Things I Know to Be True for Parents of Athletes
Aug 25, 2023
What's the most important thing about a Dad Joke? It's a parent. LOL
This is Mental Fitness Friday and I'm Hans.
I want to share something I wrote a few years ago. It's based on my experience as a parent of an athlete and as a therapist and mental fitness coach.
It's things I know to be true for parents of athletes. I am going to focus on one. Unexpected adversity or something you’re not prepared for will happen.
Will you be ready? Do you have the mental fitness skills to be who you want to be? What's your default?? Do you react or respond?
Here’s an example of why this is important. My son's hockey team was playing in a PeeWee Playoff game. Tension high. His team was trailing 2-0 with 1:30 left in the 2nd. It was tied 2-2 with 8 seconds left. An intermission ice resurfacing was next.
A parent from the other team went outside the locker room and called the kid who tied it a bush league mother fucker. Wow.
I was amazed how it was handled by the kid, the coaches, and the parents of both teams. We all could have lost our shit and who knows what would have happened. A viral video with parents taking swings? Police called? It's happened.
It would have been bad.
We quietly decided to report it to the district and the association of the team. The response made it hard for the guy to cloud things with a but you did blah, blah, blah and avoid responsibility. The parent got suspended. It was over.
That's why mental fitness is important.
Let's change the conversation.
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