Tiger, Take Two: Why Athletics Today Isn’t Teaching Life Lessons and What We Can Do About It

You hear it all the time, “playing sports is a great way to learn about life,” or “sports teaches life lessons.” Problem is, in the world of high school, collegiate, or professional sports today, a multitude of players seem to be leading seriously troublesome lives.  While the Tiger Woods’ situation seems severe, it is just another example of an athlete who most of us believed had mastered an understanding of life, just because (by the outer world’s definition) he had mastered an understanding of how to play his sport.

You cannot develop an understanding of life through sports, but you can apply your understanding to sports.

To put it simply, we have the whole paradigm backwards.  An individual cannot learn how to compete, how to be resilient, or how to lead through sports, and then apply these lessons to their life (unless they have an understanding for how life is truly designed in the first place).  It is possible however, for an individual to understand what life is truly about and then apply that wisdom to the sport that they play.  Tiger Woods was clearly trained to be a world class athlete, yet with a shrouded understanding of life’s innate principles, he sadly has no ability to apply that training to life outside of the ropes.

Like Tiger Woods, in my own life I grew up around the world of sports.  My father for example, was a fantastic competitor on the field and probably the best hockey coach that I have ever seen in action.  He ran a skating rink, so I naturally developed an aptitude for coaching through watching him and then coaching clinics and travel teams at his facility.  I then became a successful coach in my own right, both in the x’s and o’s of the game, and in mentoring my players off the ice.  All the while however, I was personally struggling away from coaching.  And, I constantly wondered why I couldn’t apply the same sense of peace I found at the rink or sitting privately with a player, to other life encounters.  As I will discuss in depth, in my upcoming book:  “Quiet Mind—Inner Drive, The True Path To Success In Life And Sports,” it was not until I developed an understanding of the principles that guide us through life (Mind, Consciousness, and Thought), that I was able to find contentment away from my comfort zone of coaching.  In turn, I actually became a better coach and today, as I delve deeper into the principles; my day to day ease in all aspects of life continues to grow.

We all crave an understanding of the innate principles that lead to success.

Virtually every day a parent says something to me like, “My daughter is struggling with team work, discipline, and confidence, so I’m going to have her tryout for a sport so she can become a team player and a good listener with a high level of self worth.”  I’m sorry, but contrary to popular opinion, it doesn’t work that way.  What the daughter actually craves is an understanding of the innate principles that make one more giving, coachable, or confident.  Sports will not provide a crash course in these characteristics, and if you try to force it, I can promise you that the results will be temporary at best. Furthermore, it is very important to recognize that if the youngster does indeed grow in one or more of these attributes, the lesson will come via an insight from her own inner wisdom, not from the life pursuit (the sport) directly.

We need to wake up to the truth that the answers to a productive life do not lie in sports, they lie within us.

Lastly, I have often said that theoretical models, tools, or techniques (visualization, deep breathing, etc.) will not be successful long term.  This post reveals another, more poignant reason why.  Tiger may have once thrived through the use of an external tool like hypnosis, yet tools are far different from a deep and permanent understanding.  In the book “Think Like Tiger,” author John Andrisani says, “….in unraveling the mystery behind Tiger’s mental talent, I discovered some ‘deep’ shortcuts to playing good golf.…”  Unfortunately however, shortcuts in life (whether ‘deep’ or not) are merely an illusion and will never, ever endure!  What we all need to do is wake up to the truth that the answers to a productive life do not lie in sports or any other external circumstance (the apparent shortcut).  To the contrary, the answers lie in the principles that have always rested deep within our soul and always exist at our disposal.

It is my hope that in this blog entry, I have done a sufficient enough job to help Tiger and the rest of us, simply begin to “understand.”

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