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Athletic sacrifice - What does this mean?
Posted 05/19/2008 - Joe DeRosier
Well, it’s like most things in life! Those things that are worth having, take a certain level of extra effort. Since we are talking specifically about athletics, this mostly revolves around time. How much time is the athlete willing to put into themselves? This usually means some form of sacrifice; time to relax, time with friends or just basic down time. This is where the average athlete hits the wall and the exceptional athlete makes the leap! Time is a funny thing, you can’t go back and try to recapture it or try to work extra hard to some how make up for it. Wouldn’t that be nice, unfortunately it doesn’t work that way!
Another major factor that goes hand in hand with the sacrifice of time is Passion. That’s the common denominator that I see with the exceptional athletes that I work with. Every one of them has a passion and love for what they are doing!!! They are driven to get better and better and the cost of doing so is secondary in their mind. This all seems pretty straight forward, doesn’t it? So, then why aren’t there more of these exceptional type players out their? Good question… Unfortunately the time that we live in, is a time of high demand on everyone’s time and it seems to be getting harder and harder to break away from all the these demands. With all the kids having cell phones and email, communication alone takes a huge amount of their time to keep up with. Remember with focus and passion comes a commitment and with that commitment comes sacrifice. There is no substitute for these elements!
So, what are your next steps for encouraging your athlete to make some sacrifices? This is a tricky question. I firmly believe that this is something that has to come from the athlete! You can offer and provide all the avenues to assist them, but ultimately it has to come from them. As you see the passion in them, you can help them with their focus and planning (Time management). Until then, you can continue to support and encourage them with all the different aspects of being an athlete. This is the time of nurturing the passion that may be there, but hasn’t quite taken a hold yet. Just know that they might not ever achieve that passion for a particular sport and that’s okay. I’ve seen some athletes not have great success in one sport and then they find another sport and blossom. They may have some natural ability in this other sport and all of a sudden a passion grows.
Just know that they are all exceptional people in their own way and it’s our job to help them find their strengths and passion, no matter what it is. Once they find that passion, they’ll be making sacrifices without even realizing it. That’s the way it works, when you find your passion, it’s not work any more…
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