4 Reasons Love Is Needed In Sports

Allow yourself the patience to find out how you can most effectively communicate love to your team members. By doing so, you can freely and openly correct each other for the sole purpose of improving. Leverage love and the communication of it as the highest goal of youth sports. #DailyMight

Communicating love in youth sports is harder than ever. Each of us have different ways of communicating care, and each of us think our way is always the best. Add in the pressure of youth sports and the possibility that our kids have yet to learn how to receive and give love – and we may struggle to communication it with each other. But no matter how much we struggle, we must understand the importance of love in our locker rooms and successfully model it to each other.

Love is the highest goal.

The Bible in 1 Corinthians lays out the three main pillars of a successful life (and youth sports experience). Faith, hope, and the greatest of the three, love. A loving relationship with teammates, coaches, and team support members is what all kids are after. Although they have faith that coaches will train them accordingly in skills, and they hope that the season is successful on the scoreboard (and off for that matter) – what they are seeking the most is love. Genuine care amongst teammates and coaches.

Love comes easiest in twos.

Love is relational in it’s purest state. That’s not to say that an athlete can’t or won’t love their team – but generally they love people, or situations of a team. The best connection an athlete can form with a teammate or coach is caring and loving. It sets the tone for all other interactions for the season and beyond. Faith and hope are present, but love carries the burdens and cherishes the triumphs. By focusing on sets of two (a caring relationship) we can create a loving atmosphere in the locker room that is a precursor to elite performance through support.

Love lays the foundation for correction.

Athlete correction administered in love by a caring coach is absolutely vital to an athlete’s growth. Likewise, an attitude that gratefully, willingly, and lovingly embraces discipline and correction is equally vital to that same growth. Love bypasses the selfishness of taking correction personal, and passes it through to relational. In those terms, a relationship built around loving correction is allowed to flourish because the correction isn’t an attack. It’s a pathway for growth. And that is a huge differentiator.

Love is patient.

Growth in youth sports (physically, mentally, and emotionally) is a day to day effort. Major growth is cultivated over time, not over night. Greasing growth wheels with love allows both sides of the relationship to create a tremendous amount of value in the journey – while being mindful of the destination. Love can allow mistakes to be corrected. Love overcomes day to day adversity that get’s in the way of growth. And it is love and care that give an athlete patience to invest in their difficult teammates. The capacity to tolerate trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset keeps the focus on the task at hand (improvement) and off of emotions.

Communicating and displaying love to teammates and coaches is the hardest part of growing into a successful youth sports journey. Receiving and giving love in youth sports is the highest goal, and comes easiest in two’s. Give yourself the patience to find out how you can most effectively communicate love to your teammates so you can freely and openly correct each other for the sole purpose of improving. Your team, your relationships, and your care for each other – all start with and end with love.

Give everything your everything. And then some.

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