THE COMPONENTS OF BEING A SUCCESSFUL STUDENT-ATHLETE

Written by: Ebony Mason

           

            The three main components of being a successful student-athlete are discipline, communication skills, and accountability. It takes a lot of willpower and work to look yourself in the mirror and make the necessary changes to become a better athlete. Heck, it takes the same effort to become a better person and evolve as a human being.

 

            If you want to do something in life, you will do it. You will not create an excuse for why you cannot do it. You just do it. Why? Because you want to.

 This same mindset is established in the most successful people in this world, from Barack Obama to Lebron James.

 

DISCIPLINE

           

            Your two main focuses as a student-athlete should be your studies and your sport; in this instance, the sport that is referred to is basketball. Everything else is a distraction. Adjust your school life with your basketball life. You must be disciplined enough to study hard and get the necessary scores to advance to college. College coaches do not want a non-educated athlete. They want an intelligent young man who has his priorities in order.

 

            Secondly, you must be disciplined enough to show up to practice every day. There should be no excuses. You must show up, even when you do not feel like going. Adjust your schedule accordingly so that you can make it to practice. It is not fair to yourself and your teammates when you are absent. Practices are where coaches provide athletes with game-like scenarios. If a coach is going over a play, your absence could cause a mess up on a live game scenario. Your absence from practice contributes to the knowledge of gameplays. If you do not attend a practice, you cannot know which player is more substantial when working a play.

 

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

 

            You must communicate well with your teachers, teammates, and coaching staff about your needs and wants as a student-athlete. The key is to always to be respectful. It is essential to understand that everybody is human, and no one likes it when they are being talked down to. Your teachers, coaching staff, and teammates are there for you. It may not seem like it, but your teachers want you to succeed academically and in your basketball world. They want you to achieve, when you are successful in your academics, it reflects on them as a teacher.

 

Similar to practical communicative skills, trust is another critical factor in student-athletes' success. Trust should be established within a team and an organization. The organization will ultimately fail if players and the coaching staff cannot trust each other. Teams establish trust by showing their teammates respect, listening, and communicating effectively (Ex. If you are a point guard coming down the court, you will communicate with the offense the specific play to penetrate the defense. Subsequently, as an athlete you are communicating with your coaches about your goals and aspirations for the season ahead.)

 

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

 

            Players should not only hold themselves accountable, but hold their teammates accountable as well. Athletes need to understand that there are consequences for every action. If your team has lost a game, you have to ask yourself the following questions:

 

·      Was I giving 100% on the court?

·      Were my teammates giving 100% on the court?

·      Did I want the victory bad enough?

·      Did my teammates want the victory bad enough?

 

After reflecting on those questions, you must adjust your mindset to a level of focus and determination to where those questions should be answered with a “Yes.”

 

 

·      Was I giving 100% on the court? Yes.

·      Were my teammates giving 100% on the court? Yes.

·      Did I want the victory bad enough? Yes.

·      Did my teammates want the victory bad enough? Yes.

 

 

 

            In conclusion, the only thing stopping you from being successful is YOU. Stop making excuses. People make excuses as to why they have not chased their dream, fallen short in life, etc. Those stories are draining and redundant. The truth is to stop being lazy, get up, and go for yours. Nobody is going to save you, and nobody is going to give you a handout. If you want something, anything in life, you must work EXTREMELY hard, every single day, to get it. There are no shortcuts in life. And anybody that takes a shortcut always ends up short and inevitably has to repeat the step that they skipped, so stay focused on your goals, never look for shortcuts and remember anything worth having is worth working hard for.