A series on vocation and student-athletes.
According to Malcolm Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours of intentional work at a particular skill to achieve mastery. For student-athletes, especially those who have practiced their sport since childhood, they often reach this status by the time they reach middle school. For educators who work with collegiate student-athletes, we must recognize that they have spent most of their time and energy building mastery in their sport, and they view the work ethic, dedication, and diligence needed in this context very differently from how they master skills in academic settings.
For example, in a straw poll in one of my classes, students indicated that some of them started playing sports as early as the age of three. When these students reach college, they have experienced most major emotional, intellectual, and physical milestones as an athlete. Their athletic identity developed right alongside their identity as an individual: being a student-athlete is deeply rooted in who they are, not just something they do. If we do not understand the context and depth of this identification and its importance, then it can be challenging for faculty and staff members to work with our student-athletes.
Continue reading “Recognizing and Valuing the Identities of Student-Athletes”