In general therapy, there is a concept called “Attachment” that develops from the time you are born and shapes how you view and navigate relationships well into your adulthood and beyond. There are four kinds: Secure, Anxious, Avoidant and Disorganized. They all characterize vastly different ways of viewing both you and others in relationships of any kind.

With sports, a similar attachment is developed. Though, since sports are a fraction of your entire being, it can be more flexible in changing in a quicker manner. Taking a look at youth sports, you can see how a kid develops an attachment to sports. They may view it as something that gives them meaning, something that gives them anxiety, something that they want to be a part of but in a different way than the parents and so on.

The attachment, the meaning of sports, is something that originally a young athlete will get from their parents. This is based on parents reactions of experiences in the sport (wins, losses, setbacks and triumphs), how they talk to the athlete after a game or practice, is the parents attentive or dismissive and how they are either constructively, or negatively criticized in the moment.

This addresses the beginning attachment of a young athlete to the sports world. As mentioned, this attachment can carry well into adulthood, where most careers end. That attachment to the sports can be either beneficial or world crashing for some. That talk will be part two of the next post!

Share this with your athlete parents, friends and coaches!

-Malique Taylor

Malique@trailblazer-therapy.com