Developing Your Son or Daughter into an Athletic Superstar, Part II

In Part I, I advocated multilateral development and play as the first steps toward an athletic career. Young children do not need advanced, sport-specific instruction. Instead, they need the opportunity to play, to move and to enjoy sports. Developing an athletic champion is a process, and one which does not occur over night. The athlete (and the family) makes sacrifices if he or she chooses to pursue athletic greatness. And, the only way for the athlete to invest sufficient time and energy in this pursuit is if the athlete has a passion for the sport. Too much competition and too much structure at a young age can turn a young child away from sports.

Beyond a more playful introduction to sports, there is a definite mental side to developing a youth athlete into an athletic superstar. Most expert performers have families who demonstrate in their everyday lives the importance of hard work and always doing one's best. When a young child sees this example evey day, these traits become part of the child's core values. And, these core values are present in almost any expert performer in almost any endeavor. Nobody reaches the top of his profession without hard work.

Beyond the family environment, coaches and parents need to focus the child on "learning goals" as opposed to "perfomance or outcome goals." In Cross Over: The New Model of Youth Basketball Development, I discuss Istvan Balyi's "Peak by Friday" mentality. This mentality, which pervades youth sports, describes coaches who emphasize game preparation and winning, not personal development and learning. A "Peak by Friday" coach is more inclined to walk the opponent's superstar, Barry Bonds' style, rather than allow his pitcher to learn how to pitch to a tough hitter; a "Peak by Friday" coach is more inclined to play a bunker defense and send long balls to a fast striker and hope for a break away goal and a 1-0 win rather than encourage one-touch soccer and taking on defenders 1v1 in space; a "Peak by Friday" coach tells his players to get the ball over the net, rather than teaching the players to take advantage of the allowed three hits to pass, set and spike. And, all these decisions are made in the quest for victory, often at th expense of learning and development.

A development-oriented or player-centered coach encourages his player to go after the top hitter; he teaches exciting soccer and trains dribbling and quick pass skills; he encourages passing and setting. With young players, these choices may not lead to success in terms of the final score. However, if the coach and parents encourage learning goals, rather than performance goals, these opportunities to improve make the game more fun and give the players more opportunities to improve.

When a child returns home from a game, the first question is almost always, "Did you win?" This is quickly followed by "How many hits did you have?" Very rarely do parents frame questions in terms of improvement of skills acquired. Rather than asking a basketball player how many points he scored, what about asking if he tried any new moves? If players are encouraged to develop learning goals, they are more willing to experiment in games, which is good, because they do not fear losing: winning or losing no longer validates the player's performance. Instead, the player uses games to evaluate improvement and uses mistakes as learning experiences rather than bouts of failure.

How does one encourage learning goals? First, create skills-based scenarios rather than solely basing performance by the outcome of the game. With a young volleyball team, passing and setting are very difficult. The successful teams, in terms of wins and losses, typically serve tough and get the ball over the net, allowing the other team to make a mistake. Rather than basing success on wins and losses and playing in this style, celebrate successful passing and setting, even if it's imperfect and the spike goes into the net or sails out of bounds. As players grow, this is how volleyball is played; in terms of future success, teams who learn to pass and set have an advantage as they age. A team who relies on tough serves and bumping the ball over the net does not develop a lot of skills. The following season, these players may have a hard time making a team or earning playing time because of the style of play they are accustomed to playing. Unfortunately, if these girls played for a championship team, the public judges the coach a success because we only measure wins and losses, not preparation for the next level. Our society overvalues coaches and credits coaches for molding a championship team, but then blames the players for not working hard enough if they fail at the next level.

If players develop a love for the game through their initial play experiences; learn values of hard work and always doing one's best from their home environment; and develop with learning goals rather than performance goals, they are more likely to enjoy the experience and develop the passion necessary to take their game to the next level. Without the love, the values and the passion, the blooming sports prodigy will never maximize his potential.