The Secrets of Athletic Success

Show Up, Be Present, Work Hard, and Self-Belief

Author

Fortitude 365
February 09, 2024

Hi Everyone, thanks for checking out this week’s newsletter. Below you'll find:

  • Performance Concept of the week

    • The Secrets of Athletic Success: Show Up, Be Present, Work Hard, and Self-Belief

  • Action plan

  • Resource of the week

  • Things to Explore

  • Got Questions?

Performance Concept of the Week

The Secrets of Athletic Success: Show Up, Be Present, Work Hard, and Self-Belief

In the pursuit of performance excellence, consistency, hard work, and self-belief form an unbreakable triad. As a parent, your role in supporting your competitive or high-performance athlete can go a long way to helping build their confidence and ultimately their success with these three factors

In this article, we'll explore the secrets of success for athletes, focusing on consistently showing up, putting in hard work, and cultivating self-belief. We'll also provide you with an actionable plan to support your athlete on their athletic journey.

Consistently Showing Up & Being Present

Consistency is the cornerstone of success in any endeavor and sports and athletics is no exception. To level up consistency your athlete’s ability to be fully present, engaged, and competing is critical.

Encourage your athlete to commit to not only showing up, but being fully present each and every practice, game, or training session.

To do this requires a thoughtful approach that combines support, communication, motivation….and even from time to time, “tough love”. Here is your actionable guide to foster this commitment:

  1. Have them tell you their goals - Then constantly remind them of these!

  2. Emphasize the importance of consistency - Ask them what it looks like to them.

  3. Teach them time management - This helps to reduce stress, balance life, and optimize their schedule.

  4. Create a positive environment at home and towards sport - They get enough stress through competitive and high performance sport, they don’t need it at home too!

  5. Encourage open communication - Regularly check in with them to see what they may need help with. Then teach them the skill(s) to do it.

It’s More than Working Hard - It’s Effort!

Success in sports is often directly proportional to the hard work and effort invested. Remind your athlete the value of hard work and effort and the importance of pushing beyond their comfort zone.

We all know what hard work is and what it isn’t, but what is effort? Ask any coach or player and they’ll give you different perspectives and often are not on the same page with what effort looks like.

Effort is a function of three variables:

  1. Physical Effort

    • Physical prowess (run, jump, move), aerobic, anaerobic, strength, power, agility, etc.

    II. Mental Effort

    • Focus, Concentration, Attention, Intensity, Compete, Self-Talk, the Process, Goals, Mental Toughness/Agility

    III. Cognitive (Thinking skills) Effort

    • Habits, Problem-Solving, Decision-Making, Information Processing

Encouraging a competitive athlete to consistently work hard and put in effort during every practice, game, or training session involves a combination of motivation, goal-setting, and positive reinforcement. Here is your actionable guide to foster this hard work and effort:

  1. Focus on the Process - Remind them to consistently focus on the process. This encourages them to “take action” (the first step in building confidence), as results are a because of continuous hard work and effort.

  2. Control the Controllables - Remind them to focus on what they can control, their thoughts, emotions, and effort!

  3. Foster Intrinsic Motivation - Remind them that internal motivation is the strongest. Ask the “why do you do what you do or why do you play? Knowing your why is endless motivation for the great ones!

  4. Promote a Growth Mindset - Remind them to be open to anything, learn from everything, and take on the challenge. No successful athlete didn’t overcome challenges!

  5. Recognize Their Effort - When you see them put in exceptional effort, tell them how impressed you are! This reminds them of what you value!

Self-Belief

The third secret to success is to help build your athlete’s self-belief. Sports will challenge their self-belief enough, you don’t need to! Cultivate their positive mindset and fostering confidence in your their abilities. Their abilities should be based upon them showing up and being present, their effort and hard work.

Remind them of their strengths, previous successes, and the progress they've made. Here is your actionable guide to foster their self-belief:

  1. Provide Unconditional Support - Tell them you believe in them and their abilities, and never waver!

  2. Acknowledge and Celebrate Achievements - Don’t just wait for big achievements, acknowledge all the little ones along the way too.

  3. Make Sure They Talk Positively to Themself - When they start to talk negatively, challenge the negative and ask why they think that way. Then make them turn the situation around by making it positive and taking action to solve the problem.

  4. Adversity Builds Resilience - Remind them that adversity is what builds resilience. Take on challenges, problem solve, have discipline and remember errors and setbacks are temporary!

  5. Listen - All too often athletes just want someone to listen. You can take an active listening approach by listening and then asking for more detail, or clarification. Let them get it out, and solve their own problems by talking to someone who will listen.

Summary

As a parent, your influence extends far beyond logistical support. By delving into the nuances of consistency in showing up, working hard and self-belief you lay the groundwork for a resilient, determined, and high-achieving athlete. Utilize the detailed action plan in each section provided to shape your efforts, and witness firsthand as your athlete not only reaches but surpasses their full potential on the path to performance excellence.

Action Plan

For this week’s action plan, scroll up and re-read the points under each category. These are the actionable steps.

Resource of the Week

This week’s resource of the week is a simple image and set of reminders to post somewhere everyone will see.

Things to Explore

Got Questions?

Do you have a question, or want to know more about a topic. Let our team of experts help you. Ask your question here by clicking the button below. We will post answers to questions within future newsletters.

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