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Does your athlete have what it takes to be Next Level?
The Next Level Athletes Podcast with Nate Daniels helps sports parents, coaches, and athletes navigate the politics, pressure, and decisions that most families struggle with in competitive youth sports. A former All-American and professional athlete turned performance coach, Coach Nate Daniels delivers the honest conversations sports families actually need.
Real stories. Real insight. Real talk about what it takes to reach the next level in sports, and in life.
[00:00:00] Does politics exist in sports? Absolutely. Politics exist in every aspect of life. Today, we're getting into the truth about politics in youth sports. What is real, what isn't, why coaches do what they do, and most importantly, exactly what you and your youth athlete can do to navigate the politics in sports.
[00:00:22] Real stories, real insight, real talk about what it takes to reach the next level. This is the Next Level Athletes Podcast with Nate Daniels. Welcome to Next Level Athletes. I'm Nate Daniels. Today, we're pulling back the curtain on one of the most talked about and most misunderstood realities in youth sports, politics.
[00:00:41] Let's get into it. Politics exists in the world of sports, and anyone who tells you any different either hasn't been in a competitive environment or they're not being honest with you. So let's define what politics in youth sports is. Politics is when decisions about playing time, position, roster [00:01:00] spots are influenced by relationships/favoritism or outside factors rather than purely merit-based.
[00:01:08] One form of politics that's often discussed is daddy ball. Let's define exactly what daddy ball is because there are a lot of misconceptions out there about what that term actually means. Daddy ball isn't simply when you're coaching your son or daughter. Daddy ball is when a coach's kid is getting opportunities they would be unable to earn on their own with their own skill set or merit.
[00:01:31] So is daddy ball fair? Absolutely not. Sports should be a meritocracy. It should be the person that has the best performance should get the position, should get the minutes, fill in the blank. The way that politics in sports normally play out is the ones in the middle are the ones that are affected. I'm gonna give you an example.
[00:01:51] Players that don't have a high skill level or don't have a high performance level are rarely affected by it because it's pretty clear that their [00:02:00] skill level's not up to par or their performance are not up to par with their peers. Also, the great players, the outstanding players that are blessed with tremendous talent or have a high level of skill are normally not affected because they're so far and beyond everybody else, they're able to separate themselves from the pack.
[00:02:17] So who gets affected? The kids in the middle that are good players, but they're not so dominant that it makes the answer clear. There's a lot of gray area. And then when the gray area exists, decisions are made off of relationships. "I'm friends with that kid's dad," or, "That kid's dad's one of my assistant coaches."
[00:02:39] So politics normally affect the kids that are good, but just not quite good enough to separate themselves and make it clear that they're great players. So when it's a pick 'em and there's two kids that are very similar, they're gonna usually side and the politics will normally come with where the relationships have been built.
[00:02:57] Now, the conversation most sports parents are [00:03:00] having about politics stops right there at the frustration. But being mad or frustrated or calling it out is not going to get your athlete more playing time. It's not going to change the coach's mind. And if you're not careful, it's going to quietly become the story their athlete tells themself as a built-in excuse why they're not succeeding or why they are not getting the success that they desire.
[00:03:23] Now let's talk about what you and your athlete can actually do about politics in sport. Here's my honest opinion, and I say this as someone who has coached trained and mentored athletes for over 20 years. As an athlete, our goal is to be undeniable. Our goal is to be the best option. And when an athlete is able to separate themselves from everyone else, very few coaches are going to leave their best option to be successful, whether that success means winning, whether that success means being competitive, on the bench.
[00:03:54] So my old coach used to tell me, "Hey, at the end of this game, we wanna leave no doubt." Meaning when this game [00:04:00] is over, we want everybody to know who the better team was. An athlete should have that same mentality. The answer to politics is not complaining, is not being down. It's to be ultra focused on getting better.
[00:04:10] And remember, youth athletic development is a marathon, not a sprint. Just make sure you're fixated on your kid getting better every day. That means extra training sessions. Whatever you have to do to be able to separate yourself from the pack, that should be the focus. This is one of my favorite parts of the show.
[00:04:28] This is real talks from the sidelines, real questions from real sports parents. If you want your question answered, record it. Link is on the website. This week's question comes from Melissa in Virginia. Hey, Coach Daniels. I'd love to hear your advice. My daughter plays club volleyball, and she is clearly one of the best players on her team.
[00:04:45] Her teammates and the other parents even say so. But the coach keeps starting another girl who is the assistant coach's daughter. My daughter works hard, never complains, and keeps showing up, but she's losing motivation because she doesn't understand why she isn't starting. [00:05:00] What do I do? And how do I explain this to her without making her feel like it's hopeless?
[00:05:05] That's a great question, Melissa, and I know that that's extremely challenging for you, and I know that it's challenging for your youth athlete. First off, congratulations on all her athletic success. She sounds like a very promising young athlete, and she's got a bright future ahead of her. First thing that you need to make sure that you do is stay as positive as possible.
[00:05:22] And it's our job as parents to keep them upbeat and to keep them positive. We're their biggest cheerleaders. As far as what you communicate to your young lady, you need to make sure that she understands no matter what her role is, whether it be starting or coming off the bench, she needs to be a star in that role.
[00:05:39] She needs to be dominant in that role. And when I say dominant, I don't mean productivity. Sometimes we're gonna have great games and sometimes we're not, but it's where our effort is, our focus is, our, our mentality is, our energy is. We need to be cheering for other teammates. We need to be working harder than anyone else, and we need to be dominating [00:06:00] our role.
[00:06:00] As far as understanding that this athletic development and this process of her becoming the best athlete is a marathon, it's not a sprint. And even if another kid is starting at this role right now, that doesn't mean that it always will be. She needs to keep working and keep working and be ready for her moment.
[00:06:19] And when that moment comes, if she has that mindset, she'll be ready to dominate. Now, if this is a situation that becomes so glaring, right? Be- some so glaring that it's obvious to everyone, it may be a situation where you need to entertain trying out for other clubs or seeing what else is out there. But to be clear, I'm not a big advocate for jumping from ship to ship any time there's any trouble in the water, because only certain situations will call for that.
[00:06:50] But that is a situation that y- only you know all of the dynamics and the inner workings of that. Oh, but my advice to you is to be slow to jump teams, [00:07:00] because the grass is not always greener. And there will always be politics in sports, and our job is to figure out how to work through them and continue to persevere to the best of our ability.
[00:07:10] I hope that helps. If you wanna know what it actually takes for your athlete to succeed at the next level, I put together a free training video on the Next Level Athlete Success Formula. In this free training, I'm sharing the proven formula behind what it actually takes to separate average athletes from elite performers.
[00:07:29] It's the roadmap every athlete needs to stand out and level up. If your athlete has big goals, this is where you start. Access the training for free at the link in the show notes. Here's what I want you to walk away today with. Politics is always going to exist, and it exists at every level of sports.
[00:07:48] Spending energy on things you can't control is a waste of energy and focus. We wanna focus on what we can control. Your athlete can control their work ethic. They can control their mindset. [00:08:00] They can control their attitude. And you and your athlete need to focus on removing doubt, meaning developing yourself, developing your skills to be as undeniable as possible.
[00:08:11] When politics are a factor, it normally affects the kid in the gray area, the kids that are good, but they're not good enough to separate themselves. Focus on separating yourself, developing yourself to be the best athlete you possibly can be with the highest skill set you possibly can have. Most coaches, not all, if a player is so undeniable that it will affect winning and losing or their ability to compete, will go with the athlete that gives them the best chance to win or a chance to compete.
[00:08:40] Focus on your effort, attitude, and preparation, and being coachable. That response is how you respond to adversity. Those things are not political, they're undeniable, and when they're all pointed in the right direction, the opportunity will come. Sports parents, subscribe and leave a review on your favorite platform.
[00:08:59] Every review [00:09:00] helps more families find the show. I'm Coach Nate Daniels. This is Next Level Athletes, and I'll see you on the next one. Welcome to the next level.