How often do we consider the true essence of time? Are we making the most of the precious moments we have? That's precisely what we grapple with in this riveting episode. As parents and coaches, we delve into the principle of cultivating high expectations, especially in sports, with the hope that our children grasp this ethos and apply it across all facets of life. We also tap into our personal experiences and methods in instilling these expectations, hoping to provide an intriguing perspective.
Does setting expectations within sports shape the future of young athletes? Our exploration of this topic reveals a resounding yes. We discuss the stark financial realities of professional sports, the significant role of leadership in shaping a player's career, and the importance of maintaining a good reputation. Beyond that, we ponder how these expectations help athletes not only in their game but in life beyond the court or field. We believe that sports is more than just a game; it's an opportunity to build character, learn crucial skills, and ultimately, realize potential. So, tune in and let's explore the power of expectations together.
How often do we consider the true essence of time? Are we making the most of the precious moments we have? That's precisely what we grapple with in this riveting episode. As parents and coaches, we delve into the principle of cultivating high expectations, especially in sports, with the hope that our children grasp this ethos and apply it across all facets of life. We also tap into our personal experiences and methods in instilling these expectations, hoping to provide an intriguing perspective.
Does setting expectations within sports shape the future of young athletes? Our exploration of this topic reveals a resounding yes. We discuss the stark financial realities of professional sports, the significant role of leadership in shaping a player's career, and the importance of maintaining a good reputation. Beyond that, we ponder how these expectations help athletes not only in their game but in life beyond the court or field. We believe that sports is more than just a game; it's an opportunity to build character, learn crucial skills, and ultimately, realize potential. So, tune in and let's explore the power of expectations together.
Speaker 1:
Mike check. Mike check. This is Coach Steve. You are listening to the Cornerstone Athletics Podcast. I am very excited to be here with you. I'm looking forward to our conversation today. Today won't be long, we're gonna get straight into the work and get this thing cooking. So for my folks that are looking at this on you know, our page, youtube, facebook, whatever it might be folks listening to it from the audio just another blessed day, man. Another day to be here, another day to be working to man. Just have some success out here, have some success with these kids in sports, on and off the court, to have them prepared for life in a winning, in a major way and the most major way, and obviously bringing God into the process as well. So we're here today.
Speaker 1:
We're gonna follow up a little bit on the conversation that we had last episode, which I hope was fruitful for you If you haven't listened to it. You know we did a little two-part deal where we were talking about, how would I say, building resilient athletes and, in paraphrasing it, essentially addressing this conversation about this era, this generation of kids athletes being soft. Now I'm gonna say it if you haven't listened to that, so you can just be caught up to speed. If the kids are soft, it's our fault, parents, it's our fault this coaches and that collaborative unit or that unit that should be collaborative and you'll hear me say this over and over again as I have these conversations. But you know, if kids are soft, they're soft because of us. That's on us as the leaders that are raising the kids, that are holding the kids to the expectations, that are helping them develop into, hopefully, productive, successful humans. So that was a quick summary of those two episodes. The last episode, or part two of that episode, was where I was diving a little bit more in detail into things that my wife and I have done with our children to set the stage, build the foundation for whatever success that they're gonna have in their life and sport, in the classroom or whatever. And today I'm gonna follow up on that.
Speaker 1:
I've had some folks, some more folks tuning in, which is a blessing. Thank you very much for tuning into this and they were asking you know, like, how do you set the expectations? Like, what do you base your expectations on? And you know, I'm always so excited to have some dialogue with folks because that, to me, is how you learn things. I've said this before, whether it was on this podcast or my other podcast the success code. There's only two ways you come by wisdom you either get it from someone who has it or you learn it the hard way. You get it the hard way by going through something right. So anytime somebody wants to have a conversation about being better their kid being better I get really excited about it. So this conversation again around the expectations was really cool and we really were able to dive into, you know, some of the more intricate things that I don't necessarily think about, but we just, you know, you just kind of do it or it doesn't come to your mind until someone asks you directly.
Speaker 1:
So, when it comes down to how we set our expectations, what we set the expectations on is really simple, really simple, folks, and it's really important. We have high expectations for our children and anything that they do. And the reason we have the high expectations of our children and anything that they do is because if we're doing something again and I may have said this before, but I wanna really try to get a little more specific and concrete if we are doing something, we are using the commodity that we can't get back Time, the most important thing, we can't get back time. So if you're going to do something, the only way it will be worth it, the only way there is no chance of regret, there is no chance of any stuff like that is when you're bringing everything you have to the table in whatever you're doing. And that is essentially the foundation that our expectation is built on. And I'm gonna go into part two. It's a two-part deal, but that's where it starts. We have been given a limited amount of time on earth. So, whatever you're going to spend your time doing, let's do our best to bring our best as consistently and often as possible, the end.
Speaker 1:
So, as me and my wife thought about that, the reason we worked on that was in reality, one that's kind of what we know and that's how we grew up just working hard, trying to be our best and all of that. But for our children, wanting them to grow up with an expectation, a similar expectation that is universal in nature, it doesn't you're going to get the same lesson over and over again, no matter what you're doing. You've heard me talk about the importance in our house, about our attitude and our effort, but like when we have that universal expectation of our children to bring absolutely everything they have to the equation every single time. And let me be a little more clear, not every single time as in like you don't ever have an off day or anything like that, but like you're striving to be your best every day. Because we can raise them under that expectation.
Speaker 1:
In anything that they do in school, in sport, in our family, in our house, right In our relationships, in serving like I mean really man, anything that they do they're getting that double dose of that expectation. So what starts to happen is it starts to get ingrained into their DNA. You know, kind of being dramatic a little bit starts to get ingrained in who they are. They know what we expect from school. They know what we expect when we go to practice or when we compete. They know what we expect in house. And, while the language might change just a little bit, hey, are you being the best sister you could possibly be? Hey, are you being the best teammate you could be? Are you being the best student that you could be? The lesson, the expectation is the same. And then they begin to, slowly of time, adopt that and then that becomes their own expectation, that becomes their own way of living. And that's critically important to us because guess what Said it once, I've said it a million times when they hang the jersey up and they will at some point, it's inevitable, you know they're gonna hang it up they're going to be able to carry that expectation into their house that they create their profession, their career, that they create with their children, should they have them, all the way down the line, right, and that's why it's so important. That's why it's so important to have that expectation.
Speaker 1:
The other part and I should have said this one first, maybe, but forgive me is for us, being people of faith, the gifts that we've been given, the intelligence, the skills, the you name it, all of it We've been given to honor God. So, even if you don't wanna hear what mom and dad have to say, we're not going to waste these gifts and these talents and these things that we've been given, half-assing it, kind of doing it, kind of not doing it. You know, part of what we do is to honor God and thank him for the gifts that he's given us, and if that just happens to be athletic gifts, great. If that's intelligence, we're going to do the best we can do in school. We've been given the time. We're going to maximize the time. We're going to make the most of the time we have while we're here, because, as things change and life changes, we don't want to go through any regrets.
Speaker 1:
Far too often you talk with athletes who wish they would have done this, or I wish I would have known this, or someone should have told me this. All of those things. I'm not in the, I say, detrimental way, but the reason I coach with the passion I coach with and the urgency I coach with is because it took me some time to grow into some of the opportunities that I had, meaning. I always felt like I was just kind of late to the party a little bit, whether it was personal distractions, whether it was I wasn't processing or understanding something well enough to maximize an opportunity I had. That urgency comes from man. If I yep, I got it late, but because I still got it, I carry it into my life now every single day. So that's the real depth of why those expectations or how those expectations are set.
Speaker 1:
I want to take you to the importance. Right, if you're listening to this and you might be thinking, well, you know the expectation is winning or the expectation is this or the expectation, or there aren't any expectations. So we got the kids just kind of figuring it out or doing whatever they want and we're kind of leaving it to life or the game to bring them into some kind of wisdom. I want to bring a little nugget of information to you all as well, so you can understand why these foundational expectations are critical for every kid, right? Whether your kid is doing the rec league thing, whether your kid is doing the club thing, that club thing is a beast. I love it, but it's a beast.
Speaker 1:
Here's another reason why you want to set expectations with a firm foundation in life or than just sport. Just, you know, hey, you work hard over. You know, maybe your expectations are misunderstood, maybe they're not clear, maybe you don't. You know you yourself you're focusing or putting too much stock in something that is fleeting meaning winning is fleeting because at the end of the day, you can't guarantee victories. You can do a lot to put yourself in a position to win, but you can't guarantee a victory, right? So putting all your eggs in the winning basket as an expectation is risky, as I've said before. So setting these kind of universal lifestyle, you know, character based expectations to me is a better bet.
Speaker 1:
Let's go here because this is something that's known, that a lot of people well, I got to be more careful about saying what's known, because there's a lot of people who don't know a lot about a lot, right? So the reality is, when we're on this pursuit, okay, and I look at a lot of circumstances as kind of spectrum based things, meaning you know, we can create a spectrum of things, any subject you want, and we can kind of have outliers, right, there's going to be people on the left, there's going to be people on the right and there's people somewhere in the middle transitioning, you know, towards one end or the other. And you know there's a lot of ambition and hope and you know, man, maybe I'll make it, maybe I can, and you know, sometimes it's foolish, sometimes it's not, but there's hope of climbing that athletic ladder as high as you can, playing in college, playing in the professional league, if your sport has one and all of that kind of stuff. So let's get hardline on some things, and these numbers might be a little bit old, you may have heard some of this stuff before. I think it's always good to have these sobering realities because if they exist in any arena, it's sport, right? The sobering reality that there's a good chance there's always somebody out there better than you. That's a sobering reality that I think, honestly, is positive in a way, because, you know, a little humility goes a long way in an athlete's life, right, you know, keep some focus, keeps them working and all of those things. But sobering reality is when we're talking about making this, you know, monumental climb to get to college or the pros. Just looked up some stats. These might be old but I promise you, even if they are old numbers, they're not going to be too far off from accurate. Okay, because the reality is there's a very small percentage of high school athletes that get to go to college and then, therefore, the pros in many, many cases.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so when we're looking at this, I'm just going to rattle some stuff off to you. You know, about 7.6% of high school baseball players go on to play in college. About 7.8% of high school basketball players compete in college. Roughly 5.7% of high school football players continue to play in college. 8.9% of soccer players in high school compete at the collegiate level. Football players about 3.7%. And then the last, the last stat that you know this has is approximately 5.6% of high school softball players playing college. So you don't have to be a mathematical genius to see the picture there, but I mean we're talking anywhere from 91 to 97-ish percent. 96% of high school athletes do not go on to play in college. Staggering. Now, the reason I say this and the reason I put that out there in front of you parents is and coaches, you know leaders is because the expectations you set have to be something that can be taken away from the game when the game ends. I'm going to say it again the expectations you set, the values you instill, the principles you teach your kids, your athletes, has to be something that can be taken and applied beyond the arena of sport, because most of them are not going to go on to play in college, and even a smaller percentage.
Speaker 1:
I'll never forget this conversation we had. I was at Mizzou at the time and they we would have these player personnel folks come in from the NFL and I believe this gentleman was from the chiefs or, excuse me, well, I know the chiefs guy came in, but this guy was from the Viking and he put up a chart in the first chart, which was really impactful, talking about how much money you make and how much you get taxed, so you can understand how much money you really make or really don't make. Whichever way you want to look at it right, he had this PowerPoint and he was talking about that. Let's say, you got $5 million, your salary five mil and you are, you know, whatever you're on the roster, you got the five mil, you're going to be taxed and I'm pretty sure I believe it was damn near close to 50%. It was a lot. This is how much you really make with five million. This is how much you really make with, you know, three million, so on and so forth. So he was painting this picture of you know. Yes, you know you see these big contracts and all of this and it's great and it's fun. But where a lot of young people mess up is they think this money lasts forever and they realize very, very painfully that the money you thought you were making isn't actually what you're taking home. And that's a part of the reason I do what I do is because that information is so powerful. You know, when you get that information, you can actually use that to better organize and plan yourself. But that was impactful.
Speaker 1:
The other slide he had was talking about how many of us in college are going to go on to play in the NFL. And this was, you know. I'm old now so this was, you know, over you know about 15 years ago, so forgive me, but the concept is there. If the numbers are a little off, but again, I was a football guy. So I'm in that 5.7% of high school football players that get to go to college and in reality out of that 5.7, there's about 3% let's say one to three, but it's really let's just say 3% for the sake of it Go on to go to the NFL, the professional right, and then from there it's like 1% of the guys would actually stay in the league and it may have changed since then, but like that four year window right. So out of that 3% that go, there's only like 1% that actually stay in the league and have like a career career. And then from there, you know, like the Tom Brady's, the Aaron Rodgers, the Mahomes's, you know, even though he's still early in his climb, those kind of guys you know are like the 1% of the 1%, the ones that actually have a bonafide, legitimate, longstanding career in the NFL.
Speaker 1:
And it's, it's startling when you actually hear it and get the information. But the truth of the matter is you have to get the information. There's so much opportunity in the world of sport. It serves you better to have the knowledge, the wisdom to navigate it to the best of your ability than to just run in on hopes and dreams and, you know, maybe something good happen. That's why the expectations way back.
Speaker 1:
Let's reverse way, way, way, way back those universal expectations. No matter what your kid athlete is doing is important. You know, for me, my career ended, career ending injury my senior year, and while that was painful, while that sucked, while it hurt and I had to go through a bunch of surgeries and all of this kind of stuff, soon as I got back on my feet I was like what's next? Where do I go from here? What do I get into? How can I go? What can I go? Have success, right, I wasn't what, I wasn't just working hard in sport, I wasn't just, you know, like locked in on that. I was brought up to go trailblaze, go conquer, go do well and whatever it is I could do. That's the power of universal expectation.
Speaker 1:
No matter where you go, I am expecting you to show up like that. A coach's expectations are powerful. A parent's expectations are even more powerful, because you are my child. This is what I expect Boom, boom. I want you to act this way. I want you to be mindful that you represent our family. I want you to be mindful that you represent the Lord. I want you to be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That travels, that goes to sport, that goes in the classroom, that goes in our family, that goes out in public, blah, blah. That's the power of it.
Speaker 1:
It takes the confusion, it takes any misunderstanding out, no matter what is going on around you, no matter you know sky is falling, whatever it might be. Because you come from our house, this is what we expect. You show up to practice, we work hard, you're coachable, insert whatever, and that really forces again you to look in the mirror as a leader. Have you had that conversation with your athlete? Have you had that conversation? Have you laid that out clearly for them to know I'm not just here doing whatever I want to do. I'm representing my family. If you're a believer, I'm representing the Lord. You know, coaches, I'm representing the organization, all of that kind of stuff. Articulate it, make it clear, take that burden, take that confusion off.
Speaker 1:
Help your athlete, have the success that they're capable of and, you know, more success ultimately, because, like I say, that stuff starts to stick to the bone and they carry that with them. It's high school Great. Once high school is done, they still are pursuing it. If it's college, they get the college. They're still pursuing it. When college is over, they're still pursuing in life and that's important. So I just wanted to put that on y'all. Like I said, this has been cool to have these conversations with folks that listen to the podcast and reach out. So if you want to dive into that, my email is there. Reach out, find me on Facebook, whatever it might be, we could chop it up, we can talk, because this stuff is important. You know, like I said, these kids are subject to the leadership that they have or don't have. So you know you can't have enough conversations about this stuff and you know being able to impact these young people in positive, productive ways. So this is Coach Steve with the Cornerstone Athletics Podcast. We'll talk soon.