What makes a champion a champion? Why does a player always seem to be on a winning team? The answer is easy to say, but requires work and role models to develop. It is attitude and character.
Webster’s defines attitude as a mental position with regard to a fact or state and character as one of the attributes or features that make up and distinguish an individual, a moral excellence and firmness. It is a mental approach to what you do!
Coach’s role
As a coach of a youth sports team, you are a role model whether you like it or not. The question is: what type of example are you going to set? Do you kick the ground when a young athlete makes a mistake or do you create an environment on the team for players to get out of their comfort zone and try something new, even if it does not work correctly. Call it your character test because the players are watching you and noticing your reaction.
In coaching hundreds of youth sports games, I have observed opposing coaches and myself deal with the challenges of disappointments. What I have learned is that how you, as a coach, act in these trying moments has lasting effects beyond a single game or season. Below are few of my observations that I now give in my “first day practice” speech to the players that set the tone for the rest of the season.
Five traits of a champion
- Champions know the final score does not necessarily measure winning.
- Champions lead so that others can follow.
- Champions dedicate themselves to prepare for success.
- Champions get up one more time than they have been knocked down.
- Champions may fail...but they never quit!
Being a champion is more than winning and losing a game. Being a champion is about having a winning attitude in life even when things do not turn out perfectly. It’s about developing the personal character and attitude that is required to succeed in all that you do.
As time allows, I write follow up articles about developing championship type young athletes and some success and failures I have experienced in developing players with a champion’s attitude and character.
In follow up posts, I’ll describe what I have observed other coaches and teams I have coached do to build the champions attitude.
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