Transferrable Skills from Sports to Life

Sports are a great practice for life. Sports introduce kids to the joys and challenges they will inevitably face as they navigate life. Below are just some of the core skills athletes develop through sports that they can immediately utilize to develop an advantage in life.

They can fall back on their experiences in sports to inspire and power them to continue achieving success.

Setting & Pursuing Goals

To succeed in sports, you have to set goals. Goals for your playing career, the season, an upcoming game, or what you want to accomplish in practice for the day. However, as athletes quickly come to learn, just setting goals isn’t enough. To actually accomplish their goals, they need to develop action plans to pursue their specific goals.

Teamwork

No matter if they're in a team-oriented sport (basketball, football, hockey, etc.) or an individual-focused one (wrestling, swimming, golf, etc.), teamwork plays a critical role in all athletes’ lives. Even athletes in individual-focused sports learn the value of “team” in order to pursue a common goal and to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They value having others around them who they trust to push and challenge them to be the best versions of themselves.

Communication

Without strong communication, a team’s success is hopeless. Once an athlete begins to value the importance of communication is when they start to exhibit their leadership skills. Leaders use communication to build trust and respect, ensure that everyone on their team understands the team’s goals, and that everyone is always on the same page and rowing in the same direction.

Competitiveness

Competition is what fuels sports. Every athlete has in them that hunger to succeed. They will push through any obstacle to reach their objective and potential. They want to prove that they are better than their opponent and that they are equipped to handle any challenge facing them.

Persistence

The best athletes don’t let anything get in the way of their goals. They have the mindset that they control their future and that with hard work they can always change things to break their way.

Discipline

As an athlete gets older, their responsibilities on and off the field start to grow as well. As a high school and/or college athlete, they have to quickly learn how to master time management. In order to reach their goals, they have to prioritize what’s truly important and cut out all other distractions.

Resiliency

No athlete experiences a straight upward trajectory in their career. Athletes are exposed to failures every day. Even the best athletes suffer setbacks. Yet, athletes will still immediately pop back up after suffering a huge hit, knock in the winning run after striking out in their previous at-bat, or make the clutch “three” after missing all their previous attempts.

Adaptability

An athlete and team can have the perfect game plan going into a game. However, just like life, sports hardly go as initially planned. Because of this, athletes know when to quickly recognize when something isn’t working, and adjust their game plan on the fly to still reach their objectives.

All these skills play pivotal roles in preparing athletes for success in their personal and professional lives, and athletes have demonstrated time and time again that they can execute on these skills masterfully. So, when an athlete is in a brand-new job or find themselves in an unfamiliar life situation, they can fall back on their experiences in sports to inspire and power them to continue achieving success.