The Sports Doc Chalk Talk

When we first wrote the book Positive Transitions for Student Athletes in the late 1990′s, our primary intention was to help college student athletes prepare for life after sports (since the reality was that most would not be continuing on with their professional sports careers).  The trend that was already in motion at that time was that increasingly more student athletes were exiting from their collegiate athletic careers confused, sometimes depressed, and often unprepared to leave their athletic identity behind and enter what some jokingly refer to as “the real world.”

Since Positive Transitions was released, the book has assisted thousands of college student athletes prepare for sport retirement by helping them better understand their unique athletic identity, the role confusion they experience when re-defining themselves, and specific tips and strategies designed to help them identify and use athletic transferable skills to help develop the self-confidence and skill set needed to excel in their future careers (similarly to how they succeeded in their previous athletic careers).  Interestingly, while the times have changed since then, the issues athletes commonly experience while exiting from sports have remained relatively stable — perhaps the biggest change, ironically, is that the same issues that were once unique to DI college (and professional) athletes have now “trickled down” into the younger ranks of sports, including small college sports (DIII) as well as high school athletics. What this means is that younger athletes, including those far less likely to move onto professional sports, still experience the same challenges when all of a sudden the identity, lifestyle, and mindset they have developed over the last 10, 15, or 20 years of their sports career is suddenly stripped away from them in a moments notice.

If you are a parent of a student athlete and your gut tells you that he or she may one day be heading toward a difficult sport retirement transition, I encourage you to check out Positive Transitions for Student Athletes. While the book was written primarily for college student athletes, I am confident that there are many tips, insights, and strategies that you can use with your teenage son or daughter in preparation for when sport retirement occurs — an inevitable transition for every athlete who competes in sports.  In the case of sport retirement, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is very true, and can make all the difference between your son or daughter using the sport experience to excel in life, or allowing it to hold him or her back because of a lack of confidence and belief in his or her talents beyond sports.

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Coaches are regularly challenged to be successful leaders and get the most out of their team (Sport Success 360).  When their team is “loaded,” they have to make sure they keep the team focused and playing up to their abilities.  On the other hand, when they coach teams with average or below-average talent, the challenge is to lead the team so that they believe in themselves and play over their heads (and over-achieve).  How a coach leads his or her team is important in both of these situations, and there are a few general rules all coaches can benefit from in order to help the team reach its full potential.  Getting the team to “buy in” to the coach’s philosophy is key — listed below are a few quick sport psychology tips to help:

• Set appropriate, realistic goals. Studies consistently show that when people set realistic, challenging goals (rather than goals that are too easy or too difficult) people are more likely to persevere and remained motivated toward the goals.  Set goals that challenge your players, and then with every accomplished goal try and set another tier of goals that are even more challenging than the first.
• Generate enthusiasm. It’s no secret that when we are excited, we are more apt to be motivated to play hard and win.  Coaches who show positive enthusiasm almost always benefit by the team picking up on this energy, and as a result the team usually plays with better focus, motivation, mental toughness, and resiliency.
• Be consistent. Coaches who treat all players as fairly as possible usually build the best team cohesion.  While it is important to motivate players as individuals, when it comes to team rules and protocols it is important to be as fair as possible in order to improve team chemistry and cohesion.
• Praise often. People are much more likely to reach goals when they are praised and shaped in positive and instructive ways.  Rather than embarrass, berate, or humiliate players into performing better,  find creative ways to praise for effort and encourage players to do a better job the next time out.
• Prepare to deal with losses. While it might sound strange to prepare for tough times, it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it.  The reality is that most teams will lose (some will lose a lot), so preparing for dejected players and a negative locker room is very important.  As a wise man once said, “it’s not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.”  Coaches need to think about how to regain the team and move them quickly through the sadness and sulking stage and back toward the focus and motivation needed to play at a high level tomorrow.

Being a successful coach at any level is a challenging task when you think about it.  Getting a team to buy into a coach’s philosophy can be a tough sell, and then keeping a team motivated throughout the season can be an equally difficult task.  Coaches who learn about leadership techniques and work on their interpersonal communication skills put themselves in the best possible situation to create a great team environment, as well as win more games.

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Check out Sport Success 360 to help improve the overall culture of your team, athletic department, or youth league – get started today!

Sport Success 360 is the premier sport education system on the market today, designed to provide coaches, parents, and student athletes with key information pertaining to today’s commonly experienced problems, issues, and trends in youth and interscholastic sports.  Whether its youth sport burnout, dealing with irate parents, playing time, travel leagues, or the decision around sport specialization vs. sampling, Sport Success 360 delivers professional advice designed to help kids use sports as a vehicle for life success.  Improve the sports safety at your league or school by delivering easy-to-understand tips and advice specific to coaches, student athletes, and parents – providing the “360″ advantage!

Benefits of Sport Success 360

• A 24/7 resource for coaches, student athletes, and parents
• Immediate and practical advice, as well as short videos to help with even deeper insights around today’s psychosocial issues in sports
• A built-in coach exam to test for proficiency
• FREE Sport Success 360 book and audio file downloads
• Finally, a product designed to help with the overall culture of your athletic department or youth sport organization!

Visit Sport Success 360 today and watch the short demo to learn more about individual purchases as well as school/league licensing.  Do your part to help the kids in your league or sport organization have a safe, fun, and meaningful athletic experience – check out Sport Success 360 today!

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Winning the Mental Moments is an instructional video produced by Championship Productions designed to help athletes of all ages and skill levels improve their mental toughness.  Dr. Stankovich discusses a number of sport psychology training skills, including ways to increase self-confidence, improve resiliency, and set specific goals for the future.   Pick up your copy today and learn how to take your game to the next level!

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Staying in the Game: Combating Athlete Burnout – pick up your copy at Championship Productions today!

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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As a graduate student at The Ohio State University many years ago, I studied the sport retirement transition that elite-level D1 athletes and the athletic pressure they experienced as they approached the ends of their careers (in fact, this was my doctoral dissertation). I worked alongside a terrific colleague, OSU Athletic Counselor Mr. Darin Meeker, to develop an actual course designed to help athletes prepare for their lives after sports, naming the course “Positive Transitions for Student Athletes.” Through our experience in developing the academic course, we were fortunate to also secure a college textbook deal, enabling us to write “Positive Transitions for Student Athletes” (Holcomb Hathaway, 2000).While the book is ten years old now, it still has great applicability to many athletes today, as well as parents, coaches, and related sports personnel. In fact, the book is useful to student athletes of all ages (even before they face sport retirement during college recruiting), something we didn’t originally focus on doing while writing the book for college student athletes.If you have a personal relationship with a student athlete today, please check out Positive Transitions for Student Athletes book download. The digital version of the book is almost half off the original book price, and ready for immediate download.The book includes light theory, real-life scenarios, case studies, and exercises. Student athletes will learn about a number of life skills, especially athletic transferable skills, designed to help them gain self confidence while developing coping strategies to successfully transition from sports, regardless of when this transition occurs.Please feel free to send me any questions you might have about Positive Transitions, including my research findings from the original course and study, as well as how the book can be applied to student athletes today (chris@drstankovich.com)www.drstankovich.com