport (win or lose) should not be their identity or self-worth. There should be more to life. We want to develop well-rounded kids. I first read this idea in a blog from Rachel McCloseky in 2019 (here is a link to that blog). This is going to help kids later on in life mentally/emotionally when the sport is no longer able to be played. It will also help associate what is needed for success in his/her sport and then what it will take to be successful in other parts of their lives as adults. What should ultimately be what we want as parents.
For athletes who are highly motivated to compete at a high level and achieve their goals, being more than their sport can also be achieved as well. As parents and coaches, it is our job to help them with this. It is important for us to develop that environment of being more than the sport with our children who are athletes that display the drive, commitment, dedication, and mindset X2. This is important because it is so hard to achieve the highest levels of success in a sport without spending a ton of time on improving in that sport, therefore when so much time is spent on the sport it is easy to associate your identity with it.
If you ever have questions, please reach us at jumperathletics@gmail.com The next blog will focus on the importance of practice and will be posted on Sunday, January 23, 2022.