2 Quotes to Share with High Achieving Youth Athletes Feeling Pressure
A few days ago I wrote a warning about the curse of high achieving young athletes. My premise is that the more success a child has in youth sports, the more pressure a child feels to sustain that success. However, many parents and coaches fail to provide high achieving youth athletes the skills to cope with this pressure.
Teaching young athletes coping skills is no quick fix and won’t happen overnight. One way to begin this process is to keep a quote and/or story ready to share in teachable moments. Below are two timeless quotes I believe can help with this.
1. “Pressure is a privilege” – BILLIE JEAN KING
Billie Jean King is regarded by many as one the best tennis players in history and she is in the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Her primary competitive years were in the 1960s and 70s where she won 12 Grand Slam titles.
This quote comes from the title of her book published in 2008. In a longer version of this quote she states:
Pressure is a privilege—it only comes to those who earn it.
The bottom line is that in sports, pressure is the result of success or the result of your team depending on you. Either way, it’s important for young athletes to be reminded that this is a good thing. Learning to think positive in the face of pressure is the best foundation to build coping skills.
2. “If you treat every situation as a life-or-death matter, you’ll die a lot of times” – Dean Smith
Dean Smith is one of the greatest college basketball coaches in history. He built his legacy over 4 decades of coaching through the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. For me, coach Smith is best known for his 1981-82 national title in which he coached Michael Jordan, and Jordan hit the game winning shot as a freshman.
This quote is always a good one to share when you notice an athlete treating minor situations as major events. It’s possible to use pressure as a positive, but not if you overuse it.
Young athletes must understand that the vast majority of their youth athletic career is about having fun and learning. Nothing more, nothing less. Although there will come a time when winning really matters for their future, that time is not quite here yet.