By now you know I am a big fan of increasing your probability of success. When I met Billy I was not so pleased with his logic. His baseball coach had referred him to me because of his grades. That’s right, grades. In order to be eligible to play he needed to maintain at least a GPA of 2.0. For the uninformed, a GPA of a 2.0 is equal to that of a “C” average. Billy had never applied himself in the academic world. He usually accepted that as long as he stayed just above a “C” there was no reason to worry about his grades. Unfortunately, this belief allowed him to perch himself precariously on the edge of being eligible and sitting on the bench. He had always seen himself as an elite athlete whose physical attributes would balance out the lack of scholarly acumen. You can only guess where this story is heading. It was the fall semester and Billy was enrolled in Spanish classes. His ability to learn a foreign language was not so bueno. At the mid-term Billy had received two “F”s and by the end of the term had failed this required subject. His illogical logic as well as minimizing the importance of striving for higher grades left him sitting on the pine during the spring semester and the baseball season. Imagine if you were Billy’s teammates. You had been looking forward to a successful season, practicing with a specific lineup and hopes were filled with anticipation. However, only to discover that one of your teammates had chosen to not apply himself to his highest level and his absence will unfortunately adversely impact the potential success of the team.
Why would Billy set himself up like this? Remember that all behaviors happen for a reason. Mental gymnastics of minimization, denial and justification. “It’s not really that bad!” “They would never bench me, I’m too important to the team.” “I don’t have to focus on my classes, I’m going to the Bigs!” His fear of being discovered as a failure set himself up for failing but prior to the biggest stage and biggest embarrassment.
I feel it is my obligation to tell my athletes, their parents, and their coaches they are Student-Athletes, Student First, Athletes Second. If you don’t think your academics are important, you are not increasing your probability of success. Think about the illogical logic that you are using. Remembering 99 out of 100 college student-athletes will not make it to the “Bigs” and will have to discover another career route, then 99% of student-athletes need to be aware that their grades are important. The earlier a student-athlete can appreciate this fact, the earlier they can learn to be a productive student-athlete.
What is required to be a successful student-athlete? Here are a variety of factors that increase your probability of success; study-skills, time management, prioritization, attending class, note-taking skills, doing your homework, studying, tutoring, turning in your assignments, and meeting with your professor/teacher. Additionally, there are a bunch of factors that you might consider removing; studying while listening to tunes, cramming the night before, claiming that you are a “multi-tasker”, or over-estimating your intelligence.
One of my football players came in for an appointment and declared, “You know Doc, it’s a whole lot easier to understand the material when I go to class.” This epiphany struck him like a thunderbolt. Silly as this might be for some people, it is exquisitely helpful for others. Another athlete told me that he was a “multi-tasker”. I asked him, “When you listen to your tunes, have the television on, respond to every text or Snap-chat message, do you get all of your work done?” He admitted that he does not always get his work done. I shared with him, multi-taskers get their work done. He wasn’t multi-tasking. He was distracted.
When it comes to SAT testing and performance the research reveals some surprising statistics. (1. Knobler). There are some institutions of higher learning which do not hold their elite athletes up to the same standard as the rest of their student body.
Apparently, if an athlete can slam dunk a basketball or run a 4.4 40-yard dash, then these bastions of intellectual pursuits will treat their athletes differently. This is not to become a witch hunt or a soap box lecture but rather another important point to consider increasing your probability of success. I realize there are arguments on both sides of the fence. There are great opportunities that avail themselves by attending college. However, if 99 out of 100 student-athletes will need to find a different career path than sport, you need to make sure that you apply yourself in order to be prepared for life after sport and life after college. I encourage all of my athletes to apply themselves to the best of their abilities. If you set the bar low, you will stoop down to it. If you set the bar high, you will reach up to it.
Let’s not be too hasty. Research does show that athletes actually graduate college at a higher rate than the general student population. (2, 3) A great source that encourages pursuing better grades is by the College Sports Scholarship website.(4) They report that college coaches are looking for well-rounded high school student-athletes who will be successful in college.
One of the high school basketball players that I worked with was known as the “Vacuum” because after his opponents would shoot the ball, he would gather in the rebound like a vacuum cleaner. He was 6’10” and a wingspan of 7’2”. He also was on the Honor Roll every semester. Lastly, whenever someone was asked to describe this young man, they always identified him as a, “very respectful young man”. He was recruited across the board due to his well-rounded abilities on and off the court. He has long-term goals which include a future in basketball and medical school. Not a bad fall-back plan.
I love asking athletes if they are aware of the Benda Theory? They shouldn’t as this was a classmate of mine in college. When my friends and I finished our last class of the week on Friday, we would head over to a local watering hole. Mid-afternoon people would show up and the fun would begin. By early evening the activities were kicking into gear. By the evening time it was rocking and my classmate would show up. I asked him one day, why he didn’t join us earlier in the day. He politely revealed a lesson that he was taught in high school, “Do you work and then have fun”. He asked what was truly happening during the afternoon and early evening? The answer was the fun was just building up. While we were revving up the fun, my classmate was getting his work done. While we participated in our weekend activities, we all had that looming feeling that we had to still get to our work. By the time Sunday night arrived, we often discovered that we forgot what was presented in class or that we needed more time to finish the weekend homework. The Benda Theory is simple but elegant, “Do your work and then have fun”.
Additionally, the student-athlete may not find the traditional academic environment to be easy. You might need to learn the difference between studying and just doing your homework. During my Freshman Year in high school I was sitting in our court yard during lunch with my friends. I was supposed to be theoretically “studying”. I probably was highlighting the bolded words and thesis sentence of each paragraph based on what I thought the teacher would be asking on our next exam. When out of nowhere an unknown senior approached and said to me, “Hopefully your education won’t prevent you from learning.” My friends and I laughed at the absurdity of this comment. We thought, who was this strange guy that made this wacky comment? We were cool and he was definitely not. However, over time I reflected upon that bizarre statement offered by that stranger. It took months and the increase of neuronal connections in my brain but all of sudden the absurd comment became insightful, deep and profound. “Hopefully your education won’t prevent you from learning.” I use to study for what I thought the quizzes and exams were going to assess rather than truly absorbing all of the information. Once I began to study with the goal of acquiring, storing and retrieving the information that I studied, I discovered that no exam could pose the amount of questions to cover the breadth of knowledge that I now possessed. Suddenly my capacities as a student morphed and my academic abilities began to thrive.
According to Brand, there are differences when comparing student-athletes to non-athletes. Brand reported that student-athletes who were entering a Division I college, on average, had a 0.07 higher GPA and scored 33 points better on the SAT than the general student population entering Division I institutions (5). The facts show student-athletes outperform their non-athlete peers in class. (6, 7) He also noted that black, male football players had a twelve percent higher graduation rate than all black, male students. For white, male football players the graduation rate was the same as all white, male students. When it comes to basketball, black, male basketball players have a five percent higher graduation rate than the rest of the black, male student population (5, 8).
Freshman year in college is quite a challenging transition. Approximately 1/3rd of the all incoming freshman (student-athletes and non-athletes) will dropout. There are many reasons that young adults struggle with this experience. Papanikolaou group identified several factors that need to proactive addressed so as to increase your probability of success; change is never easy, ineffective coping mechanisms, self-defeating behaviors, or the “Fight or Flight” reactions.(9) The earlier healthier coping mechanisms are identified and developed, preferably well before college, the more likely the athlete will continue to matriculate through their college experience.
When assessing the academic performance of high school student-athletes to non-student athletes, (10, Stegall) found that the GPA of non-student athletes was 3.01 while the GPA of athletes was 3.25 which achieved statistical significance P-Value of 0.007. For the non-scientist, a P-Value of 0.007 means this difference didn’t just happen by chance. This difference is impressive. Though a small research study, the results parallel other studies.
While other studies report that student-athletes tend to earn lower GPAs an interesting finding reported by the NCAA that despite their lower grades, strong evidence suggests that athletes are more likely to graduate college than non-athletes. NCAA Division I athletes graduate from college, according to the NCAA(11). Despite the media focus on college athletes leaving school early for professional sports, the vast majority of athletes stay in school and ultimately complete degrees. By comparison, the NCAA’s data shows that non-athletes have a graduation rate of only 66 percent while student-athletes graduate at 68 percent. Here again, the research supports the facts that student-athletes graduate at a higher rate than non-athletes.
I was told by several Athletic Directors that their student-athletes earned their highest grades during the semester of their sport. This could happen for many possible reasons. The first would of course be that they are working with me. Then there is an array of other possible reasons which could include;
– required study hall
– assigned tutors
– the direct link between their grades and their eligibility to play their sport
– collegiate liaisons working with the team/players
– the lack of free time forces the issue
During the semester of their sport the student-athletes don’t have the free time to justify to themselves, “I have plenty of time. I can get to it later”. Their structured time between classes, practice, and game time leaves them with the necessity to focus and use their limited free time to study efficiently.
As you move forward in life remember the mantra, you are a student-athlete, student first, athlete second.
- Knobler, M., 2008, http://www.newhaven.edu/27084.pdf, COLLEGE ATHLETES: ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: Behind the line on grades By Mike Knobler, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 12-28-08
- http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/graduation-rates
- http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/academics-college-athletes-vs-nonathletes-16678.html
- http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/good-grades-athletes.htm
- http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol5Iss4/Commentary.htm
- http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/ncaa-graduation-rates-quarter-century-tracking-academic-success
- http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/PressArchive/2005/Research/
- https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/29/graduation-rates-athletes-hit-record-high
- Papanikolaou, Z., Nikolaidis, D., Patsiaouras, A. & Alexopoulos,P., Commentary: The Freshman Experience: High Stress – Low Grades. http://www.athleticinsight.com/Vol5Iss4/Commentary.htm, Athletic Insight: The Online Journal of Sport Psychology, 5(4).
- http://www.nwmissouri.edu/library/ResearchPapers/2012/Stegall,%20Ryan.pdf
- http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/college-athletes-graduate-record-high-rates