This past week, I had an experience that helped me truly realize the importance of gyms like ours—and the extensive responsibility we have to be great coaches and mentors to our athletes. About a month ago, my daughter came home from her first day as a freshman in high school and said the tennis team was pushing hard for recruiting and asked her to join. She’d never played tennis before, which she told them, but as a natural athlete, she was excited for the chance to learn a new sport. My first instinct was to tell her “no,” because she regularly experiences tenderness in her rotator cuff, but I knew she was eager. I also knew that, as a new player, she probably wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the roster, so her injury was unlikely to impact the team. So, I agreed. 

For the last month, 4-5 days per week, she’d get out of school at 2:35 p.m., take a short break to change for tennis, go to tennis until 4:30 p.m. and then straight to varsity cheer practice. One day each week, she’d also go to the gym to coach for an hour before her team practice, and she had another practice on Sundays. 

Additionally, for her P.E. requirement, she has a weights class (I’m pretty sure the coach is a CrossFit aficionado, so he takes it very seriously), and on alternating days, she has physical training for ROTC. Nevertheless, she’s always been in great shape and handled ankle, knee and shoulder injuries fairly well. 

So I was shocked a few days ago when we arrived at her second tennis match and 45 minutes after arriving, she came over to tell us she’d been dismissed from the team. I’ll spare you the details, but after two long emails and a phone call to the coach (talk about being on the other side of things!), it was confirmed. The coach specifically said that because she sat out a few days for her injury and left practice 30 minutes early each day for cheer (which is allowed per school policy), that she lacked commitment to the tennis team.

I won’t go through the hairy details of how I handled this, but in the end, the coach made what I’d consider to be some really big mistakes. Instead of mentoring an athlete through the challenges of her first month of high school and getting the details of her injury, they made an assumption that she wasn’t committed to tennis. Their lack of sports knowledge also prevented them from understanding why she might sit out of practice serving a tennis ball but would easily be able to practice simple sideline cheers. So aside from a little vent-session, why am I telling you all this? 

The Impact of Our Gyms

This situation taught me some really important things: 

 

  1. Our businesses have the ability to mentor kids in a way that schools cannot. The coaches at most schools are underpaid or sometimes even volunteer. They often lack the knowledge and resources to properly prepare athletes and coach them through the sport. In fact, on this tennis team were 35 girls and two coaches. This ratio alone made it impossible to have quality conversations with their athletes.
  2. We don’t give up on athletes as easily as that. High school coaches just don’t have the need to keep the athlete the way we do. For us, not only does losing an athlete mean a potential revenue loss, but it’s a loss of reputation and painful re-choreography for the team. In tennis, the coach would never have to consider a loss of revenue. They get paid the same regardless. Reputation in high school sports (at least around here) doesn’t prevent kids from playing. Even a really bad football team has players try out each year. Most sports don’t rely on every single athlete the way we do, so we’re always going to work harder to make it work for our gym families.
  3. We have unlimited education and resources. There’s free education, paid education, conferences, podcasts, YouTube videos … Your coaching ability is only limited by the time you’re willing to spend educating yourself. We do this because we love the sport, but getting paid to learn is an incentive our coaches have over any school sports coach. 

These are just a few reasons why our gyms are so important for athletes. Maybe you have some athletes who leave each year to focus on school sports, but don’t be fooled: Many of these kids got to where they are today because of your commitment and dedication to them. In the future, you might be the only sport they choose. 

Don’t lose focus. Take care of these kids. Take the time to talk to them. Work with them through injuries and hard times in their lives. You might be the only one willing to do it.