Sports is about excellence. But almost everyone, by definition, are average. When a child is born they have "unlimited potential", but in reality they are not likely to be better than average at everything they do. As parents, how we deal with a child who is average? Better yet, how can we handle a child who is willing to settle for being less than his or her potential, that potential is great, or even if they can only be average? Shall we settle down as parents and we should let our children live as students, athletes and as people? First, let's put some perspective on being a professional athlete. The four major sports have a total of roughly 3519 spots: Baseball (750), Basketball (360), Football -1696 and Hockey (731). Of course there are minor league, college players, guys who are injured and others who break into every year, but no matter how you look at it, it's still a very small number. By contrast, the American Bar Association in 2002, almost 410000 lawyers and the American Medical Association had 266000 members, and not all doctors and lawyers join their associations .
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there were about 60 million people in the U.S. between the ages of 20-35 give a child about a 1 in 20,000 chance of breaking into the BIG and does not extend more than 6 billion people living in the rest of world. While it is somewhat better than 1 in a million, to be the best in your local little league or make the all-star team that still puts a player very far from guaranteed stardom or even do high school team.
The guys who play professional sports is truly amazing in every way. Not only were they the best in their city, but they were able to stay in school, not injured or develop other problems that could derail their apartment. Not only have the absolutely ridiculous talent, but they also have a work ethic and commitment to success, than what any average kid could ever imagine.
So should we assess what it means for all our average children participating in an activity, where being in the top 1% did not necessarily do you any good. It requires us to realistically look at our children, their expectations, their abilities and help align the goals based on assessment. This does not mean that if our children are not going to be professional or even college athletes, that they should not do sports. However, this means that they must do sports for different goals, we can help them realize.
All children must play team and individual sports. The experience through competition is undeniably life skills used in school and later in business and inter-personal relationships. Working with teammates or to become self-sufficient, to have mentors and coaches, and simply learn to lose with dignity are essential elements in life. But while acknowledging the importance of these lessons, how parents and children deal with just being average?
1st Redefine Success. Coach John Wooden has the upper building block in his "Pyramid of Success" aims Competitive greatness. This is defined as "the peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you've made an effort to become the best you are capable of becoming." This allows everyone to succeed if they are honest with their abilities, work hard and are determined to achieve personal greatness. This means that everyone's success is not measured against all others, it is an assessment of whether each child can be their personal best.
2nd Set realistic and achievable goals. Even if a child has an ultimate goal to play professional sports, they need to understand the building blocks to eventually reach this goal. Children crawl, walk, waddle, run, and ultimately, they can run fast. The same must be true to set goals so that parents can help their children understand what the "next" step in the progression to becoming a professional, college or even a high school athlete can be. A 10-year-old baseball player can work towards the establishment with two hands, expansion of BAT due to the strike zone and begin to find seats. A high school player will have to have different goals, constantly and achievable steps that lead further in the direction of their personal success.
3rd Help Build a work ethic. For most people, it is difficult to constantly work with maximum effort and determination. But these are key elements in John Wooden's pyramid-shaped, which will lead to "success". Without hard work it is impossible to reach your potential and thus, by definition, are not you. In law school I had a friend who, while a great guy, would be the first to admit that he was not the smartest guy in school. But it did not keep him from being in the top 10% of our graduating class, because he worked harder than anyone else. He now has a great job and his work ethic continues to allow him to maximize his potential. Pete Rose is another example of determination and hustle, he just worked harder than anyone and became baseball's all-time hit leader. Without this kind of extreme determination any goal or dream, especially in the sports world, is simply a fantasy. It is important that regardless of the potential child that they realize that every decision they make every day to work harder or give up is a reflection of their own volition and ultimately the success they want throughout their lives.
If children learn to work harder, get together with others and reach their potential through sport, can these lessons be easily translated into school work, relationships and careers. Sport has become a classroom of life, magnifies the dichotomy of success or failure, hard workers or Slackers, winners or losers.
Both in sports and in life, our children as parents, we need to help fantasizing about success that is beyond their potential. If we allow them to do with ultimate goal of improving their productive by setting the bar too low, we have artificially limited their holdings. While everyone grows up with different economic and social constraints in addition to mental and physical abilities, for those whose primary goal is graduating from high school, we can certainly not be disappointed when some of them on it and very few do anything more .
Setting the bar too high is a far better way to fail as long as parents understand the basics of milestones. Although it is likely that the ultimate goal is not reached, each definitely achieve much more by continuing to meet smaller steps, develop a strong work ethic, and finally got John Wooden definition of success: to reach your potential.
http://sumit-i7.blogspot.com/2011/08/farmland-investment-drivers-loss-of.html
http://sumiti7.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/farmland-investment-drivers-loss-of-cropland-area-due-to-urban-development/
http://www.saanj.net/profiles/blogs/farmland-investment-drivers-loss-of-cropland-area-due-to-urban
