In a couple of weeks, me and two of my daughters are going to be doing a college prep workshop, but really the workshop is for parents helping their kids be successful. One of the main points we will be discussing is how to point student athletes in the direction of their dreams and goals.

One of the things that baffles me with parents of student athletes whose goal is to play at the highest level is that they push their kids down this road without a road map without directions. I often ask kids that I work with how would you travel from point “A” to point “B” if you didn’t have directions. Or as one kid put it just a week ago, “yeah, how would we get there without Siri”.

A road map includes great dreams, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound goals, a vision board with a vision statement. We can acknowledge that this process isn’t something we easily do, humans don’t like the process of goal-setting, but we like the results, and yet parents will not get the support that their kid needs to create a road map. But if their hitting slumps or if they missed a few ground balls they would sign them up for lessons yesterday.

I tell parents all the time if their kid has the necessary talent they will make it, unless they  don’t have a roadmap. We may not like driving 4, 6 or 8 hours, but we like it when we arrive at our destination. Preparing our kids for high level athletics is a lot more than being physically talented, student athletes need to be mentally and emotionally ready and having a road map, a plan is part of the plan on how to get them ready.

“The difference between what you were yesterday and what you will be tomorrow is what you do today.” – Stephen Pierce