When it comes to improving your chances at athletic success “more” is not a plan. Hey, it’s Jonathan Edwards here with another blog post. I answer this question almost weekly from parents who are frustrated and just plain tired of all this training and competing.
It really doesn’t need to be that difficult. If you follow just three steps:
- Always seek feedback from qualified coaches and mentors. Unfortunately, none of these may be your current coach, or your club coach. Or that personal trainer you’re paying money to. Watch for biases and understand if the feedback about your development is being given under the context of potential dollars you may be exchanging with that individual.
- Be Strategic in Your Training and Competing: You don’t have to play in every event. In fact, it might not be right for you. You need to know what is it you are trying to accomplish by playing today, tomorrow, next week.
- Are You Increasing Your Skill or Awareness: Every time an athlete steps on the field of play they are looking to increase their individual skill and/or their awareness of the game to better apply their skills. It’s that simple.
For a deeper dive in what it takes to succeed as an athlete in your sport, check out Coach Edwards “Three Key Abilities” Video Course.
More Is Not A Plan – Transcription
I wanted this week to talk about something that I stress a lot with my parents and athletes and that is More Is Not A Plan.
What happens is that we are blessed nowadays with enough resources, like families have enough money, technology has brought the price of equipment down, travel, things like that, we have more opportunities now than ever to have more games, more training, more tournaments. The business of youth sports and sports in general, has grown to such a point where there’s more opportunity to play than ever before, which is great.
An Embarrassment Of Riches
But some people take this the wrong way, they think that “Oh, Man, every weekend there’s something to do.” The truth is, if you’re an athlete and you’re good enough that you’re in this opportunity to do all these things. But, the problem is that More Is Not A Plan. So every athlete, and it’s the reason I call this Athlete Specific, is that each athlete needs to be looked at and needs to take their own approach to athletic improvement. By doing more, it’s like throwing mud at the wall and hoping that something will stick. And the truth is, that if you have the resources, the time, energy, the money, to take advantage of all these opportunities then go for it. The problem I find is that when people lament that there’s just so much stuff to do, you know what, the truth is there’s lots of stuff and you can play every day, every weekend. And there’s nothing wrong with that, to be honest.
The Truth About Burnout
A lot of people think that the kids are going to burn themselves out. You know what? Burnout is really a recipe for someone who doesn’t really know why they are doing what they are doing. I have never seen an athlete who truly enjoyed their sport who didn’t want to play more, and so we have these opportunities and if you don’t understand what this weekend’s tournament is going to do for you, or that travel team, or that camp, or that recruiting showcase, if you don’t understand how those things fit into your plan then you’re going to be frustrated. You’re going to be like “Oh, My God,” and would be just like one of those thousands of people that just lament that there’s so much stuff to do. But what I like to tell people if you’re going to drive across country you don’t lament that there’s all these gas stations and restaurants to stop at, do you? No, you know where you’re headed, know where you are trying to go and you know along the way what it is you need and what it is you need to keep that road trip going. But when it comes to sports, people have no plan.
When It Comes To Athletic Development, Most People Have No Plan
They don’t really understand what it is they are trying to do for their athlete, and what their athlete is trying to accomplish, and how these things fit. In my courses, we talk about this stuff and we talk about the plan that really nobody wants to talk about. Parents don’t necessarily want to admit that, hey, they don’t want to do this one this weekend, we’re not going to do that one, we’re not going to …this season we’re going to play a different sport. That’s our choice and it suits our plan .
Biased Club Programs Can’t Help You
People who run programs don’t necessarily want you to understand a plan because if your kid’s any good they want your kid to play on their team so that they have a good result and their program looks good and that’s fine. If we understand what it is the stakeholder’s have, what their involvement is in your athlete’s plan, you can decide yay or nay, right? It’s pretty easy. But just throwing mud at the wall and doing more, more games, more practises, more tournaments, more off-field conditioning, strength conditioning, Pilates, Yoga, Physical Therapy. If it’s just more, then it just gets stressful. So More is Not a Plan.
An Invitation:
Hey guys, this is Jonathan and thanks for watching but a couple things before you go. First and foremost, if you like this video, do me a favor, would you share it with somebody? Email it, Facebook it, Share it, Like it Pin it, Google+ it, I sure would appreciate it. By all means, please leave me a comment below, it’s really the juice that keeps this going for me. When I hear back from people in the community who either like what I have to say, or they don’t like what I have to say, let’s continue the conversation. And secondly, subscribe! You can do it right here either on this video or you can subscribe on YouTube and every time I put out a new video you’re going to get notified. And also if you’d like to get an email notification you can click on the link in the Show Notes as well And, finally, I’ve got a free course that I have put together for athletes, parents and coaches and I hope that you’ll check it out. It’s called “The Three Key Abilities” and what I have seen in my lifespan of coaching and having been an athlete,is that all successful athletes have three key abilities and without these three key abilities they are unable to reach the levels of success that they want to have. Most athletes that I have worked with that I see are usually really good at one, maybe two, but there’s three in total that really need to come together in order to make an athlete reach the goals that they want to reach and do it successfully and do it with fun and enjoyment and to really make their dreams come true. So, over at Athlete Specific if you click on the link AthleteSpecific.com/threekeys, you can head over there. I have actually created two versions of this course, one for athletes and one for parents and coaches. So where I speak it’s actually me speaking to you as you need to hear it, whether you’re the athlete or the parent or the coach. I really hope you’ll check that out. AthleteSpecific/threekeys.com
Thanks for watching and if there’s ever a topic you want me to cover, I’d be happy to. Leave me a comment below and I’ll see you next week. Cheers!
Quotes:
“We have more resources today (time, energy, money, etc) to play more games and have more opportunity to improve our performance than ever before. The opportunity to play is therefore not a curse, but a blessing.”
“If you don’t know what you are trying to accomplish in today’s practice, game, tournament, tryout, showcase, etc. then you really shouldn’t be playing today.”
Love what you said here! I love athletics for any reason, whether a source to relieve stress or fun team play or as a career. I have seen kids put through the ringer by parents & coaches who see potential then believe more always equals better. Also, if its not correct training, “more” will only cause additional problems for the athlete. Nice to hear from a true athlete!