When our youth athletes strive to achieve their personal best, victory is won on and off the hill. Encouraging our kids to set individual goals and focus on maximum personal effort benefits both the player and the team – in a variety of ways.
Athletes who come to realize that personal development can be even more rewarding than a win are mastery-focused athletes who build the confidence and initiative needed to succeed – in sports and in life.
Liberty Mutual Insurance Responsible Sports sat down with U.S. Ski Team star Andrew Weibrecht to get his thoughts on personal bests and personal records.
In our exclusive TAKE 5 interview, Andrew told us that he has always been “very aware” of personal bests and personal records.
“It is a little bit more difficult to quantify results in ski racing as you would in other sports, but I was always very focused on the quality of my performances and was definitely aware of the good versus bad,” said Andrew, who won a Silver Medal for the U.S. in Super G at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Andrew said that many of his personal records and goals have been “process-related” due to the nature of his chosen sport.
“They would often be more related to learning and becoming proficient at certain skills that then translated into better results,” said Andrew.
Coming off his success at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Andrew says his goals remain similarly structured and focused.
“My goals moving forward are very process-based,” said Andrew. “I’ve always felt that it is more important to look at the sport in this manner rather than just focus on the results, because with a sport like alpine skiing, you are not trying to necessarily “beat” another person as you would in, say, tennis.”
Andrew added that if he could encourage young skiers to focus on just one particular personal record or goal, it would be quite simple.
“I really believe that the result is generally the last thing that matters if at the end of the day you can truly feel as though you put your best effort forward,” said Andrew.
To read the full TAKE 5 interview with Andrew, visit ResponsibleSports.com. And come back next month for another exclusive TAKE 5 interview!
At Liberty Mutual Insurance, we constantly look for ways to celebrate the countless acts of responsibility shown by people every day. We created Responsible Sports, powered by Positive Coaching Alliance, as part of this belief to help ensure that our kids experience the best that sports have to offer in environments that promote and display responsibility. We believe kids can learn valuable life lessons when coaches and parents come together to support winning on and off the hill.