Why Parents Are Great Role Models For Young Athletes

Summary

• Your child may watch some amazing professional athletes on TV or in person and look up to them as role models. Which can be great. However, what they’re seeing is what is done on-stage. Which means they are missing 90% of what some of the greatest athletes do to perform at such a high level.
• Parents can be the best role model for a young athlete simply because they can show them what it takes to be great when off-stage. The daily grind or habits that allow for high performance.
• As parents, we need to be aware that we do have a lot of influence on developing an athlete. The more we can show our kids what it looks like, the more likely they’re going to do it. This can allow for better performance and longevity in sports.
• Habits don’t have to be tough. Some of the simplest habits can be the most powerful. For example, sleep. Not complicated and to get great sleep can help with recovery and energy to perform at a high level.

Full Transcript

Hey. David Sabi, here with Kids to Athlete, helping parents raise athletes. And today we're talking about how you as a parent can be the best role model for your young athletes. And if you're thinking, "Well, I'm not an athlete, or I'm not competing in anything, how can I be the best role model for them?" Let me tell you something, when your athlete watches their sport, they're watching amazing people do amazing things and what they're seeing is those athletes, those superstars perform on stage. What they don't get to see is off stage, the behind the scenes, out of the limelight. And that's where we as parents come in to show them that daily grind. And I'm sure that they see some stuff and they know that some things like working out are important for athletes, maybe nutrition is important for athletes, but there's a lot of little things that they don't see, or they're not seeing daily.

And so that's where we, as parents need to be at our best to show them what it's like to be a high performer. And because you have so much more time and because they probably see you more, you're going to be a very important part by showing them, by being the best role model for your kid. So again, what are you trying to show them? Well, an athlete is four different elements remember? It's, at least in my definition, it's physical, mental, emotional, and social, and if they're high performing and all of those elements, they're going to be a high performing athlete. Now, high-performing doesn't have to be physical or sports-based. You don't have to be running and jumping to be high performing physically, but mentally. And so a lot of these high performing habits that some of these great athletes have, you can do at home as well and show them.

And if your athlete sees this daily, then they're more likely to do the same. So physical, again, it's not necessarily that you have to run and jump or workout and do these physical things, it could be just feeding your body correctly, sleeping, again recovery, any recovery methods can help physically. Mentally, again, you don't have to go crazy. You can do something like meditation and it doesn't have to be sitting there saying a little chant. You can do just one thing, focus on one thing, and in another video I talked about just doing free-throw shots, that's your focus. That's your meditation. And then there's emotional, again not trying to eliminate emotions, what I'm really trying to do is control it, so just show some control. There are different strategies and techniques you can do. But if your kid sees you having to deal with emotions and controlling it, they're more likely to learn from that, more than you telling them.

And then social, again social is really just about being kind to others, just connecting. We're all here, we're all trying to work together, just be kind, and that it could be as simple as that. But really it's about you being the best role model for your kid and daily. They get to see you more than they get to see some of these superstar performers on TV. So what you want to do is show them what it is to be a high performing person, high performing athlete. And that can be simple daily tasks that don't take a lot of time but make a big difference. Let me know what your habits are that you like to do, or that you think would be good for a kid to be seeing in the comments below. And until then, hit that subscribe button and I will see you on the next video. Thanks for watching.