Harden up!
You’ll be right!
Dust it off!
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
You eat more sh*t sandwiches in life than you do good ones!

All comments we’ve heard growing up. Whether it’s falling off your bike as a kid, when you just miss the podium in your first big event or in business when you’ve had another one of life’s hard knocks. Whether it’s one of those scenarios or not, you’ve all experienced what we are talking about here.

So, what is resilience? It is often defined as one’s ability to be able to recover from a setback. That could be in sport, business, relationships, parenting or just life as we know it.

Resilience in Sport

Sport can bring the best and worst out in people. Whether it be the fight or flight, do or death or win at all cost mentalities, the competitive attributes of sport are ones which have so many parallels with life itself.

In the sporting arena athletes are surrounded with like-minded athletes who have sacrificed anything and everything to get to where they are today. There are so many variables and a multitude or components including genetic DNA which has played a part in grooming the high-performance athlete.

So, when it comes to the high-performance athlete, how are they wired the way the are? How are they there and we’re here?

More often than not, the moment they were born, they were raised in a household which oozed passion, excitement and dedication. As time when on, through primary level athletic days and swimming sports, those same attributes in which the athlete was surrounded by at by come to the surface to the first time. There is no surprises, the athlete gave it 110%, left nothing in the tank and didn’t want the be last.

By this time, Mum and Dad have decided that their child has something ‘special’. This may or may not be the case. As this young adolescent athlete has grown up in a house of cars, bikes and anything that’s loud and fast, there is no coincidence we end up at the race track.

Applying those same quality attributes of hard work, dedication, support and love for the sport, these parent’s have formed a nest, an environment for this young aspiring racer to blossom, if he or she decides to continue.

So as a parent, why are you doing this?

I am showing this young racers that sport and life can be tough and hurt sometimes

I am showing this young racer that it takes preparation, hard work and consistency to a task

I am show this young racer that you need to see everything through til the dyeing end

I am showing this young racer to take care of their body

I am showing this young club champion to be gracious in defeat and humble in success.

I am showing this young club champion that you can’t win at everything, all the time.

I am showing this young club champion how to set smart goals and work towards them.

I am showing this young club champion that there is more than just themselves in this team.

I am showing this young national champion the you must show respect to those around you.

I am showing this young national champion that rules are make to abide by.

I am showing this national champion that there is no flukes in gaining success.

I am showing this national champion that we do this together, as a family, creating friendships and memories we will treasure for the rest of out lives.

I am showing this national champion the difference between right and wrong on and off track.

I have showed this world champion all I know now.