How Coaches Can Help Young Athletes Compete Against Instant Gratification
One of the first competitions a young athlete must win to grow into an elite athlete is against their desire for instant gratification. Indeed, anyone who has ever played sports knows that the toughest battles you face are against yourself. Sports journalism is full of stories of athletes who lose this battle.
So, parents and coaches must be mindful that the ongoing struggle between instant and delayed gratification athletes face will not go away without a game plan. For most athletes, instant gratification will beat delayed gratification in a head-to-head moment unless they have this game plan. Moreover, creating this game plan is no different than creating a game plan for an actual competition.
- Focus on using your strengths.
- Research performance history to predict future behaviors and develop a plan to take advantage of those predictions.
- Establish routines and practice habits to operationalize #1 and #2.
Above all, it’s #3 above that enables an athlete to win against instant gratification. History shows that delayed gratification will always be at a disadvantage in head-to-head decision-making moments against instant gratification. Therefore, the best way to compete against instant gratification is to limit these head-to-head moments. Furthermore, athletes must do this by eliminating as many decisions between the two as possible through healthy habits and routines.
Every decision an athlete makes in the moment is a product of their emotions in that moment. Once a coach helps them establish healthy habits and routines, emotions become less apart of the decision-making process.
- Bedtime and wake up time
- What to train and when to train
- What to eat and when to eat
- When to rest and recover and how to rest and recover
- Deadlines, goals, and milestones
These types of things must all be part of the routine. Athletes don’t need to be perfect in executing the routine, but the routine does need to be a priority. Unquestionably, establishing a routine with this type of detail is hard, but you only have to do it once. What’s more, once it’s done right, instant gratification loses forever.