The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture - Part 5 of 8- Mental Toughness and Relational Resilience

Published: Mon, 03/06/17

'In society we think of competition as going head to head with someone else and trying to beat them. But if you look at the Latin root of the word – it means To Strive Together. You put your best foot forward and I’ll put my best foot forward. Even if I lose, I will thank you as my competitor for bringing your best that day.’ – Joe Ehrmann, paraphrased

The 4 Cornerstones of Championship Culture - WYC is excited to partner with Upward Sports to kick off 2017 with an exciting new way for your to raise your coaching game for you and your coaches!

3rd Cornerstone - Creating Mentally Tough Athletes

This week we learn from Sara Erdner, PhD student in Sport Psychology & Motor Behavior at the University of Tennessee.

Sara has done research in the area of resilience, and here are 5 keys her research has uncovered as the keys to being resilient:

1 – Positive outlook
2 – Intrinsically motivated
3 – Focused
4 – Confident
5 – Perceived social support is high

Sara also has done a deeper dive into the fifth point which is about relationships. Emotional support is the key and the concept of empathy is critical. Empathy is striving to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Empathy is important to overcoming and working through the shame that has been put on you by your parents or coaches or others in your life.

Some of these are harder to control than others - but certainly choosing to be positive, to be focused, and to show empathy to others are things we can control with our choices every day.

Next week we'll jump into the 4th cornerstone of championship culture, leadership development and captains, with a great interview with TJ Rosene.

We're thankful for our partnership with Upward Sports - see all the great stuff they are up to at upward.org. If you are not familiar with them:

Established in 1995, Upward Sports is the world’s largest Christian youth sports provider. Approximately 100,000 leaders and coaches deliver Upward Sports programming to half a million young athletes around the country.
Upward Sports promotes the discovery of Jesus through sports, by providing a fun, encouraging environment in which young athletes can learn technical skills and a love of the game. We use sports like basketball, volleyball, soccer and flag football to help young athletes develop mentally, athletically, spiritually, and socially. We are about the whole athlete—that’s our 360 Progression.

WYC 109 – Championship Culture Part 5 – Sara Erdner talks Mental Toughness and Relational Resilience

Sara Erdner is a PhD student in Sport Psychology & Motor Behavior at the Univ. of TN. She is a lifelong athlete including multiple triathlons and most recently Strongman competitions. Today she will share with us some of the research she has done on relational resilience.

Go to podcast episode

My Culture Journey

22 weeks in on my journey to turn around the culture of a team I help coach, you can follow along here: The Culture Journey

I love hearing your stories and experiences, both the positive ones and frustrations you're having - just reply to this email and it goes straight to my inbox.

Make winning the right way your habit starting today,
Craig

Craig Haworth is the founder of Winning Youth Coaching, a site dedicated to helping coaches and parents make youth sports an awesome experience for the youth and the parents. He interviews coaches from around the world and posts them on his podcast, which currently has over 100 interviews and has been downloaded over 135,000 times. He writes a weekly note to coaches and parents. He is married to his high-school sweetheart and they share the blessing of 3 children and live in Franklin, TN. You can sign-up for his weekly note here, find him on twitter at @craighaworth1, or visit his website winningyouthcoaching.com.

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"

- Frederick Douglass