Present, Past, Future!

Have you asked yourself, "What do I really want out of my sports career?" If you don't know that's cool, but now that you have been presented with the question it's no excuse to not take the time to sit quietly by yourself and truly meditate on the answer. Find yourself some place where you won't be disturb along with a notebook and pencil and think about how you foresee your sports career being in the next 5 or 10 years. I'm sure a lot of things will flood your mind, so jot them down. Once you have everything that you want to accomplish down on paper, now the strategizing process begins.


Each goal needs a strategy to help you accomplish it. Your plan should consist of some daily action that will eventually bring you to your desired goal. If shooting free throws at a higher percentage is your goal then your plan could be to shoot 100 free throws daily making sure you're shooting at 85% or better. Your plan should require you to stretch yourself beyond your threshold in order to increase your mental, physical, or both capacities. Visualize yourself making the game winning free throw until goose bumps form on your arm. The more real it becomes in your mind the more it's forming in reality and before you realize it you will be at the free throw line with the game on the line. How it ends depends on the effort you put in way before the moment.


Present decisions become past actions that create your future. I'm paraphrasing Andy Stanley's presentation on How To Get What You Really Want, Careful What You Want For. Your daily actions eventually will become your past, but they will affect your future. Make sure that you're putting in the work and watch your self-confidence rise as will your performance in your competitions. The discipline you're using to become a better athlete should be used to become a better student as well. One cannot exist without the other, so make sure you have the student part mastered. In the end, it will take you farther.

How Not To Be "The Great Santini" Parent

As the High School Boys and Girls basketball seasons are coming to a close, the more I’m beginning to see the tempers and behaviors of parents get hotter and uglier. Their desires for their kids to win it all are uncontrollable. Between screaming at their kids to play defense, shoot the ball, and grab rebounds, they're yelling at the referees either to make calls or telling them they're making bad calls.  I can't help, but to chuckle at parents that are more emotionally and physically involved in the game than their own kids. I can only imagine the conversations that take place in private after the games between them and their kids after a win and especially after a loss.  

If you're parent with a child playing sports or about to start playing sports, here are a few suggestions on how to make the experience an enjoyable one and not a traumatic one: 

• Parents that put the team first tend to have well-rounded student-athletes that go on to have successful playing careers as well as careers after sports.  
• Don’t put your undue expectations on your kids. They may not have the same desires or passions as you did or do for the sport.  
• Teach your kid how to respectfully speak for themselves to their coaches, if they feel they have been unfairly treated or honestly deserve more playing time.  
• Remember your child is more than an athlete. Everyone's playing career comes to an end, but those that understand they're more than the sport they play are able to accept the end of their playing career and are more capable of adjusting to life without sports.  
• More than anything, make sure your child is having fun and enjoying the experience. You want them to play hard of course, but in the end they have to enjoy the moment or they will eventually burnout of the sport.   

In the end your kids will appreciate the support, love, and time spent with you being their #1 fan!   

SWIFTKICK SPORTS

I ask young athletes all the time if they want to play college sports and the answer is always, “Yes!” Then I ask them if they know what it takes to get an athletic scholarship. The answers range from being good at the particular sport to having good grades to getting a good score on the ACT/SAT tests. All of those answers are good, but what they fail to realize is that it will take more than just those actions to arrive at the goal of obtaining an athletic scholarship for the majority of the fortunate student-athletes.

Even though only 2% of high school athletes go on to play at the Division I NCAA level, doesn’t mean that it can’t happen for you. All it means is that you have to be dedicated, disciplined, and determined to reach this goal and the purpose for this website is to help you achieve just that. As we all know information is power, but we must apply what we know or what good is it?

SWIFTKICK SPORTS mission is to be your one-stop shop for all your questions from workouts to nutrition, academic and eligibility requirements to ACT/SAT test prep, as well as interviews with current and past coaches and players. Overall, SWIFTKICK SPORTS wants to help you reach your full potential and accomplish your goals!