Business Skills to Win in Youth Sports: #3 Grit in Youth Sports for Today and Their Future

If there’s one trait most parents want their kids to develop through sports, it’s resilience. Yet, many struggle to define what resilience truly means or how to cultivate it effectively.? We can turn the page to Grit?for the answers.

Many business leaders are familiar with Dr. Angela Duckworth’s book Grit, which explores an intentional approach to develop perseverance to achieve success. In business, resilience and the ability to overcome challenges are critical for long-term success. The same framework that helps identify and develop "gritty" employees can be used to cultivate "gritty" teams and young athletes.

Great business leaders understand the keys to grit, either from reading the book or just based on their deep intuition about human drives. Employees perform their best when they are engaged in work that genuinely interests them and they find purposeful.? Employees further overcome hard things when they leaders put the employee in positions to experience their ability to conquer challenges.? These organizations thrive in solving problems and reaching new heights.

This same approach works in youth sports to help teams thrive and develop "gritty" kids that will excel in the future.? Below is a guide to do this.

The Grit Framework in Business and Youth Sports

Dr. Duckworth’s research highlights three core elements of grit:

1. Interest – Deep engagement in a task or field
2. Purpose – A meaningful reason to persevere
3. Belief in Oneself – Confidence to overcome challenges

Each element can be built or identified intentionally.? Start by being?awareness of the level of each within the person in front of you.? The awareness alone will cause you to interact in a way that will immediately level of the "grit" of your employee or your young athlete.

Next we dive into how to build, nurture and identify the 3 keys to grit.

1. Cultivating Interest: The First Step to Grit

A great business leader recognizes that employees perform their best when they are deeply interested in their work. They take the time to understand what excites their employees, shifting them to new projects or roles that fuel engagement and long-term commitment.

Coaches and parents can apply the same approach to youth sports. Instead of focusing solely on skill development and performance, they should prioritize understanding what interests each child about the sport.

How to Cultivate Interest in Youth Athletes:

• Observe what aspects of the game excite your child – competition, teamwork, skill mastery, or even leadership.
• Allow kids to experiment with different positions, roles, and sports to help them discover what resonates most.
• Recognize whether a child is in the early stage of exploration or developing a deep commitment, and adjust expectations accordingly.
• Celebrate curiosity and exploration rather than pushing them toward early specialization.
• Ask lots of questions!? "What was the best part of today's game?"? "What was your highlight at practice?"? "What was the best part of the season?"

Stages of Interest:

• Stage 1: Experience: This is when a child is just getting exposed to the sport. Let them just play. See what they love about it. Feed them more of that to create a spark!
• Stage 2: Exploration: This is when a child realizes there were more exciting aspects of the sport.? They learn that they can develop better skills and impact the competition.? Ask lots of questions like "what if you tried doing this?" and then see how they respond.? If they embrace it and succeed, you have helped river-guide their exploration!
• Stage 3: Deep: This is when a child realizes that the broad and deep experiences in the sport are interesting.? They want to maximize their skills and find it exciting to pursue the limits of competition and all of the ways to develop and compete.? At this stage, give them resources, including time, so they can deepen their interest on their own.? They are fully intrinsically motivated at this point.? External motivation can help get them over humps.

By fostering genuine interest first, coaches and parents lay the foundation for long-term passion and perseverance.

2. Developing Purpose: The Key to Long-Term Commitment

Purpose transforms interest into a driving force for perseverance. In business, great leaders create purpose by aligning employees’ work with a larger mission—whether it’s improving customers’ lives, innovating in their industry, or creating a thriving company culture. When employees see how their contributions matter, their motivation to push through challenges increases dramatically.

The same applies to youth sports. If players understand the deeper purpose behind their efforts—whether it’s supporting their teammates, improving for the long-term, or learning skills that will help them in life—their commitment will grow.

How to Foster Purpose in Youth Sports:

• Fun.? Fun makes the experience meaningful.? It must be fun from their perspective.
• Team.? Constantly reinforce the word team.? Hand in the middle type team cheers to start and end practice.
• Celebrate Success.? When a star player scores, yell "Nice play [Team Name]," rather than "Nice play, [Player Name]."
• Celebrate Contribution.? When a start player scores, have the players high five the player that won the ball a few passes earlier that led to the goal.

Be Careful!? If you create the wrong sense of purpose, it will cloud out motivational purposes.? E.g., if the player believes that winning makes his parents feel good, then you will create a detrimental sense of purpose that will kill their flame, slowly over timer, until it dies out.

3. Confidence: Kids Learn They Can Overcome Hard Things

The final piece of the grit framework is belief in oneself to overcome hard things. In business, employees who believe they have the ability to solve complex problems and overcome setbacks are the ones who thrive. The best leaders reinforce this belief by providing the right mix of challenge and support—giving employees responsibilities just beyond their comfort zone while ensuring they have the tools to succeed.

In youth sports, confidence is built through experiences that teach kids they are capable of handling adversity. It’s not about shielding them from failure but instead helping them navigate it.

How to Build a Belief in Athletes That They can Overcome Challenges:

• Build trust with the athlete so they know you believe in them.? Compliment true successes, particularly their process, early and often.
• Balance success with failure.? Too much failure and they won't enjoy it enough to persevere.? Enough success and they will.
• No fear of failure or mistakes.? Create a culture where nobody is criticized for mistakes or failure.? Kids will then not be afraid to make mistakes.
• Let them make mistakes.? If you guide them through every decision, it tells them you don't believe in them and then they won't believe in themselves.

Confidence grows when young athletes repeatedly experience overcoming obstacles. Each success reinforces the belief that they can handle the next challenge.? Each failure reinforces that the "world doesn't end."

How Parents and Coaches Can Apply the Grit Framework Today

1. Identify what excites your child in sports. Pay attention to what keeps them engaged and celebrate how much that thing seems to be to them.
2. Connect their experience to a greater purpose. Celebrate when their effort and success leads to the success of their teammates.
3. Guide them to believe in themselves. Let them struggle, encourage persistence, and celebrate effort, balanced with enough success to keep it fun and interesting, depending on where they are on their interest journey.

By intentionally fostering interest, purpose, and self-belief, parents and coaches can develop athletes who not only excel in sports but also carry the power of grit into their academic, professional, and personal lives.

Conclusion

Business leaders know that success isn’t just about talent—it’s about resilience, passion, and perseverance. The same is true for youth athletes. By applying the grit framework, parents and coaches can help young athletes develop deep interest, find meaningful purpose, and build the confidence to overcome challenges.

When we approach youth sports with the same intentionality that drives success in business, we create an environment where kids don’t just play—they grow into gritty, resilient individuals prepared for whatever challenges life throws their way.

To learn more about how to help kids reach their full potential in youth sports and enjoy the journey along the way, please visit https://www.sport4growth.com/

Thank you for joining me on this journey.