The Stage of Mental Development in Sports-Part 3(Development Coaches)

When we were born, we came along with the passion to learn. Just observe beautiful babies. They don't worry about making mistakes or humiliating themselves. With enthusiasm to learn after seeing adults walking, they crawl, they walk, they fall, and they get up and jostle forward. They were never discouraged by failures nor do they think they were failing. These beautiful babies only thought they were learning.

What babies have shown us is the hallmark of successful people in all fields i.e sports, business, academics, etc. That is constantly learning, learning and learning. For these successful people, failure is an opportunity to learn.

Basically what I'm trying to tell to all development coaches is that children are born with a growth mindset. A mindset that finds success in learning and improving, not just winning. To be a successful child is every child's dream.

New research had shown that the brain is more like muscle-it changes and gets stronger when you learn. These tiny connections in the brain actually multiply when you challenge your mind to learn. The more you learn, the more your brain cells grow.

For development coaches, it's a challenge as you are in an environment that worships success more than anything else. Success or failure of these children is played in front of crowds, published in the newspapers and written into the record books. On top of this, your job rest on producing winners.

Never let such an environment to shape you. As a coach, you are entrusted to guide these children. Be a coach that is always a concern and care about these children's progress in sports and academic. Guide them in learning techniques and skills, and practice them regularly. Learning and improving is your main focus.

The metaphor of two sides of a coin can also be applied to coaching i.e a growth mindset coach and a fixed mindset coach. Put simply, a fixed mindset coach is more concerned about his reputation and pride, and as for the growth mindset coach, he is selfless. He has the passion and patience to develop a child's mindset; a mindset that will thrive in facing challenges in life.
(will cover more extensive this topic after completing these articles)

There is a common adage in sports, that is, "Sports is Life and Life is Sport" which I believe means whatever you learn in sports will be an asset in your life. And two values from sports that will keep you going in life when the going gets tough are perseverance and resilience, as the popular saying in sport, " When the going gets tough, the tough gets going." 

Children are our future. Be a good development coach who continues to learn along with the children. Remember, when your development program embodies excellence, the child's learning capacity is infinite and when your development program embodies mediocrity, the child's learning capacity is finite.




Thank You.

Note: some of the above facts were sourced from the book written by Carol S. Dweck Ph.D.: Mindset-The New Psychology Of Success.

The Stage of Mental Development-Sports Part 2 (Parents)

Many years ago, there was a survey done by the USA Olympic Council with all their medalist from 1956, Melbourne Olympics to 1984, Los Angeles Olympics. And one of the questions was: who was the motivator behind their success? The majority of medalists picked their parents as their prime mover in their glory, for some it was their coach, and for some medalists, it was their friend.

Although the above survey was done quite some time ago, it is without any doubts, a parent plays a pivotal role in the development of a child in sports.

We would have heard or read many success stories of sportsmen or sportswomen, where the mover and shaker behind their success is their parent.

Now, let me share with you a story about the parents behind two of the world's most famous tennis champions. (Excerpts sourced from the book "Bounce", which is well written by an award-winning journalist and Olympian, Matthew Syed).

These parents, Richard and Oracene, are none other than the dad and mom of the illustrious tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams. 

They had never played tennis before, but this didn't deter Richard and Oracene to learn to play tennis, so they could hit with their charming daughters.

With a dream to create a tennis champion, Richard, took the time and trouble to learn how to coach, watched videos of former tennis stars, read tennis magazine, and even spoke to psychiatrists and tennis coaches.

Even staying in an economically depressed area didn't dissuade Richard and Oracene from creating an environment that is conducive for their daughters to train.From here on Richard imbued his daughters with the knowledge that he had learned from the best in the field of sports.

Venus was full of praise for her dad: "My father worked hard to build our technique. He's very innovative, and our training was full of fun and excitement. This motivates us to be early in training even before my father would get there. He's a great coach."

When Venus was twelve years old and Serena was eleven, Richard invited teaching pro-Rick Macci who had earlier coached such tennis stars as Mary Pierce and Jennifer Capriati, to watch his daughters play. Rick Macci was impressed by the sisters' skill and athleticism and invited them to train with him at his Florida academy. The rest is history.

An interesting point to note is, as parents, Richard and Oracene picked a game that his daughters will be financially well rewarded when they achieve success.

What else can be better off for a parent other than seeing their beautiful child growing into a successful sports personality and earning from what he/she enjoys doing? 

Another area that parents need to know is that most children who decided to specialize in a particular sport are less inclined towards their academics. Parents need to address this issue by having extra classes with the school concerned or tuition and one particular subject that parents need to pay special attention is mathematics as I find that mathematics is the gateway to knowledge.

There was a time where we were living in an environment surrounded by more greens than bricks. Time evolves, and today we see more bricks around us than greens. As the environment changes so does the desire of a child.

From a time where sports were the only source of fun and excitement to an entertaining world today with its malls, amusement parks, cable TV, video games, and a variety of social media platforms that seem to consume the minds of our children.

A child is a child, carrying a candle that needs to be lighted and guided by their parents, as every impression the child receives from the environment can shape its mind.

Parents, be the light that will guide your child.

Thank You.

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Note: The next article will be on the development of coaches and administrators.