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“If your whole life was built around one race, one event, one performance, how does that sustain everything that comes afterward?” – Michael Phelps, The Weight of Gold
While most athletes will not face the pressure that Michael Phelps refers to above, feeling like your whole life built toward a singular Olympic competition, it is surprisingly common to see young athletes identify themselves in a singular way – volleyball player (1). They are not Kelsey, the teen who is a singer, photographer, daughter, sister and volleyball player; they see themselves as simply Kelsey, the volleyball player.
While there is nothing wrong with an athlete embracing their identity as a player on the court, the inevitability of sport is that their competitive career may have “intermissions” (i.e., injury, illness) and will eventually end. How can you, as a guardian to your young athlete, help them ease this transition? You can start NOW, in their youth playing career, by encouraging the development of a multidimensional identity.
What does a multidimensional identity mean?
Simply put, a multidimensional identity means that a young person finds and puts value in their “role” in multiple areas of their life. They may value their role as a sibling – sharing life lessons with their brothers or sisters. They may value their role as a community lifeguard – keeping children safe in the water and teaching them how to swim. They may value their role as an artist – sharing their eye for beauty in the works they produce. They may value their role as a teammate on the volleyball court – sharing the competitive spirit, playing a game they love and keeping their body healthy.
When youth build diverse interests, they can find stress relief, enjoyment and healthy engagement with community in several areas. This means when they face a tough loss on the volleyball court or a tough week of training, they can reframe it through a meaningful weekend with family or engaging in another fun hobby. They can remind themselves that even when they don’t find success on the volleyball court, they can find success in life as a friend, sibling or student.
Leaning on other parts of their identity can act in a protective manner that helps them both recover from stress in the moment (“Reading will help me shake off the feeling of a bad practice”) and enhance positive feelings about themselves (“Even though I had a bad practice, that doesn’t impact the value I bring as a great friend”). In addition, to Phelps’ reflection, diverse interests in life also help athletes understand and feel optimistic about what comes next when they retire their volleyball uniform (2).
How do I encourage my athlete to develop a multidimensional identity?
By implementing the above strategies, you can help your youth athlete build a strong, multidimensional identity that will navigate them through the challenges and successes of their time as a volleyball player and their lives outside of the sport.
References
Did you know that as part of your athlete’s yearly USA Volleyball membership, they get FREE access to our athlete education platform NTDP Academy? The NTDP Academy offers 50+ courses in a variety of topics that will help your athlete develop as a volleyball player and holistic athlete. The courses are based on the USA Volleyball Developmental Model, which encompasses five pillars important to athlete well-being and performance: Body, Mind, Craft, Team and Heart.
The NTDP Academy will be releasing two new courses, based on developing a healthy athletic identity, as the 2024/2025 club season gets underway: “Athletic Identity and Team Roles” with Dr. Brooke Rundle and “Managing Negative Affect Through a Multifaceted Identity” with Dr. Eric Martin.
We encourage you to promote these developmental resources to your athletes. Learn more about the NTDP Academy.
About the Author
Dr. Lauren Walker is the Manager of Athlete Development at USA Volleyball. Lauren has 10+ years of coaching experience in multiple sports, including volleyball. She holds her PhD in kinesiology, with a specialization in sport psychology, from Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports. Before moving back into sport full-time, she was a professor of exercise science at Elon University, where she researched ways to help athletes build life skills in sport and ways to expand coach development. She currently creates educational programming that contributes to athlete and coach development in her role at USA Volleyball.
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