Most college students can say that they have participated in a sport at some point in their lives, whether it was playing one soccer season when you were 5, or being a four-sport athlete in high school. Personally, sports have always been a huge part of my life. I played many different sports on lots of teams and spent countless weekends traveling for tournaments. Basketball has always been my major sport, which I played in college as well for two years until I decided to hang up my shoes and move on to another path. Although I don’t play sports anymore, I truly believe that sports played a huge part in shaping the person I am today. There are so many great lessons that are learned by playing sports that can transfer into real life situations. There are plenty of amazing people who never participated in sports and still turn into some of the most inspiring people I have ever met, but personally I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be so involved in athletics all my life because I would have missed out on learning some major life skills that have helped me in my life today:

I learned the importance of teamwork. It can be very difficult at times to work with certain types of people, especially being a girl. Getting an entire team of hormonal girls to get along all the time with absolutely no drama is a feat that I dare any coach to try and accomplish. I played on many different teams with all kinds of people with varying personalities. There were those who were very easy to get along with because they were just like me, but there were also those who drove me crazy and made it very hard to get along with them. In most sports, your success is largely based on how well you connect and work together. It was never required that all my teammates were best friends, but it was required that when we step onto the court, we would work together to accomplish one common goal. When you are on a team, you learn how to put aside your own issues with people and work together with them to be successful. This is so important in any real life situation because there are always going to be people you are forced to work with that you would rather never see ever again, but you make it work because it the only way that you are going to be successful.

I learned how to take criticism. I played on multiple teams throughout my athletic career and played for lots of different coaches. I had some coaches that were gentle and sweet, but I also had coaches who were definitely more on the aggressive side and definitely did not hold anything back. I have had my fair share of coaches telling me everything I am doing wrong and at the time it made me feel like I would never be good enough, but in the end they were the ones that taught me the most. Although some coaches were a bit extreme, they have helped me learn how to take criticism from anyone and use it to better myself. During a basketball game, if I had a coach yell at me for a mistake, I couldn’t just break down or my butt would be sitting on the bench. I had to take what they were saying, learn from it, and fix it. In life, there are going to be plenty of people criticizing you and tearing you down, but you cannot let it ruin you. You cannot let it keep you from pursuing your potential. You have to use it to make yourself better and reach your goals.

I learned the importance of hard work. Every athlete knows that you don’t get better or more playing time by not putting in the time and effort needed to do so. If you slack off in practice, you won’t be seeing the floor. If you are fighting for a position, you have to work harder to earn that spot. If you want to get into that graduate school, you have to work hard and put in the time to make yourself the best candidate. With any goal you have in life, hard work is what is going to get you to where you want to be.

I learned the significance of a positive attitude. “Attitude is everything” was always one of the most common phrases that I heard my coaches say. I was always taught that if you don’t have anything else, at least have a good attitude. Your attitude can determine the outcome of many situations in sports, and in life. Your attitude can impact so much more than yourself. In sports, even some of the most talented athletes are pushed aside by coaches because of their poor attitude. You can coach an athlete on how to improve their skills and fundamentals, but you cannot coach attitude. Life is going to try and knock you down more times than you can count, but a positive attitude can help you overcome those obstacles and achieve your goals.

Hope all my athletes can relate to these, and tune in next week for a couple more!