Beyond the Game: What Every Girl Athlete Needs to Know About Sports and Life

Sports parents and coaches, don't assume that your girls, your female athletes know the following. Recently I asked my team, what's the point of sports? What's the point of playing your sport? And I got some different answers. To have fun, because it brings me joy. To be confident, to learn the game. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all true.

But the point of sports is to show yourself that you can do hard things. The point of sports is learning how to deal with hard. The point of sports is to prepare you for life by overcoming certain things. The point of sports is to teach you life lessons. And sometimes I think that we have unknowingly or unmistakably, because we assume they know this, sometimes we've created atmospheres where it's all about the individual, it's all about me.

It's all about what am I gonna get? How does this make me feel? What am I having fun or not? And while yes, those things are important, we have to look at everything as a whole. And so if you're a coach or you're a parent, I would just ask, when's the last time you had that conversation with your athlete daughter? Hey, do you know what the point of why you do what you do is? You know what the point of sports actually is?

It's what you're learning, it's who you're becoming, right? And there's a balance in all of those things, but it's about learning how to do hard. And here's the following situation I'm to tell you is I think one of the hardest lessons specifically for girls to learn in sports, and it's this whole notion, because most of them have been taught, hey, if you work really hard,

And if you're kind and if you're the good, good girl and you're pleasing and you please your coach and you'd be everything for everyone and you make good grades and you're pretty and if you do what you're supposed to do, if you work really hard and you're good, then you're gonna get what you want in life. And here's the sad, hard truth, is that that is not always the case. Sometimes you are gonna work your butt off. but you're gonna be overlooked. Sometimes you're gonna say the right thing, do the right thing, and it's not gonna work out. Sometimes you're gonna follow all the rules that you thought you were supposed to follow in life and your life is going to blow up.

The faster that you can have this talk with your female athletes, that life is not fair and sports are not fair. The more you're actually preparing her for the game of life. And that is what it's about.

🎥 @elitementaledge 🗣️ dropping truth #lifeskills #sportsteachlifelessons #howtodohardthings Sports 🥎⚾️🎾🏀⚽️ Teach Life Skills

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