The Sports Doc Chalk Talk

As the high school year comes to a close, there are a number of things for high school student athletes to think about – especially upper class students who wish to one day play college sports (AHPS).  Of course, the odds are long for most kids wishing to play college sports (only about 5-7% move on from high school to college sports), but there are still a number of tips sport psychologists suggest that can help increase the chances of playing at the next level (even if it’s DIII).

• Of course, the #1 (and most obvious) thing high school student athletes have to do is play their sport very well. While the rest of the tips below may help your son or daughter’s chances of playing college sports one day, none of them will be a substitute for the athletic talent needed to compete at the college level.
• Assuming your child has the athletic potential needed to play beyond high school, you will need to think early and often about “marketing” your child to colleges.  Keep in mind that while college coaches are limited to when and how often they can communicate (recruit) with potential student athletes about their athletic program, families can do a number of different things to help their chances.  Some of these ideas include developing a portfolio that highlights athletic, academic, and social activities; creating a sports video of his or her in action; and attending specific camps and clinics to raise visibility of your child’s athletic abilities.
• Speaking of camps and clinics, be sure to target the ones that make the most sense and commensurate with your child’s athletic abilities and potential.  For example, if your child is a borderline DIII student athlete, it might not make a lot of sense to sign up for elite-level DI camps where his or her talents may not be a fit. Similarly, if your child is a potential DI student athlete, your son or daughter might be “over-qualified” for a DIII college camp.
• Aside from athletic responsibilities, potential college student athletes need to also stay on top of academic grades, extra-curriculars, and other leadership-type experiences.  College coaches invest a lot of money in athletic recruiting and scholarships these days, making it even that much more important that they choose kids who are responsible with their decision-making and life choices.
• Think about having your child take the SAT or ACT early, if possible.  Some kids postpone taking these tests until their senior year, and by that time limit their opportunities to re-take these tests if their first scores were not quite as high as they would have liked.  Of course, make sure that your child has taken the right courses ahead of time in order to sit for these exams — if you are not sure of this, call your child’s school counselor for assistance.
• If your child is serious about playing college sports, he or she will also need to get registered with the NCAA clearinghouse – again, see your school counselor for assistance with this process.

While there may not be many things to “substitute” for a lack of athletic talent and potential when it comes to playing college sports, there are a number of things families can do to help improve the chances to play after high school (including the tips provided above).  Do your homework and leave no stone unturned — good luck!

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Sport Success 360 is the tool for helping families, youth sports leagues, and school athletic departments maximize the athletic experience – check it out today!

Now that school is underway and fall sports have begun, many families are once again invested in trying to help their son or daughter gain the attention of college coaches so that future athletic scholarship opportunities may come their way.  While only about 7% of all high school student athletes will ever play at the college level (this number includes walk-ons and partial scholarships), there are still a lucky few that will earn scholarship money through athletic accomplishments.  The following are a few quick tips to think about as your family looks into athletic scholarships:

• Play your best. Obviously the fastest way to earning a college athletic scholarship is to excel in your sport.  This is especially true for premier Division I college athletic programs, so if you aren’t exceptionally talented it may behoove you to look at DII, DIII, or NAIA options .
• Test early. For many kids these days it makes sense to take the ACT and/or SAT as early as the start of the JR. year of high school (especially if the child has taken a heavy college –prep course load to that point).  The advantage in taking these tests early (assuming the child is prepared) is that it will be one less thing hanging over his or her head, and if the score is a strong score he or she can include it in college applications and discussions with college coaches.
• Promote yourself! Most parents don’t realize that college coaches only have limited windows when they can speak directly to recruits – however, families can communicate and send information whenever they like.  Be sure to turn every stone and make it a point to promote all your athletic abilities in different ways, including traditional correspondence, Youtube video uploads, and any other social media that can help!
• Multitask and try new things.  While it may not be easy to do, it is important for kids to balance their lives as much as possible and sign up for clubs, activities, and volunteer efforts.  Student athletes who show responsibility, leadership, and discipline usually get extra-long looks when compared to their peers, so be sure to help your child round out his or her schedule.
• Keep options open. While it would be great to receive that full-ride DI scholarship, the reality is that very few student athletes are able to do this.  Therefore, it is important to keep all options open – which might include small DIII private schools who offer really great opportunities as well!

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Athletic transferable skills are skills learned through sports that can be applied to all areas of life — including the classroom and future careers (Sport Success 360).  Unfortunately, most young athletes never identify their athletic transferable skills, or they compartmentalize them (meaning they only use them in their sport).  In some cases, kids simply do not connect the value of the skills they use in sports to life, and in other cases they erroneously assume that all kids, regardless of whether they are involved in sports or not, also have mastery over these skills (Positive Transitions for Student Athletes).

There are literally dozens of important life skills kids learn through sports that qualify as “athletic transferable skills.”  Not only do these skills help with all aspects of life, but they also provide young athletes with an increased level of self-confidence — something that can really help, especially when entering sports transitions and eventually retirement.

Of all the athletic transferable skills that can be leanred through sports, I especially like the following five:

1.) Goal setting – athletes routinely set goals, and this same skill can be used in all areas of life.  Goal setting can also help with preventing youth sports burnout, too.

2.) Focus – athletes have to learn self-discipline and “block out” distractions while sharpening their focus on the things that are important and relevant.

3.) Team building – sports teams are not the only teams kids are on, as they are often included in groups in school, and will likely be on work teams later in life.  Learning how to co-exist with teammates — even the ones you don’t like — is a really important life skill.

4.) Motivation – athletes know the importance of motivation, especially during off-season drills and conditioning.  The same is true in life – some school and work projects aren’t “fun,” but they still need to be completed.

5.) Resiliency – perhaps the most important athletic transferable skill in sports is resiliency – or “bouncing back.”  Similar to sports, life throws us curve balls and test our character all the time, and what we do with the stress and adversity we face in life literally defines our success or failure.  If your child is handling not getting much playing time successfully, can she also deal with other life challenges and struggles?

Make a point this summer to talk to your kids about the value of athletic transferable skills, and show them specific examples of how skills can work across settings.  For example, if your child can dig into the batter’s box with confidence, he can use the same mentality when asked to stand in front of the class and deliver a speech.  ironically, the child already has the skill, but just needs to be shown how to transfer it to another domain (in this case from baseball to school).

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I am excited to announce that the popular “Sports Success 360″ book is now available for immediate download! The digital download is available with Sport Success 360 PLUS for only $9.99 for a limited time  (retail $25).

Sport Success 360° is a “hands-on” resource guide for parents, coaches, and student athletes full of tips and insights around today’s psychosocial issues and concerns regularly experienced in youth and interscholastic sports.

Written by Dr. Chris Stankovich, a national expert in the field of sport psychology, Sport Success 360° is light on psychobabble and instead packed with practical advice, tips, and insights that can be immediately applied so that you can maximize the youth athletic experience while at the same time minimize unhealthy and unsafe training procedures.  Learn about sports leadership, role modeling, sports transitions, youth sport burnout, healthy coach-parent relations, playing time, and much, much more!

www.drstankovich.com

If your son or daughter aspires to one day play college sports, then you might want to consider developing a personal portfolio that highlights his or her academic, athletic, and leadership experiences/abilities, and potential for being a positive role model on campus one day. Developing a portfolio with your child can be fun and exciting, and can possibly get your child noticed by college coaches, too (Positive Transitions for Student Athletes). Consider some of the following tips and suggestions when getting started:

• Generally around your child’s junior year in high school you will want to begin developing his or her portfolio. I recommend you highlight, at minimum, his or her academic, athletic, and leadership experiences/abilities. The academic category can include college-prep courses, GPA, and possibly SAT/ACT test scores. The athletic category might include the team(s) he or she has played on (i.e. premier league, AAU, varsity sports, etc.), statistics speed and strength data, camps and clinics attended, and any awards he or she has earned. The leadership category could include clubs and activities, volunteer experiences, and any other things your child has done to improve the quality of the school and community.

• When starting the portfolio, I recommend you brainstorm with your child as many experiences that fall into the aforementioned categories. Rather than worry about formatting at this point, simply talk about all the different things your child has done and be sure to take notes (and try to list in a chronological order if you can).

• Next, once the brainstorming is completed, you might want to begin working on a cover that has a sports picture of your child in action, along with basic demographic information that includes his or her name, address, email, school, and phone number• On the inside of the portfolio, I think a simple cover letter that includes his or her future goals is a nice touch. The letter can also include why he or she is interested in a particular school, as well as his or her academic and athletic goals for college

• For the academic, athletic, and leadership categories (and you can include new categories if you wish), it is best to keep it short and to the point (use bullet points whenever possible). If something is unclear (i.e. what the team fund raiser was that you child created), you might want to briefly elaborate.

• Considering an appendix is also important. If you have collected your child’s newspaper articles over the years, you might include a couple of the best ones (but don’t go overboard).

• When the portfolio is completed, consider adding a nice front and back cover and have the document bound. If you also have a DVD highlight video, you can also include it with the portfolio.  Uploading a few videos to youtube can also help your child get  a quick look from a coach.Developing a portfolio shows your child is a self-starter, and can possibly get him or her noticed by college coaches who might not have known about your child otherwise.

I recommend you send a portfolio out to as many colleges as your child is interested in and see what happens – at this point the worst case scenario is you pay for postage! Fortunately, in most cases you will receive some sort of a response, and hopefully that will lead to further dialogue and possibly an opportunity!

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Many sports parents today work diligently at creating the optimal sport training paradigm so that their child can maximize athletic skills, while at the same time be “showcased” to potential future college recruiting coaches through travel leagues, clubs, and elite-level tournaments. Unfortunately, the odds are against most families when it comes to college athletic scholarships, as only about 5% of all high school athletes will ever go on to receive a partial- or full-athletic D1 scholarship. For the families who are fortunate enough to receive athletic scholarship money through the luxury of college recruitment, it may still be worthwhile to fully process what the scholarship expectations are once the child begins his athletic scholarship obligation.  Athletic pressure, if not addressed, can lead to many on and off-field future problems (Positive Transitions for Student Athletes).

Of course, it goes without saying that earning a college athletic scholarship is certainly something to be proud of, and can lead to many invaluable college experiences for the recipient. For a young person to be able to compete at the highest level of amateur sports in America is something only a small percentage of people can ever claim to do, but there are also very high expectations for this unique experience.

Few families today truly realize how serious college sports have become, and the enormous amount of time and energy that is required in order for the student athlete to earn his or her athletic scholarship. Simply put, the requirements go far beyond just playing a game or two each week. For most student athletes, the experience is very much like a full-time job, with year-round training requirements (expected even when they are out of season).

Division I student athletes are required to keep a full course load like other students on campus, but have the additional requirements from their sport that can be extremely challenging to meet. In addition to games, there are regular practices, training days in the weight room, travel, and study table obligations. For many young athletes and their parents, they are not aware of these requirements, and consequently only see the glamorous side of college athletics.

Being a student athlete on athletic scholarship can be a tremendous experience, but the opportunity definitely comes with a high cost when you consider the enormous time and energy commitments. Likening the experience to an intense, full-time job is a very fair comparison, as many college athletes have told me they never knew that being a college athlete required so much time and effort. Throw into the mix family, relationships, internships, and various other social interests and activities, you can easily see how some college student athletes become overwhelmed by balancing their sport with other life endeavors.

The best advice for a potential future athletic scholarship winner is to first determine the level of passion and commitment the student athlete has for his or her sport. At the DI level, student athletes must really love doing their sport, otherwise the requirements will become quite taxing – and possibly overwhelming.

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Please visit the following link to view all archived Sports Doc clips from 2007 to 2010!Over the last 2.5 years we have covered a number of very important sport-related topics designed to help student athletes, parents, and coaches get the most from the sport experience. Some of these topics include performance enhancing drugs, mental toughness, youth sport burnout, sport philosophy, sports psychology, and playing time.  I encourage you to check out the clips that most suit your needs and interests, and feel free to link to the archive from your website or blog.www.drstankovich.com

Athletic transferable skills are skills that you learn in sports that are invaluable beyond sports – including the classroom, your future career, and life (Mind of Steel). Examples of athletic transferable role modeling skills include the ability to set and achieve goals, motivation, discipline, being a good ‘team player,’ making spontaneous decisions, and bouncing back from adversity (to name a few). Surprisingly, athletic transferable skills often go unnoticed by athletes because they often take these skills for granted and erroneously believe that other non-athlete students have learned the same skills. This oversight may be explained by how regularly athletes use their athletic transferable skills – and consequently, take them for granted!When student athletes make the connection that athletic transferable skills are a) unique to sports, b) invaluable beyond sports, and c) can help in every aspect of life, only then will they realize that their sports career and the lessons learned while competing can pay huge dividends toward a lifetime of happiness, health, and peak productivity!Why athletic transferable skills workHave you ever wondered why some athletes are calm, cool, and collected on the field – yet when it comes to writing a paper or delivering a speech in front of a class the exact opposite occurs? For most athletes, making the connection between the confidence and composure needed for athletic success is the same confidence and composure needed for academic success often does not occur. Instead, most athletes compartmentalize their athletic skills – and forget about the “transferable” part of these skills.More specifically, the skills an athlete uses to prepare for an opponent or make important decisions in the clutch are the same skills needed to communicate with teachers or one day successfully complete a job interview.How athletes can use athletic transferable skillsSit down and begin to draft a list of all the skills you have learned in sports. To help get you started, look back at the short list I started in the article you just read – but don’t stop there. Take time to write down as many skills as you can and be sure to include the small ones, too (i.e. regularly making it on time to practice).Next, review your list and begin to examine how well you are currently using the skills you identified in other areas of your life, including school and other activities. Try to look for ways to integrate your athletic transferable skills in better, more effective ways if you discover you are not using them at all.Talk to your coaches about athletic transferable skills and get their thoughts. You will likely discover even more athletic transferable skills you have probably overlooked when you listen to how they have used these skills to move ahead in their adult lives.Take time to tell your teammates about athletic transferable skills and how they can capitalize on them, too! Remember, most athletes take these skills for granted, so it is quite likely they will appreciate this new discovery!www.drstankovich.comEnjoy today’s article? For a more detailed, downloadable mp3 audio file on this topic please visit http://www.drstankovich/ to learn more!