What kids gain from coaching paves way to success as adults

By Mike Tulumello

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If you can work smoothly with teammates on a field or a court, you most likely can do the same in the workforce.

That’s the view of Jay Roundy, the co-owner of Performance Plus, a West Chandler business that helps aspiring young athletes improve the physical and mental aspects of their sports performances.

“To be coachable, you have to want to learn,” says Roundy, who has a background in educational psychology and in coaching—“and not always in a deferential way.”

In both athletics and as an employee, “You have to be open to new and different ideas without giving up that drive of your own to see if your ideas are the best.”

Unlike other athletic-improvement businesses, Roundy says that in addition to improving strength, speed and agility, “We weave the mental aspect of performance into everything we do.”

“Being able to collaborate, coordinate and cooperate are just as important on the field and the court as they are in the workforce,” he says.

“It takes particular kinds of skills, values and perspectives to do that.”

That means, for both players and workers, people sometimes have to step aside and let others with more expertise and talent in certain areas take charge.

“You can see the people who know that and know how to use that, and the people who want to come hell or high water and say, ‘It’s my idea or nothing.’ That’s doomed to failure.

‘The same thing will happen on the field or court, when a player says, ‘It’s my shot come hell or high water.’”

Roundy sees merit in the recent comments by Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver, who criticized the ability of people in the Millennial generation to adapt to adverse circumstances. Sarver was speaking in the context of Suns forward Markieff Morris’ struggles to playing without his twin brother Marcus, who was traded away in the offseason.

“I have a hard time believing he was trying to paint every Millennial with the same brush,” Roundy says. “But I think I know what he was trying to get at.”

While individuals obviously differ in outlook, some young people have generational characteristics “that predispose them to have difficulty with setting aside instant gratification.”

Many young people grow up watching more ESPN highlights than full-length games, he points out.

And they may not realize that the hitter who slugged two homers in a game may also have struck out twice, all the while working out in the team’s batting tunnel before, during and after the game.

“But some have no clue that it takes time, energy and effort and work to get better,” Roundy says, “whether it’s swinging a bat, throwing a ball, getting stronger quicker, whatever it might be.

“How to effectively deal with adversity, things not going your way, having resiliency…coupled with having difficulty delaying self-gratification, I think is what Sarver was trying to get to.”

Roundy’s goal: “To try to light that commitment fire. Everybody, including Markieff, has that within him.

“I might not be the guy who gets through to everybody but I see my job (as being) to figure out the best invitation….to help them get better.”

 

 

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