The Gift of Teaching Young Athletes to be a Fan of Their Sport
If you are a parent of a young athlete who only works hard when you push them to work hard, then self-motivation must be your #1 priority. They may be a youth sports star, but if they don’t love their sport enough to train hard without you pushing them, they will eventually burnout. Before you reach that point, I suggest you flip the switch on both you and your child’s mindset from one that focuses on competing to one that focuses on fandom.
Over the long-term, you will find that investing in building fandom is just as important as investing in building skills. Therefore, one of the best gifts you can give a young athlete is to develop their self-motivation by teaching them to become a fan of someone who is the best in the world at their sport. This includes taking them to see this athlete perform on the biggest and best stages. In addition, to further this along, find other role models and mentors for them to admire, cheer for, and learn from.
Bottom line, investing in a young athlete’s talents won’t guarantee success alone. Young athletes must also have the self-motivation to continue to invest in their talents without you. Self-motivation is the drive to complete an activity for only the satisfaction gained in doing the activity. This satisfaction is the result of fun or mental stimulation. In addition, this satisfaction comes in the absence of external pressure or reward.
Teaching a young athlete to be a fan may not be a secret sauce, but it’s a non-obvious way to redirect some of the money you may want to invest on camps, private coaching, and competitions to prevent burnout.