June 27, 2025 | Tagged Leadership,
Finding "Your Why" as an Athlete
NBC Camp Coach encourages a camper
Whether it be in school or sports, the energy you need to accomplish your goals comes from the intensity of your purpose. More and more student-athletes are losing interest in both academics and sports at an epidemic level, and many business owners are finding a decrease in energy from workers who are now less and less motivated to put in the work considered excellent. How can you, as a student-leader, help change this destructive trend and bring positive energy flowing back to your school, work, and home?
Each of us has strengths we can naturally use to move us toward excellence in all four key quadrants of life: physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational. Picture each quadrant like a room that requires time in each day. An imbalance of time and attention in these rooms leads to dangerous consequences such as emotional burnout, spiritual emptiness, relational bankruptcy, and physical overload or physical poverty. Spiritual excess can manifest itself in scrupulosity and judgmental attitudes. Emotional excess can lead to narcissism or despair. What are your dangerous proclivities? What rooms do you neglect or overuse to your detriment or the detriment of others?
Find Your Why
Take a minute and consider all your past daily actions and ask why. To each answer, take another step and ask why again, and do this five times. For example, “Why did I wake up when I did today?” After your answer, ask why again and so forth. This is an especially powerful discipline with your emotions. “I felt afraid - why? I felt powerful - why?”
This awakening to the conscious and unconscious reasons you choose what you do, say, and think can inspire you to move out of blind, unconscious living and acting to use your decision-making for good.
Why did I scroll on my phone right now? I wanted a break.
Why do I need a break? Because I am feeling stressed.
Why am I feeling stressed? Etc.
This is a powerful discipline for purpose and meaning.
THE POWER OF WHY IN SPORTS
One of the biggest mistakes athletes make is that they have no broader game plan or insight to intentionally make practices and workouts meaningful. Most operate blindly, without engaging their reasoning and understanding the why. This becomes intensified by the need to be remarkable at a young age. A house under construction looks nothing like the finished product for months and months. We trust the work of the wiring and plumbing, the careful laying of the foundation, and the importance of good architectural plans. We know they are worthy of the work. A finished home does not appear; it is carefully built over time.
This is the problem with youth sports. Young athletes and parents want a full home without the planning and work to make it such. It's simple math; games reveal the skills that are built on intentional practice. How many practice reps in your sport do you get per day?
A complete player is an athlete who is given the time and patience to make mistakes, improvise, and discover. Young athletes need to have opportunities to not worry about playing time or running specific plays. This is invaluable. This is why camps are so invaluable. The coaches don’t have the ego of needing to win the Club tournament. They can be competitive, but not destructively so.
That’s WHY we are so excited to see you soon. We love having you at camp to help you work hard, push through, and wrestle with things that aren’t easy. All while having fun, playing freely, and building confidence! This is our why.
Hey NBC Volleyball Student-Athletes,
We love that you are culture builders who understand we are all leaders and responsible for our experiences. We believe in your ability to speak out and to speak up. To create meaningful change through modeling, inspiration, vulnerability, and compassion. You create the culture you want to see, not just for yourself but in honor and love of your teammates. Keep up the outstanding work!
About NBC Basketball
NBC Basketball Camps were started in 1971 in Washington state and have expanded to 8 countries. NBC Basketball focuses on perfect fundamentals, excellent shooting technique, mental toughness, the power of encouragement, gratitude, and personal faith. This camp trains the entire athlete. Most programs focus on the physical or mental aspect. At NBC Basketball, programs focus on the importance of training the heart. From the heart springs the thoughts, from the thoughts spring the words, and from the words spring action. For more information about NBC Basketball, visit www.nbccamps.com/basketball