Training With The Youth Athlete

*Image source: Unsplash

I had a coach as a freshman in high school who changed my life for the better. 

His name was Wayne.  As a youth athlete, I was no doubt a challenging kid to work with, struggling with attention span, effort, confidence, timeliness and plenty more. 

What made Wayne successful to me was his ability to work with what I had that day.  Some days I was stressing about a girlfriend who was about to break up with me. Another day, I had a sore knee because I had been out playing wiffle ball in the backyard and dove into a rose bush trying to save our World Series hopes.  

As my emotional and physical roller coaster rolled forward through high school, Wayne displayed consistency for me.  He challenged me to think with a growth mindset and to welcome feedback.  Wayne simply told me what he thought was best for me as a young adult and then waited for me to forget it so he could tell me again.  

Being a young kid is hard, whether playing a sport or not. 

There are pressures nowadays that I didn’t have to deal with when I was growing up, which adds to the complexity of trying to successfully coach young adults. 

The principles haven’t changed.  It still takes consistency, patience and resilience.  Kids have the blessing and the curse of being truly in the moment.  If things are going well, many will get wrapped up in the positivity and neglect any pitfalls in the near future. Vice versa, when things are going poorly, they are going POORLY.  It’s important to be consistent in how we approach coaching youth athletes for this reason.  

I’d argue that all young adults are youth athletes, regardless of whether they play a sport or not.  The benefits of incorporating health and fitness into daily life are just as important to a future software engineer as it is to a budding collegiate soccer player.  

The impact of good coaching on young adults is difficult to quantify. 

Many of the lessons I learned from Wayne I didn’t apply in my life until years later. I was lucky to have numerous other coaches who displayed similar qualities for me and helped me along the way with similar consistency, patience, resilience and positivity.  I hope to be able to display those same qualities for the young people that I get to be around both at the gym and in daily life.