How to raise a champion and use sports to prepare youth for life
Key points by Ioanna Georgia Eskiadi
In this webinar we discussed different practices across the world on ways to raise a champion and skills needed to prepare them for life.
· Athletic talent is hard to identify.
· Natural talent and ability must be nurtured.
· Athletes are required to have different skills and capabilities to be successful.
· Brain, cognitive ability, and visual-perceptual skills are important.
· Soft skills also need to be developed.
· Young players need to learn how to cope with stress and pressure.
· Sports are a tool to prepare young people for life.
· Young athletes should be mentally developed.
· Parents are a great model for raising champions.
· Champions have to learn to be resilient.
In football, it’s important to put an additional high intensity to help players inside and assure that young players are developed mentally and maintain a good mental health.
“There are a lot of different things to do to help athletes and give them resources. There are early developers, later developers, and there are athletes who go with different peeks and values on their journey,” says Alecko Eskandarian from Major League Soccer. Both in team and individual sports, parents are a great model for raising champions. Parents should expose their children to each sport, and teach them to fail. This is a great foundation, to have different skills, develop your strength, learn to lose, and that you can’t be great in every team and in every sport.
“Playing sports from a young age taught me to be resilient. You can’t win in everything but you shouldn’t be a quitter,” says Hazel Clark from Bermuda Tourism Authority. Talent is not enough; you have to have a mindset.
“In Africa, we try to introduce sports in schools and help kids to learn basketball. We try to grow the game in the continent and empower young coaches,” says Franck Traore from NBA Africa. Basketball can be used as a tool to teach children values of sports and empower young people to grab the opportunities given to them. It’s important to allow kids to dream that everything is possible, and it’s on their hand to work hard and achieve their dreams. Also, we can use sports as a tool of further education and help children to gain scholarships through sports to develop their academic background. In young athletes, we should improve their technical and physical skills and try to keep the rhythm.
“It’s important to move forward in life, to have teamwork and an objective to reach,” says Hicham Bennouna from American Academy Casablanca. Game management is life management. Kids need to know that they surely will have problems in the future. A coach will impact more young people a year than the average person does in a lifetime. It’s important to help children build their future and to be motivated; through sports we prepare kids for life.
In regards to sports, it’s not only the identification, but the development of their skills and their personality to succeed. A talented person is both born and cultivated — you need to have some born characteristics and abilities, and after you need to develop them, otherwise you will lose these characteristics. “When a coach tries to find players, it’s important to choose players that can be talented in the future,” says Ruben Lezcano from Football Federation in Armenia. The social-economical content is very important, players from medium-high economic level families have more opportunities to become players than players who come from poorer families. A lot of times we are losing talented athletes, because they can’t continue to play sports. It’s important to put the player in a challenging environment to develop their abilities.
Speakers:
Alecko Eskandarian is the Director of Player Development in Major League Soccer, USA. He works with first teams; he manages the financial and all the staff with expertise to youth department sector.
Hazel Clark is a three times United States Olympian and Director of Sports in Bermuda Tourism Authority, USA. Every year she organizes sports camps for children to find and develop their skills.
Franck Traore is the Technical Director of NBA Africa in South Africa. He tries to teach children basketball, so that they can to have a better future, though basketball children can develop their skills and gain a scholarship that will give them opportunities.
Hicham Bennouna, is the Dean of Students and Athletic Director of American Academy Casablanca and Basketball Coach of Tibu Basketball Academy, Morocco. He tries to introduce soccer in schools as part of education, and he gives leadership lessons and encourages people to create their own academy in each sport.
Ruben Lezcano is the Head of Methodology at Football Federation of Armenia, Spain. He has completed his PHD in Soccer Talent Development by focusing on the way Spanish teams select their players.
This webinar is part of World Learning’s International Sports Programming Initiative for Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa Program (ISPI) — Virtual Together program, a series of virtual events, launched in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. ISPI is a program of U.S. Department of State’s Sports Diplomacy division. The series aims to engage the sports community globally, to creatively problem solve, share digital tools and work together, follow health guidance, and continue to promote active, healthy
lifestyles both physically and mentally throughout this crisis. Additional modules related to these objectives are being developed and will be announced.
The webinar is produced by Digital Communication Network, a diverse professional coalition in the digital space.
