Chris Mance II - Mental Skills Coach

There are hundreds of sports metaphors for life. In fact, you probably hear or personally use a sports metaphor nearly every day.

• “Dropped the Ball”
• “You win some you lose some”
• “Call an audible”
• “What’s the Game plan”
• “Off base”
• “Hail Mary”
• “Rain Check”
• “Let your guard down”
• “Low blow”
• “Par for the Course”
• “Curveball”
• “Get the ball rolling”
• “Home Run”
• “Tee up”
• “Swing for the fences”
• “Game Changer”
• “Keep your eye on the ball”
• “Go to the mat”
• “Neck and Neck”
• “Level the playing field”
• “Heavyweight” or “Lightweight”
• “Below the belt”
• “Pit stop”
• “Knockout”
• “On the ropes”
• “Saved by the bell”
• “Sucker punch”
• “Blind sided”

Unquestionably, sports is the go to metaphor for life in so many ways. In essence, sports is life. Specifically, I believe there is one characteristic in particular that makes sports fill this metaphorical role in our society so well:

All sports are essentially games of resilience, just as it is in real life.

By and large, success in both sports and life comes down to the ability to recover from defeat, mistakes, set backs, injury, sickness, disappointment, and failure. Indeed, nothing is guaranteed in either except the reality that resilience is necessary to sustain oneself over the long haul.

This is what makes sports the best classroom for preparing and teaching young people how to overcome the challenges they will eventually face in the real world.