Who am I if I'm not this...

Moments after losing her first fight Ronda Rousey asked herself "who am I if I'm not this?" This being a champion. Next she contemplated suicide.

If you haven't watched her interview on Ellen please watch the link above. It is very powerful. It's also a reminder how important it is to keep Who We Are and What We Do separate. Rousey's identity was so tied up in her fighting career there was no distinction.

My coaching philosophy is a simple equation: Person > Player. This isn't my original idea but one that originated with Brett Ledbetter (see previous posts). In Rousey's situation the equation would be Person > Fighter. Person = who I am. Fighter = what I do.

I see this every year on our team. In fact just last week I ran into graduating senior at a baseball game. One of the first things she said to me was "Gabe I don't know what to do..." This is easy to understand when the last 14-15 years of your life have revolved around your sport. The relationship between the athlete and her sport becomes even more intense in college. Four years of your life are basically planned out. Eat, sleep, play soccer, study, repeat...

At our Hall of Fame ceremony last month I ran into a former colleague who had recently retired. She said to me "I'm trying to figure out who I am now that I'm not a coach." Again easy to understand.

It is critical that we prepare our student-athletes at the college level for life beyond their sport. And by "we" I don't mean someone who runs the "life skills" program at your college. I mean we the head coaches.

So what should we do? Try these simple steps:

• Help our players develop a healthy relationship with their sport;

• Remember our first job is to care FOR the people on our team;

• Always put the person before the player;

• Develop the person part of each team member.

This video is a great ice breaker for these steps. We recently watched the video as a team and had a very meaningful discussion afterward.

The reality is that its our obligation to prepare each of our players for life. Especially life AFTER...