By Paul LubanskiIn this blog post, I am putting forth a very elementary yet critically important concept for a New Year's resolution that can be easily established for all players, coaches and parents as they navigate the balance of the year 2012.
Pledge to make off-ice/in-school EDUCATION priority No.1!
The following represents my specific guidelines for both the infrastructure and implementation of the resolution once, of course, you have both adopted and committed to its message.
Players should set a goal of improving their GPA by a minimum of 0.5 during the remainder of the 2011-2012 season. How? One way would be to learn to become better "time-managers."
If need be, players could schedule an appointment with their respective school counselor to discuss how to budget their so-called "free" time in order to place aside ample time to concentrate on studies.
Now coaches, as well, should resolve to devote significantly more attention to the educational side of the equation.
Again, how?
Why not create an award that would go to the most-improved grade-point average? Or how about arranging for mandatory study-sessions when your club is on the road? (Head coach to be there to monitor vs. being at the hotel bar!) And why not ask your more academically gifted players to act as tutors for those teammates that need assistance in a particular area? Team "bonding" will form more naturally if you can pull that off.
Of course, parents easily play the MOST pivotal role in the education-quest equation and as such, MUST be the undisputed "champions" of the cause. How so? No. 1, by making the time to attend parent-teacher conferences and therefore becoming intimately immersed in their child's academic strengths and weaknesses. No. 2, pay strict attention on a daily basis to their respective child's progress (or lack there-of) in each specific subject. Reducing television, texting, telephone, Twitter, YouTube and/or Facebook time are perfectly reasonable negative consequences that can be used as potential penalties for poor academic effort/performance.
In short, players of all ages, but most especially those between the ages of 6 and 14, must be made to comprehend the incredible role of importance that education plays in shaping and literally molding their individual futures. We (parents and coaches) are directly responsible for building the frame-of-reference within our children/players that allows them to fully internalize that the odds of a professional or even college-paid-for career are remote...at best.
So, players, coaches and parents, please promise to institute both the thought and "action" processes that makes EDUCATION your N0. 1 priority in 2012. Because for all the reasons outlined above, it may be the single most critical and influential decision of your lifetime.
In closing, I do hope that you do not misunderstand the message and general theme of this blog post.
Yes, we want to allow our children to dream about making the "show" or even a D I or DIII college roster. But, those dreams must be tempered with the reality of the very stiff odds they are up against. (Fact is, the better the student--the better the chance of becoming a serious student-athlete scholarship candidate)!
And yes, hockey is and always will be the greatest game of all to participate in whether you are a player or a coach. However, in the game of LIFE, EDUCATION is and always will be indisputably PARAMOUNT.
Best of luck.
Paul
--------------------
Want to talk to coach? Visit Paul's Puck Pathways!
You should follow CAYH Blog on twitter here.
No comments:
Post a Comment