Courage to Change Edition, Year End 2020. Covering Inspiration, Getting Better, Being the Change, Innovation. Featuring Athlete Walk-ons & Successful Coaching Journeys.

Hope, optimism, aspiring to be better, persistence, overcoming doubt, empowerment, leadership, inspiration, work ethic, priority management, success stories. All in this year end edition.

Dec 27, 2020

Every Sunday I publish and deliver an email on leadership, health and fitness called The Physical Movement. While the intent was to create a resource for coaches and parents, it has generated interest from all walks of life. Thank you.

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Best of the season to you and yours!

As we ramp down the last few days of 2020, and head to 2021, here is hoping you have some down time for the people and activities that are important to you.

A new year brings optimism and hope. With that in mind, we look at the sports version of optimism and hope in this year end edition of The Physical Movement.

Perseverance, commitment to getting better, self-improvement, working with others, goal setting and targeting them, hard work, time and priority management. These are some of the best of what sports can offer in the development of a young person. They are the sports version of optimism and hope.

As coaches and parents, we have sports as an outlet to help mold young people into good citizens.

This week we focus on one of the more important topics for all of us involved in youth sports: commitment to improvement. Commitment to change. The process of getting better.

When we break it down, it is probably one of the most difficult challenges we have: the commitment to getting better.

This is a foundational principle to youth sports along with participation, having fun, physical and mental health. Understanding what is required improve is a topic that we have explored consistently through our editions.

It is a challenging topic, because so many around us want to improve but are stuck on how. How to start, how to maintain, how to make progress. Let’s explore some key concepts.

Sports participation provides the opportunity to spread our wings, challenge ourselves to step up our game regardless of what role we play. To improve, to overcome, to put ourselves out there. We have all had to tap into that mindset during a particularly challenging 2020.

On July 12th, we published our interview with Ben Fanelli, founder of Heroic Minds and all around good person. Ben’s story was one of our most read features, and when you dig in you will see why. Ben has taken a terrible incident, a derailed sports dream and turned it into a positive message impacting many others. He will be the first to deflect the attention, but the reality is Ben has become the hero of his own story and through Heroic Minds is helping others do the same. If you have not tapped into Ben’s story, treat yourself here:

https://thephysicalmovement.substack.com/p/the-hero-of-his-own-story-ben-fanelli

On July 26th, we published a feature on Matt Young. Matt has surrounded himself with a team and program focused on making the youth sports system better. Our young athletes are going through awful experiences and participation is declining faster than taking on water in a sinking boat.

In fact, many of the world’s countries have youth programs that have lost sight of some of the core value that should be driving them. Unfortunately, Canada & USA are at the the top of the list.

Unlike many armchair analysts, Matt and his team are doing something about the problem. He has the skills, over 27000 hours of coaching and leadership experience, mindset and passion on prescribing solutions. As coaches, parents, and volunteers, we can learn a ton around impacting positive change by becoming familiar with Matt’s work.

https://thephysicalmovement.substack.com/p/fixing-the-broken-youth-sports-system

Our most read article of 2020 was published on Father’s Day. The Physical Movement put to paper an interview with Guy Brown. Guy is a friend and colleague that has had the unique experience of being an elite athlete, parent of an elite athlete, coach, innovator, and insider to the proactive work around concussion research and risk. Guy has taken his experiences and been a driving force to what you see in elite strength and conditioning rooms today.

If you can relate to any of these topics, you will enjoy our conversation with Guy.

https://thephysicalmovement.substack.com/p/a-fathers-day-gift-meet-guy-brown

Access full archive at The Physical Movement by Clicking Here.

PLAY. LEAD. BE STRONG.

Inspiration. A feeling that can drive us to greater heights.

In leaving 2020, let’s share some inspiration through features on athlete walk-ons and successful coaches.

From an athlete’s perspective, we talk about walking on to a team via showing up uninvited to a tryout. Most college walk-ons do not make it to the professional athletes. However, the value of the walk-on process is more in developing life skills than playing professionally.

The key ingredient to pursuing a tryout without invitation?

Developing a skillset early in their lives that proved they could overcome. Overcome what other’s thought or did not think, overcome naysayers and evaluators, overcoming self-doubt. What is in common with all walk-ons is the determination to get better.

Walk-on athletes don’t just apply to college situations.

It could apply to those not well known to coaches who attend tryouts.

It is a reminder to coaches that there are some young athletes in your community who may not have had the chance before, or who have developed under the radar. (The Physical Movement provided 15 suggestions to navigate the tryout process in this article)

Walk-ons are a reminder to young athletes of what hard work and perseverance can accomplish, valuable life skills for all.

From a coaching perspective, following one’s passion for a sport, competition and to guide young people can lead to some fantastic contributions.

Not trying to glamorize walk-ons, some don’t work out, and there are risks and like all things knowledge is power.

Here are some resources for parents on the realities of walk-ons and scholarships in the USA.

https://usatodayhss.com/2018/the-walk-on-route-a-risk-worth-taking

https://keepplayingbaseball.org/walking-on-the-real-story/#:~:text=Roster%20Spot%20Walk%2DOn,a%20scholarship%20invested%20in%20them.

The Physical Movement has put together some inspiring walk-on athlete stories and coaching successes from humble beginning, as we re-fuel and head into 2021.

Athlete walk-ons:

1. If you are on Netflix, check out Greater. This is the story of Brandon Burlsworth. A young man who overcame a lot to play division 1 football, who’s legacy endures despite passing away tragically 10 days after being drafted into the NFL.

2. Those who told him he could not, gave him the drive to prove that he could. Jacob Lemming is one of top walk on stories out there.

3. Men’s baseball is unique in the sense that they only have 11.7 scholarship opportunities per year. (As a reference, Men’s sports in USA and Womens must provide same amount of scholarships according to NCAA Rule Title IX. Men’s football have 85 scholarships allowed, Men’s basketball have 13, Womens basketball 15, Men’s & Women’ hockey 18 each, Men’s Soccer 9.9, Womens Soccer 14/ That is a small number when compared to some other men’s and women’s sports.)

Here is an article with some suggested steps for baseball walk-ons.

4. A writer for the college newspaper thought it would be cool to document football tryouts by going through them, so he did. Never expecting to make a top ranked Division 1 major team, he was most surprised with the outcome and the commitment that came next.

5. Ladies, here is a story of 2 successes walking on with a major university powerhouse women’s basketball program.

From the article:

"What do they bring from a basketball standpoint? Nothing that you could say 'Wow,'" Coach Auriemma says. "But ... they bring a sense of perspective to everything. Initially they did it for nothing other than they love to be a part of the team.”

6. Another women’s athletics walk-on success story

7. Stanford University documents its walk-ons in this article appropriately called the underdogs.

8. David Bagga describes his experience as a walk-on here and turned it into a book.

9. Here is a feel good story from University of Utah.

10. Some of baseball’s best walk-on stories

There are thousands of coaches who volunteer their time and provide guidance and mentorship day in and day out for years and years. Most do not get or want recognition. They are driven by a passion for working with young people, helping them develop as well as a love for the sport.

Most coaches who achieve high profile success start out that way and through a very strong commitment and persistence, they are able to make a living as a coach.