My topic today varies slightly from the normal speed and sport workout information I normally provide. I like to talk about the successes I have with my clients. I really enjoy seeing these kids achieve the success that they obtain for themselves. Plus, they enjoy reading about themselves in any type of print form. What kid doesn’t like to see someone spraying them with accolades.

Some of the success I have talked about in the last few weeks have been teams continuing on in the playoffs and the players from those teams I have worked with. Other times, I will try to mention end of the year honors these athletes might have won such as all league or all district. I try to keep up on that as best as I can, so if I miss something in the paper I apologize. Just send me a note and I’ll brag about you. I’ve also discussed some of my athletes making their respective teams. The quotes I have shown you from some of those parents are real and genuine. It makes me really happy that they are happy. It is great to see that the little piece I played in their athletic development might have helped them make that team.

But, what about the other side of the coin?

I also have athletes who did not make their sport teams and that sucks. These athletes have worked with us for the sole purpose of making their team. We have pushed them as hard as we can to develop their athleticism and speed and then they get cut. I feel bad for them because that is something that they wanted, but this leads to another question/character building moment:

How are you going to handle that adversity?

Simply put, you can either sulk about it and be one of those kids I used to meet in college that gives every excuse in the world, “Yeah I could have been on the varsity, but the coach didn’t like me so I decided not to play.” Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Don’t be one of those kids. Or you can identify some of the areas you need work on and take action to correct it next time.

When I was in fifth grade, I played on this basketball team that was pretty good. I think we made it to the league championship and then lost, but I played the role of bench player. Yes, the coach put me in the obligatory 1 quarter, but I sat the other three. If you are a competitor and you are part of winning team, you don’t want to be sitting the bench being a cheerleader, or at least I didn’t. The fact we were runner-up didn’t mean much to me because I didn’t contribute as much.

So, what did I do. I worked on my basketball game so that I was good enough that the coach was going to be crazy to keep me on the bench. I know you hear about coaches playing favorites, or coaching based on politics, but ultimately a coach wants to win with his best players, who are going to work hard for him. Read that again, not just the best players, but the best players who will consistently work hard and not play only on game day and think they are God’s gift.

You know what, my sixth grade year I played on a team that once again was league runner-up. This year that bothered me because I was a contributor to the team and we lost. I hate losing. In fact, I made the league all-star game that year. It was fun and my hard work paid off.

Another example was also in basketball, but now I was a sophomore. I was playing JV, but dressing some varsity games and getting in for mop-up time. We were first or second in the state, but my role wasn’t anything big. We ended up losing in the regional semi-finals and with a few people leaving on the varsity, I knew I had an opportunity to make an impact. So, I went back to work on my off-time. Taking shots and taking more shots. I didn’t really practice my dribbling and it showed because I was an awful ball-handler. The point is, my junior year I started right from the get-go and started every game of my career from that day forward.

Hard work and working on the areas I could improve upon to be better so that I would experience what I wanted to experience, being a starter and playing in meaningful games.

The last example I want to talk about is Samuel Jones. I don’t think his parents will mind me discussing his story and you might have read a quote from his mother, Susan, I used a couple weeks ago. Samuel didn’t make his seventh grade team last year and came to me to get faster and more athletic. We trained for about 3 months or so before he went off to play baseball. He did everything I said and worked hard on his own as well. He practiced basketball with Toni Roesch and was working out occasionally at a health club on his own. He came back to me before his eighth grade tryouts to get prepped. He looked great. He had improved upon the improvements he did with me before, he had trimmed down, and was moving well.

And you know what, he made his eighth grade team. Fantastic!

If you truly love your sport and you didn’t achieve what you wanted to do this year, you have to ask yourself, how bad do you want it? If it isn’t that bad and you are comfortable with whatever happened, great. That is perfectly fine.

But, if whatever happened, you didn’t make the team, you didn’t start, you didn’t make all league, is eating away at you on your insides and making you physically ill, then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Work harder, analyze what you need to do to make yourself the athlete that will get you what you desire. Do what you need to do to get you to that next level. Make no excuses.

If you are young, don’t let a little adversity bother you. Sometimes if you work hard, things have a way of working out for you in the end. On that fifth grade team and sixth grade team I was talking about, out of all the kids in the league, I can probably count on one or two hands how many played basketball all the way to their senior in high school. Either they didn’t have the heart, didn’t have the talent, or they didn’t work hard enough.

You have all three. Take advantage of developing all of those and you will be conquering your adversity in your sport.