Five Life Skills I Learned Through Sports

I was introduced to sports at a very early age as my entire family played at least one sport, if not two, regularly. I had a tennis racquet in my hand by two years old, I remember kicking the soccer ball around in my backyard, and I started figure skating young as well. I competed in both tennis and figure skating starting around 7 years old and, even though I stopped competitive figure skating around 12 to focus on tennis, I am now 35 years old and still travel to compete. So, in my 30+ years in sports and competitions, here are five things I learned through sports, I use in my everyday life.

1) Organization/Time Management

Growing up in France, sports weren't part of schools so your school schedule wasn't like in the US where you can choose your class or you leave around 3pm. Because of that, there was a lot of organization needed between my parents, myself, school, and my coach. So from an early age, I was aware of that. On top of it, I had to manage school, homework, training, and tournaments, and if I wanted to keep competing, my grades had to be a certain GPA. So, from early on, my schedule was really structured and I had to learn how to organize it in order to do it all. To this day, it has allowed me to juggle multiple projects at once at work, find time to train, compete and now, study for this class. 😁

2) Perseverance

Perseverance is such a big one for me. I truly believe that I couldn't have learned it if I didn't participate in sports. I'm not talking about tennis specifically; I'm talking about sports in general. Throughout my time competing, and doing sports recreationally, perseverance is something I built by necessity. Sports can be cruel in the sense that there is always only one winner. So you're always going to fail way more than you'll win. Especially in tennis, there is only one winner every week. So, I had to build thick skin, as the saying goes, and learn to come back after every defeat, after every bad practice, and after every injury. Injuries especially are tough, because we don't talk enough about the mental aspect of learning to trust your body again when you come back. The time it takes to be comfortable doing your sport is significant, even if your body is fully healed. It's happened many times where I came back, things were just back to normal for a while, and boom another injury happened. Because of that, I have le

arned ways to not give up when things get tough. And this is probably the biggest lesson I use every day in my personal and professional life. It's not easy at all, and I absolutely have my days where I want to throw the towel, but I remember these times where I got back up, and it helps to keep me going.

3) Independence

No matter what sport you end up playing, you must make decisions all the time, whether it’s by yourself or as part of a team. That alone teaches you to think, either by yourself or as part of a team. In my case, I was alone on a court, and I had to make decisions every time I hit a ball during a match. But because I traveled and because I was going to a public school until my last year of High School, I’ve had to make a lot of decisions, some rather small and insignificant, and others with more consequences. Because of tennis, I decided to attend a tennis Academy in the South of France and “left” home at 17 years old to prepare myself to leave for the USA that next year. Making that decision, living with that decision and everything that came with it (living on site with a stranger at first, managing your day to day without your parents there), has absolutely made me a much more independent person. To this day, I appreciate learning independence at a young age, along with learning to think for myself. I have found it to be a vital skill in every part of my life.

4) Respect

In any sport you play, you have rules and guidelines to follow in order to participate. That alone teaches you respect in many different ways. By participating in tennis, figure skating, and later on golf, I’ve had to learn that set of rules. Moreover, I’ve encountered plenty of tough opponents or sparing partners that were disrespectful to me, but if I acted like them, things would only get worse. So I’ve had to learn to respect people even if I’m being disrespected. It’s not always easy, and especially in the heat of the battle, we all tend to go over the line, but through years of experience and playing tennis, I’ve definitely learned that. And this is a skill that will always translate to all areas of life.

5) Social skills/culture

Last but not least, social skills and culture. This is probably my favorite one, along with perseverance to talk about. I can’t even tell how many amazing people, cultures, and opportunities I’ve gotten through tennis that have enriched my life. Playing tennis, golf, and participating in figure skating has exposed me to so many people with so many backgrounds and experiences. I’ve been so lucky to go to countries, participate in experiences I would have never been able to take a part in because of tennis especially. Take this for example: coming to the US would have never been a discussion if it weren’t for tennis. I was one of the fortunate ones to receive a full scholarship to go to college and play tennis at the same time. From there, I met more people in and out of the tennis world who have broaden my horizons in a way I could have never imagined. Being put in these situations on and off the court has taught me how to adapt to a lot of different situations, how to be flexible, and how to respect people who are different than you.