Thanks, Saxonator. I didn’t want to hijack your thread, it’s just that I’ve seen how nurturing that responsibility and confidence through providing opportunities for them to test themselves (and failures are at least as important as successes), opens the path for our kids to see and tap into their potential. The truly great thing, to me, is that they discover that these life skills are transferable, so it doesn’t matter if they shift from Enduro to Entymology - It is still the “I don’t know what I’m capable of until I try” that shines through.
One other thing that I have learned from coaching is that, in the Junior ranks, which are often age-group defined, it is often the strongest / oldest that win. Unfortunately for them, they may not get to experience failure, and learn how to grow from it. When failure does come (stepping up to being a small fish in a big pond), they may be too fragile to accept it, and will take to blaming everything / everyone else. ‘Failure’ is a great teacher, if we are observant and follow lessons learned.
The Elite ranks are filled with people who have faced adversity, and found a path forwards. These are great lessons for kids to discover, and something like riding Enduro is an excellent battleground to provide those lessons. I suggest you encourage your son to talk about each ride, or each obstacle that he overcame, or was pushed back by. Keep the focus on self-observation - What worked / what didn’t / what does he think he could do better next time. Each time he starts to place the ‘blame’ on external factors, bring the discussion back to what he could have done about it. This process slowly creates an incredible set of observation skills, and an awareness of the extent to which they can control the outcome.
In the World of sport, it creates very ‘coachable’ athletes, which transfers well to education, work, and life in general.
I hope this is useful, Saxonator (and ignore it if it isn’t) - At the end of the day, the main thing is that you and your son are enjoying sharing quality time out on the trails (a win by itself), and you are experiencing him facing challenges along the way, and the automatic growth that comes from that - Great Job!
Again, sorry for the unsolicited intrusion, but this series of shots was when our daughter was 17. She’d just been taken out in a 70kph crash in the Sprint Finals at the Aussie Champs, and was knocked unconscious and wearing half the track as splinters. The Commissaires determined that there was no fault, and decided to re-run the race. She had 20 minutes to decide if she wanted the ride. She went on to take the Title, but it was that moment of her choosing the harder option that I found inspirational - That’s when I knew she had ownership of her life...
t001 by
Eoin Christie, on Flickr
t003 by
Eoin Christie, on Flickr
t004 by
Eoin Christie, on Flickr
t002 by
Eoin Christie, on Flickr
t005 by
Eoin Christie, on Flickr
