The First Sign a Young Wrestler is Ready to Own the Process
When a youth wrestler first starts in the sport their parents own the process. At this point, the parents decide when to practice and when to compete. Along this journey, all parents dream of the point somewhere between middle and high school when their child takes over. Once this happens, you can be sure your child is both maturing and starting to love the sport of wrestling.
The first sign of this comes in situations when a young wrestler is in the position to choose between fun and hard work. Instead of just instinctively choosing fun, they take the time to think through the possible good and bad outcomes that will happen as a result of their choice. This is a sign they understand the relationship between cause and effect or what psychologist call having an “internal locus of control“.
In other words, at this point your wrestler understands that their success doesn’t depend on hope, luck, or other external factors. Instead, they depend on facts, analysis, and planning to achieve success. In turn, they are able to see how their actions lead to a hard fought victory or an unexpected loss.
You’ll know if your wrestler is on the right path if you see them making smart decisions like:
- Choosing practice over playing video games in their free time
- Eating healthy daily instead of depending on hard weight cutting
- Going to bed on time instead of wasting time so they can stay up late
With this in mind, there is only one way for a young wrestler to get to this point. This is by getting the opportunity to make decisions on their own. If a parent always tells their child exactly what to do, then the child will never develop their internal locus of control.