One of the most common reasons that athletes will train with us is, “My kid won’t listen to me so I need you to coach him.”

Kids have a way of tuning out their parents after awhile, even if the parents are giving sound advice.

I get it. The same things I ignored when my parents were telling me, I’m now telling my kids who give me the same response I gave my parents.

Circle of life I guess.

But, I want all the young athletes to pay attention to what I’m about to say. This is very important if you want to be successful in your athletic career.

Sometimes, you need to tune in to what your parents are suggesting you do when it comes to your athletics.

You might view it as your parents annoying you.  Or your parents nagging you.  Or your parents trying to make you into something you are not.

There are parents that have grand dreams for their kids and think that by constantly pushing their kids it will get them to greatness. That is such a small percentage though. More often than not it has the adverse effect.

Having talked with many of my parents, and of course now being one, I can safely say the majority of parents are not saying things to their kids because they think if they do it will garner a pro career.  

They are saying those things because they played sports when they were younger. They realize all the mistakes they made. They don’t want you to make those same mistakes, so they say things to encourage or offer suggestions to help because they see you heading down the same path.

They want you to get the same enjoyment out of sports that they did, but maximize your athletic potential to its fullest. The one thing they don’t want to hear you say down the road is:

“If I had just put in a little more work, I could have [insert whatever accomplishment you want to put here.]”

I am saying the same thing to my daughter that my dad said to me. Do 30 minutes of basketball each day if you really want to be good. If you want to be great do more. You have free time. Stop watching TV, take your basketball, and go out and practice dribbling and take X amount of shots to improve your shot.

And just like I did when I was younger, my daughter is not taking that advice. It’s still early and she might surprise me yet by starting to do more on her own.

The thing is we know our kids like sports. We just want them to have the best experience possible. If we as parents can provide the opportunities for them to get better and see the big picture, then you as the kids should accept that eagerly.  

So athletes, I know it is your parents, but if they encourage you to do some extra training consider it. If they recommend to stop watching Netflix and go outside and practice your foot skills for soccer, then do it. 30 minutes a day is not going to rob you of other things you want to do.

Big picture is this: I had a lot of fun memories playing sports. I just wonder how some of those could have turned out to be even better if I had taken the time to lift weights more consistently. Or taken 500 more shots a day. Or worked on my ball handling a little better.

When you miss placing at the state track meet by ¼ an inch or by .3 seconds, you can appreciate how far you have gotten, but the competitor in you really begins to wonder if those barriers could have been overcome with a little more disciplined work instead of goofing around.

Ultimately, it is your life and you are going to do what you want to do. But, having been part of teams that won championships and coached athletes who have won championships, there seems to be a real joy those athletes had that not many people will get to experience. Wouldn’t it be cool if you listened to your parents a little more on athletics’ suggestions and were one of those people as well?

Photo courtesy of U.S Army on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/familymwr/