Brain Food: Apprenticeship

Why do you want your son or daughter to participate in sports? • What do you want your child to become outside of sport? • How much value do you place on academics? • How often do we discuss winning and expectations as opposed to the effort?

A professional is anyone good at his job. I once spoke to the manager of a football team who said he could tell in sixty seconds if a player was gifted and could be of use to the team; he didn’t need two weeks of training. The first thing is to see how the player runs, then what the ball does with the player, then what the player does with the ball

But I had the feeling that all the while I was swimming upstream. My coach—who became a dear friend for life afterward—never once complimented me on my game and, I believe, never really saw all the positive things that I was doing on the court. He was brought up in the old school. When he saw me leave my feet on defense, he believed I had overcommi

The best sports parents seem to be behind the scenes, providing encouragement and a supportive environment. Appreciate the long-term, and depreciate the short-term.

Education builds software for your brain. When you’re born, think of yourself as a computer with a basic operating system and not much else. Learning is like adding programs, big and small, to this computer, from drawing a face to riding a bicycle to reading to mastering calculus. You will use these programs to make your way in the world.

An apprenticeship is designed to give you guidance from an expert, knowledge in a given field, and experience in a challenging environment, all of which prepare you for your future.