I talk about hockey a lot in my blog posts, because it has taken up a majority of my childhood/lifetime and i believe that these topics can in some way be related to my experience. In this case I thought of roller hockey in particular. I have competed in national tournaments every summer for the past 6 years where the best 10 players from each state make up a team. It is a very competitive tournament and many players go on to be sponsored or play some sort of professional level.
I started playing in this tournament a few years after all my competition did, but I was able to establish a reputation with my performance. There was one player in particular that everyone knew. He's sponsored, currently playing professionally, and stood out in every game he played compared to others. Then 3 years ago we had our awards ceremony. It was announced that in the tournament I had outplayed him and was the leading scorer which awarded me some free equipment. Days later i received a call from a scout that wanted to sponsor me. He referred to me as "the kid who outscored John Schiavo" and told me that a lot of people had been surprised at this outcome. After this, I realized I had established a reputation for my age level in roller hockey and from then on I felt the pressure of needing to be at the top of the podium. Every summer after that I compared myself to John and wasn't satisfied unless i came out on top.
At times, this reputation did go to my head and I became cocky with my performances before I had even accomplished anything. I started to care more about how many goals I, personally, scored instead of how many goals my team had to earn us a collective win. As a teammate I believe I would've been better off not knowing/having this reputation because it made me care too much about my individual performance.
At the time I received the call i was very surprised and excited to experience all that comes with a sponsorship. Instead, I "cashed it in" and decided that my college education and future career were more important than my roller hockey reputation. Since I came to college I haven't devoted time to roller hockey because of my time spent at school and playing ice hockey for the university's division 1 club team. The immediate gain I earned from this decision was the college experience. It also came with long-term gains of graduating with a reputable degree and starting a career that I can hopefully become successful in.
Let's consider this story by going back in time to before that tournament where you proved yourself an excellent hockey player. In terms of preparation or team practice, did you do anything special to encourage the performance? I'm asking this question because there is a current debate about whether we learn via hard work versus we learn by finding flow in an activity and then engaging in it to the best of our abilities. So I'd like to understand better which of those it was for you.
ReplyDeleteIf I can make a comparison with grades in school, young kids learn perfectly well in the early years of elementary school. Parents may get report cards then, but the kids themselves are oblivious to this performance measure. They just do what they do. Their motivation comes from elsewhere. Eventually they do become aware of grades and that can change things rather dramatically. Now performance seems to count because of approval of the teacher, rather than just a thing in itself to enjoy.
So recognition is a double edged sword, especially if you weren't looking for it at the outset. Then how to respond to it, once it falls into your lap, presents a challenge. It is not easy to at the same time be a high level performer and just one of the guys.
Now, switching gears, is there really pro roller hockey? And can one make a living playing that? This is news to me. My view of competitive sports in college, more informed by being a fan than a participant, though I did know a hockey player at Cornell, is that if you can really make it big in the sport then you should go all in on that. But if you won't climb to the top then being a regular student in college is pretty important, even if it subtracts some time from your sport. That way you are much better prepared for life after you graduate.
So in this case what you called cashing it in sounded like making a prudent choice. Unless you took money from the sponsor and then didn't deliver something in response, there was really no external harm created by your choice. Normally when we talk about cashing it in, somebody else gets hurt.
I have never thought of it like your example of young students. As a child growing up I was never forced to go to practice, I always wanted to. Also, I never paid attention to my personal stats and at that age there were no individual award, only team championships.
ReplyDeleteAs for going all in on professional sports, there are some players that are on the chopping block. I believe that the player's decision depends on how they handle risk. I was risk averse as many of the players I competed with are now close to, if not, being professional. I would've taken on a lot of risk to pursue that. The high end utility would have been great, but the lower level is less than it would be if I get a good education and start a career. This pertained to my IR and IC constraints.