A Message for the Start of a New Athletics Season
Dear Young Athlete,
“The broader and stronger the base, the higher the peak.”
The upcoming athletics season promises more fun and exciting times for you. It presents a marvellous opportunity for you to take another step forward in your athletics career. It is also the ideal time to continue building a strong base – a launching pad – for your continued enjoyment and future achievements in the sport.
Continue to build a strong base for the future.
Building your base should include concentrating on increasing your athleticism and general strength, further developing correct and reliable techniques across a range of events, and continuing to gain experience and skills in various competitions. As this occurs, always keep in mind that these things are moving you towards your long term goals and dreams.
Keep your long-term goals in mind.
Throughout this season, I really encourage you to keep focusing on the process of improvement rather than results, medals and winning, and to continuously keep the “big picture” in mind. It can be a long building process to become the track and field athlete that you ultimately want to become; it is common for athletes not to reach their peak until their mid-twenties or after up to ten years of solid training. Commitment, persistence, patience, good planning and smart goal setting are just as important as talent (and maybe even more so).
Focus on improvement rather than beating others.
Each competition you compete in is not the “be-all-and-end-all” – they are simply wonderful and enjoyable opportunities to learn and develop as an athlete on the pathway to greater things. Any hiccups along the way (and that is all they are – “hiccups”) should be seen as learning experiences and not setbacks or trends that will continue.
“Failures” are speed humps, not road blocks.
Have fun and believe in yourself. The best is yet to come.
Give a Copy of This Letter to a Young Athlete That You Know!
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Darren Wensor is a sports development professional, coach educator, specialist coach of young athletes and founder of the blog coachingyoungathletes.com. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Anchor or via email.
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