Success has always and will continue to leave patterns we can follow and the Argyle sports town has followed many of the same patterns as other successful communities across the country. But what about for the individual athletes? Are those at the individual level getting their needs and desires met? The answer is most likely not…
It’s not because coaches, trainers or communities do not care. But rather it’s because they either do not know how to serve an individual at their highest level or lack of time and energy. Argyle sports are huge and the community wants and craves to see continued success!
Yet it’s also just as important that the athletes representing the Argyle sports community, get their individual needs taken care of as well…
Argyle Sports: Performance Training
For nearly a decade I have had the pleasure to work with tens of thousands of athletes across the entire country. While so many of them were already successful on paper the vast majority were living with a lot of pain and regret. Living with a feeling of never living up to their full potential…
There is a knot inside their heart always trying to please and live up to their coaches or parents expectations.
So many of these athletes are waking up and going to bed every night wondering when is it going to be enough? When will my success and effort be enough so that I can feel accomplished.
You see communities like Argyle are both a blessing and a curse. Kids and athletes are walking around constantly comparing themselves to the current and past athletes that have played before them…
I know this from personal experience as well. I grew up in a town very similar to the Argyle sports community. Especially in regards to the sport of football.
I mean every Friday night they were packing out a minor league stadium filled with about 12,000 people. Our senior year the football team was featured on the MTV show called Two-A-Days…
Talk about trying to constantly look good. Now you were not just getting seen by people in your town or state but across the entire country!
As the journey of helping athletes began over 10 years ago I knew there had to be a different way, a better way!
The 3 Pillar Approach
After spending years of digging, analyzing and researching better ways to serve young athletes I was finally able to find the secret sauce…
Spending time around professional athletes, talking with parents, coaching young athletes and most importantly thinking back to my own athletic career started writing down every thought and question that came to my mind.
I started reading every book I could get my hands on about successful individuals in business and sports, because success leaves clues! I started going to events where I knew highly successful people would be speaking and in attendance. Because Proximity is Power!
That is where I was able to develop the 3 Pillar approach to successful athletes and kids:
- Mindset
- Mentorship
- Strength
If you combine those three pillars together every child will achieve their own level of success in sports and life!
Mentorship In Sports And Life
If I could pass along a piece of advice and only had one sentence. Every person in the world should have a mentor!
I have had different levels and different types of mentors throughout my life. People served as a mentor to me without even knowing it…
If there was one thing I could bring to the Argyle sports community it was mentorship to every athlete that walked through the gym doors.
You see a mentor is kinda like having an advisor or a tour guide. It’s not someone that just gives you all the answers but rather a set of tools to use to create your own life!
A tour guide asks you where you would like to go and they show you the route to take in order to get there. Kinda like being a mentor. I do not choose any kid’s destination but rather show them which doors to open in order to create the life that they want to live.
A lot of coaches and other sports trainers talk about the idea of mentorship but they do not actually live it!
It’s the heart and soul of what we do here at Underground Performance. It’s why you see “Mentorship” hanging on our sign outside the building and written in our logo and on every shirt that we have to date…
This is not something that we talk about but we live it!
A New Sports Way
I knew when I opened our gym here in Argyle it would take a little time. Most young kids and athletes do not truly understand the meaning or value of having a mentor.
It was going to take building some rapport with the athletes as well as the community. Then it all clicked last week…
Last week, one day I had a handful of private training sessions in a row and it all happened organically. One by one each session turned less about physical training to an intellectual conversation…
It was discussions where kids felt the rapport with me as something more than just a “strength coach” vulnerability began to open its doors…
It was less about telling them what to think but rather how to think. How to ask questions. To love themselves more. Creating the life they wanted and not living on society’s timeline…
It was all about how to think not outside the box but in an entirely different box!
It was probably the most fulfilling day I have had here at the gym. I knew that this was going to propel these kids further than any session we had done yet! They understood now that there were levels to this game and it required a new level of thought…
Now I was serving these kids and families at an even higher level! During a few of the conversations their parents were in the gym as well. You could feel the energy in the room that this was different. This was what their kids needed…
They needed someone that authentically cared about something more than just performance!
That’s what mentorship is all about! Showing the new doors and opportunities that give children the ability to create whatever life they desire!