Over the years, I have interviewed hundreds of trainers who have expressed a desire to train elite athletes. Many people inside and outside the fitness industry believe that the essence of sports performance training is concerned only with the elite high school, college and professional athlete. If this is what you think sports performance training is about, think again.
The first question I ask every “athlete” (ages seven through college) is, “Why are you involved in sports?” Surprisingly, very few kids respond with a direct and decisive answer. Their response is usually with hesitation, and is something similar to, “I like being on a team” or “I want to win a championship and get a scholarship.” But, is that the real deeprooted reason? I say, “No!”
I have performed years of informal research – simply from being in a position as an owner of a sports performance business for 15 years. I have personally interviewed thousands of kids during our weekly orientation process. During this process, I ask every child in the room a few simple questions like, “Why are you involved in sports?” and “Why are you here today?” These probing questions challenge children to think about the real reasons why they got involved. Once you ask these questions and receive an initial answer from the child, you may need to ask them follow-up questions. This question-and-answer session should be done in a semi-formal setting with the child’s parent present. You need to get to the root of the child’s real goal and help them to figure it out. It is crucial that your training staff understands how to push the right buttons and find the motivating factor for each and every kid interested in training.
My conclusion through this process is that kids get involved with sports to simply feel better about themselves! Most kids who get involved with sports performance usually have not internalized this understanding, but once they do, they make a real connection to “fitness.”
Over 75% of kids drop-out of organized sports by the time they reach 14 years of age. The reason is because most children do not feel good about themselves playing a sport any longer. This is usually due to a child’s lack of physical fitness and performance which leads to low self-esteem.
The sports performance trainer who desires to work with children must be trained and prepared to challenge kids mentally. Let’s face it, most kids are not motivated to do much except play video games, get on the internet, or watch TV. As professionals in the field of fitness, we must help each and every child to create a clear and concise vision of what truly motivates them to train and succeed in sport.
Your training department manager or facility owner should ask each sports performance staff member why it is important for them to work with athletes. This will help facilitate conversation and crystallize the vision and mission of your staff.
Contrary to popular belief, the number of elite athletes at all levels is very small when compared to the general market of children. If you are looking to build a sports performance business within your club, then the mindset of your staff needs to focus on helping the masses. Make every child in your program a winner, no matter what physical performance level they currently possess. For this to be effective, the sports performance trainer needs to come to grips first with him or herself. They need to realize that sports performance training is about helping children of all levels who want to improve their physical performance.
It is important to get your staff to realize that their real work and satisfaction is changing a kid’s life by making him or her feel more connected to peers, not just by seeing a star player’s name in the paper.
Build a culture in your organization around changing kids’ lives in a positive way, and your sports performance business will take-off. The trainer who cares about each and every athlete is the underlying success factor for this business. The key to establishing this type of environment is for the owner or manager to make a similar connection to staff members. The one crucial element to creating consistency with this concept is to spend some quality time with each employee personally, and to find out what really motivates them. Help give your staff direction on their goals and map it back to where you want your sports performance business to go. Treat your staff exactly the way you want your staff to treat your customers. This mentality will become transparent throughout your organization, and members will start talking about how great your club is for the youth in your community.
For more information contact Chris Poirier at 800.556.7464, or by email at chris.poirier@performbetter.com.
Bill Parisi is the Founder and Managing Partner of the Parisi Speed School. He can be contacted at 888.GET.FAST, or by email at bparisi@parisiusa.com, or visit www.parisischool.com.
