Is your youth athlete developing?
March 24, 2011
Is your youth athlete developing or just participating? Some would say if they are participating they are developing. That isn’t the case if your coach doesn’t have a development plan. My son and daughter just finished their school basketball seasons and how different were they! One of them, participated in two practices a week, the other practiced, five days a week. Which one do you think developed more? …. The one who practiced two days a week. – why – because the coach had a development plan for each athlete and for the team. Research shows that athletes are not born but they are indeed developed.
Just coming off a conference for work, I heard over and over from some pretty brilliant marketers that planning should happen in every facet of the work I do, so holds true for our lives. Whether you are participating in youth sports or trying to create the latest and greatest website for your customers, a plan has to be developed.
As a parents of two youth athletes, we have plans. No they aren’t plans to see our kids in the NFL, or WNBA, or Olympic Games. Although that would be great! We have to plan for them to continue to develop so they have a base to take into every athletic experience they encounter. I have said here before that sports mirrors life and great life lessons can be learned in participation. So why wouldn’t we create a plan that allowed them to get the most of their experience.
Unfortunatley, we can’t control who gets chosen to coach. But we can chose to supplment that coaching with our own plan, one that doesn’t undermine the coach or take away from the time they do have with the team. Sometimes the plan should include off-court, or off the field work such as confidence building, trust, respect, research. Same holds true for our real working lives. We need to keep developing those attributes and more. So, next time you say to yourself, this coach or this boss isn’t very good. Remember, you do have it in your control to develop your own, off court plan for youth athlete and for yourself.
