Training for Life: what athletics has taught a group of alaskan coaches

One of life’s biggest dichotomies is the harsh reality that to have an “easy” life, we must do what’s hard, putting the practice and execution of daily difficult habits as paramount. Unfortunately, our brains aren’t programmed for this kind of discomfort. Our brains crave comfort, a naturally occurring survival mechanicsm called homeostasis.

This craving for comfort has renovated our society to a softer state, one that has slowed in it’s expectation of self. We have normalized systems and processes that make our lives easier, more efficient, and in many ways this is great, but the trade off is that it has impacted our tolerance to doing hard things, and thereby our overall resilience as a species.

There are environments that are innately anti-comfort, a common version of which can be found in the realm of athletics. One tremendous gift that sports grants its participants, is that most make doing hard things a more enjoyable venture.

Sports, by nature, are designed to be fun. Put a ball in a hoop. Kick a ball into a goal. Throw a ball at a stick. Race the person next to you up and down a snowy hill with sticks on your feet. Be the first to capture a giant Double Gloucester cheese wheel rolling down a steep grassy hill. The inventive bounds of the human mind in creation of ways to have fun are truly fantastic, and now in many cases, multi-million dollar businesses.

In stride with this, is the human need for conquest as documented many times in it’s long permeation of history. Once, our ancestors used to fight each other over land; now, we now fight each other in arenas that resemble the once great Colosseum of Rome, satiating our primal need for battle, victory, and someone to cheer for or against. Those with the more pacifistic nature are found playing instruments in the stands of these events, or cheering on the competitors instead of marring their own clothes with the sweat, and sometimes blood, of themselves and their opponent.

Modern Magic

Where the modern magic happens it that athletes during training, practices, and games are faced with a wide array of uncomfortable challenges that helps forge them as a person in a way that normal life can’t. We are no longer in the arena fighting for our lives in the most literal sense, but fighting for our lives to have quality and be genuinely epic.

These inner-athletics challenges grow a person physically, mentally, and emotionally. Of course we easily recognize that sports can harden a person’s physical body promoting better overall health and ideally habits that are retained during a lifetime, yet perhaps less recognizable are the way they shape a person on the inside.

Growth of interpersonal skills like teamwork, empathy, conflict resolution, leadership, adaptability, and healthy communication, are accelerated in most sports environments, especially that of team sports.

The consistent requirement to show up daily to practice and train helps forge a person’s discipline muscle and resilience. Overtime, making that choice to show up by personal choice, outside coach’s requirements and team practice schedule, can be a lot less challenging due to repetition alone. This characteristic of discipline is highly prized in our modern society, and when the roots of which are established at a young age, is much easier to possess through adulthood.

Furthermore, athletics teach sacrifice, smart goal setting, and fuels feelings of self-confidence and respect. It also has the power to impact on a grander scale, giving entire communities pride, hope and a place to belong; think about how the Olympics bring together a world at war for a few weeks of respectful, peaceful competition.

Be The PRoduct of Doing Things Right

Joe Ehrmann, author if Insideout Coaching, describes sports as a classroom and thus cocurricular rather than extracurricular. The term ‘cocurricular’ designates sports as an educational activity with the potential to develop the social, academic, moral, and emotional attributes of every student athlete. The term ‘extracurricular’ demeans sports to it’s root level, the fun activity that puts a ball in a net or chases cheese down a hill. Alas, understanding the cocurricular aspect sports transforms the training and playing fields into a classroom after class, promoting it’s participants to student-athletes and teacher-coaches.

Finding people who cultivate healthy cocurricular ecosystems for growth can be more challenging than a person would expect. Simply because a person is in a position of leadership, does not mean they are a great leader, and during a young person’s most formative years, selecting good role-models is essential.

In searching for people to lead our young, impressionable athletes forward, we should look for those who have ideally gone through athletic experiences of their own. The more the better. There are outlier coaches who are phenomenal who have not actually competed at the level of their sport that they coach, and have excellent ability to work the strategic aspect of the game and great interpersonal skills. This would be akin to a doctor with good bedside manner; they potentially have not gone through what they are treating the patient for, but have excellent understanding of not only how to treat the issue, but also how to treat the patient with kindness and empathy.

Your athlete’s role-model should also have excellent character. This is shown through actions, not words, and the way friends and “foes” speak of this person. How do they treat their athletes and parents? How do they treat other teams and coaches? Is winning more important? Or is winning through developing good people most important? Their philosophy should be well known, and not a secret.

As legendary basketball coach Pat Summit once said,

“When you take care of the kids and you try to build young people, the winning takes care of itself. Winning is never the ultimate goal... It's a product of doing things right."

Depending on where you live in our Alaska athletics ecosystem, sometimes players don’t get a choice who your coach is, and that’s completely out of their control. So, if we find ourselves in this situation and are struggling with a difficult coach or teammate, here are some strategies for you.

Some Thoughts From Our Coaching Staff & Partners

During the school year Christmas and Spring Breaks, we love hosting Athlete Development Camps at the Sweat Lab to challenge local athletes physically and mentally. This year, alongside our normal coaching staff, we have two exceptional community partners coming to present to our athletes: Yordanys Hernandandez-Ferrer and Sam Fox, both former high level athletes and now positive impact makers in the Alaska athletics community. Here are some take-aways on how athletics changed our lives, from all our coaching community and partners:

Esther Mendes

CFL3, Former Collegiate Soccer Player

Originally from Brazil, Coach Esther made the brave decision in 2018 to leave her family and home of Brazil to escape the heat and find her ideal home. A few years of self-discovery and searching later, she landed in Alaska, a place she loves for it’s beauty, climate, and people, and one that she will call home forever.

“There’s a maturity that comes with sports. Playing soccer helped me understand that it wasn’t just about me anymore, but the team. Every decision that we make is not just about us, it has to be team focused. This has helped me be a better daughter, sister, friend, employee, and person in the community.”

Yordanys Herndandez-Ferrer

U.S. Youth Soccer Grassroots, D, and C licensed, Former Professional Soccer Player

When he was 9 years old, Coach Yordanys was sent to a soccer academy in his home country Cuba, that trained athletes in a very militant style. Waking up at 5am daily for morning runs before class followed by training in the afternoons, discipline was ingrained into Yordanys’ DNA at a very early age.

“Athletics has provided me with skills such as discipline and consistency, which has helped me in my everyday life. Soccer  has also given me the opportunity to connect with many different people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise.” 

Sam Fox

PT, DPT, CRCS, Former Collegiate Swimmer

Sam Fox is a born and raised Alaskan who swam at the Division 1 level for Boise St. Now she is a Physical Therapist, owner of Breakout Physical Therapy and Wellness, with the goal to provide education, injury prevention and support for all athletes she works with.

“Swimming taught me that what you put in is what you get out of it, but that hard work is better with friends and teammates pushing you to be your best, and catching you when you’re not quite there. In my transition from the sport, I found parallels as I pursued post graduate studies, started my first “real job”, became a business owner, and then was blessed as a mom. The harder the hard is, the gain is equally (if not more) good.”

Isabel Evans

CSCS, Former Collegiate Volleyball Player

Coach Evans is a former collegiate volleyball player for the University of Alaska Anchorage.  As an athlete, Coach Evans brought grit, hard work, and joy to the game. As she begins her coaching career, she strives to make a positive impact on young athletes careers. 

“Athletics taught me that growth can be uncomfortable. I split the 4 years of my athletic career between 2 different colleges and 3 different coaches. I learned to be open to change and discomfort. Discomfort often means you are challenging yourself to grow. This is a lesson I take with me in my personal life and professional career.”

Alysa Horn

CSCS, Former Professional Basketball Player & Collegiate Coach, Author (this article)

Coach Horn is a former collegiate and professional basketball player known for her toughness, competitiveness and selflessness. As a coach these qualities are at the forefront of her message to the athletes she works with today. The founder of Make Yourself, owner of the Sweat Lab, she is also a born and raised Alaskan Aleut.

“The demand of athletics really helped evolve my ability to be more disciplined, resilient, and consistent in effort during practice and training. It was a good stress overtime in an environment that was overall supportive with people pushing me to be a better version of myself. These variables greatly impact my ability to have my own business today, my ability to be a great coach, and every one of my relationships.”