Sports prepare your camper for life
BENEFITS AT SCHOOL, ON THE FIELD, ON THE JOB
Acommon question during a job interview is: “What does team work mean to you?” And the common answer is “a group working together toward a common goal.” Snore. Next candidate please. At the Richmond Olympic Oval, we’ve found that those able to go beyond the standard answer, delivering responses with meaning and depth, generally draw upon their experiences in sport. “To me, team work means:”
Reacting positively in the face of stress or setbacks. Sport continually tests interpersonal relationships with challenges. Over time we learn to react effectively to stress and to not to take it personally when others react negatively.
Being accountable for my mistakes. According to Geoffrey Colvin, author of Talent is Overrated: What Ready Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, ascribing your failures to yourself rather than outside variables is a key factor in achievement as it means that you have control of the outcome and can therefore improve it.
Knowing when to lead and when to follow. Sports gave us opportunities to use our emotional barometer and judge when the best times for leading and following.
Being able to understand my role and contribution within a team setting. Not everyone was the all star, but I was able to clearly see how they fit into the bigger picture of a sports team. This is an important perspective when connecting to a large vision in any environment.
How to deal with conflict directly and openly. Sport has built us “thick skin” through frequent evaluation and feedback. We learn not to take this personally and also the important skill of phrasing criticism constructively to others.
How to maintain performance standards. Everyone has “off days.” Sport has given us practice in preparing ourselves to bring good energy to the task regardless of the emotional ups and downs of life.
The hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell details numerous examples of experts in various fields and research demonstrating the 10,000Hour Rule — the bottom line is being great takes practise.
While these are inherent lessons in sport, it takes experienced coaches providing feedback to hone skill.
Where the Oval has seen this effect on the job front is with graduates of the Oval Sport Leadership Program. With coaching courses, mentorship from experienced camp leaders, job shadowing, and purposeful practice with evaluation, the Sport Leadership Program is designed to progressively build the skills required to be a sport leader. And it works.
According to Kristina Macdonald, program manager at the Richmond Olympic Experience who has overseen the Oval Camp Program the last three years: “Some of the best Sport Camp Leader applicants are graduates of our Sport Leadership Program.
“They’re young, having just finished high school, but they stand out. That’s because we designed this program to give someone everything we want to see on a resume.
“For the past three years, we have hired a Sport Leadership Program student to become a Sport Leader here at the Oval.”