Competitive and high-performance sports demand a lot of athletes physically, mentally, emotionally, and more! As a parent, you play a crucial role in shaping their mindset and fostering a growth-oriented approach.

One powerful concept to instil in your young athlete’s mindset is “The Power of Yet.” This simple word carries profound implications by encouraging learning, maintaining engagement, fostering resilience, perseverance, increasing motivation, and confidence, as well as a healthy outlook towards challenges.

Understanding “The Power of Yet”:

“The Power of Yet” is a mindset rooted in the idea that our abilities and skills can be developed over time with effort, dedication, and learning. When your athlete faces a setback or encounters a challenge, reframing their perspective from “I can’t do this” to “I can’t do this yet” opens the door to a world of possibilities. This subtle shift in language encourages a growth mindset, emphasizing the journey of improvement rather than fixating on current limitations. It increases their resistance to adversity and empowers them.

Understanding the “Growth Mindset”

The phrase “the power of yet” emanates from what psychologist Carol Dweck calls a ‘growth mindset’. This mindset encourages your athlete to view their abilities as improvable, as opposed to an unchangeable ‘fixed mindset’. For instance, when your athlete says, “I can’t do a triple jump,” adding the word “yet” at the end transforms it into “I can’t do a triple jump yet”. This encourages resilience, patience, and ambition, and acknowledges that the road to excellence involves gradual development.

Nurturing Resilience in Your Athletes

An inherent part of sports is the reality of defeat. It is essential to raise athletes who do not interpret this as a testament to their inadequacy but as a chance to grow. Navigating losses, setbacks, mistakes, failure with words like “You haven’t gotten the gold medal yet” or “You haven’t mastered the backstroke yet” shows the athlete that with time, practice, and persistence, improvement and achievement is achievable.

Encouraging Patience

The power of “yet” is also an opportunity to instil patience into your competitive or high performance athlete. Sports are a continual grind, characterized by incremental progress that often isn’t immediately tangible. When your talented player says, “I’m not as fast as Liam,” respond positively with, “You’re not as fast as Liam yet, but with practice and commitment, who knows? You could surpass him!”

Enabling Continual Learning

Use “yet” as a strategy to foster a hunger for constant learning. Your athlete might sometimes get unsatisfactory results, but we learn as much from failure as we do from winning. NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once said “You can’t win unless you learn how to lose”. Why is is? Losing teaches athletes numerous intangibles that are required to win such as dealing with adversity, being persistent, building character, mental toughness or agility, and much more.

Three Strategies to Develop a Growth Mindset In Your Athlete

1. Praise Effort, Over Just Results – Instead of praising victories or successful outcomes, acknowledge and celebrate the effort they put into their training and competitions. This reinforces the idea that hard work, dedication, and a willingness to learn are integral to success.
2. Normalize Setbacks as Learning Opportunities – Competitive and high-performance sports are rife with challenges and setbacks. Emphasize to your athlete that setbacks are not failures but opportunities to learn and grow. The internet is loaded with stories of renowned athletes who faced adversity and emerged stronger, highlighting the importance of resilience in their journey. Point these out.
3. Encourage a Positive Inner Dialogue – Help your athlete develop a positive inner dialogue by reframing negative thoughts or even challenging negative thoughts as to why they think those thoughts are fact. Most of the time they are fiction! When faced with a difficult task, encourage them to speak positively to themselves, and as the article title suggests, get them to add “yet” to their statements. For example, changing “I can’t do this” to “I can’t do this yet” creates a more optimistic and growth-oriented mindset.

Summary

“The Power of Yet” is a transformative concept that can empower your athlete to face challenges with resilience and determination. By fostering a growth mindset, you contribute not only to their success in sports but also to their overall mental well-being. Embrace the journey of improvement, and watch as your athlete flourishes into a resilient and confident competitor.

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Action Plan

This week’s action plan includes four (4) ways to promote a growth mindset through the power of Yet!

1. Emphasize effort over outcomes – Praise your athlete’s hard work, effort and determination rather than focusing on the outcome such as wins, scores, and stats. This helps them to build a resilient approach to challenges with a positive attitude.

Example:

“Today, your performance might not have been perfect, but you gave it your all and showed your commitment. Keep pushing yourself and eventually, you’ll succeed!”

2. Promote problem-solving and embrace setbacks – Help your athlete view setbacks as opportunities to learn and grow. Encourage them to think creatively in overcoming obstacles through problem solving.

Example:

“What could you have done differently in today’s game? What can you learn from this experience to make you even better next time?”

3. Create a supportive, nurturing home environment – Maintain open communication and be empathetic to their thoughts, feelings, emotions. Showing understanding and encouragement helps your athlete feel supported as they navigate the ups and downs of competitive and high performance sport.

Example:

“It’s okay to be disappointed about today’s result, but remember that it doesn’t define you. With perseverance and hard work, you’ll bounce back even stronger!”

4. Encourage self-reflection and self-assessment – Have your athlete reflect on their progress, successes, and setbacks. Assist them in identifying areas where they can grow (key, as a parent this is likely not inside sport).

Example:

“Let’s have a look at your recent games and practice sessions. Which skills have improved? Where can you still strive for more improvement?”

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Resource of the Week

This week we have two resources for you, both revolving around the concept of growth mindset. Psychologist Carol Dweck, coined the term “growth mindset” and it has changed how we look at the world. Check out Carol Dweck’s book, and a view review of the book below.

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