Coach Patrick Smith

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Coach Education: When Athlete Identity Falls Apart

From time to time I write for the TrainingPeaks blog. Here is a piece to educate coaches on how to navigate when an athlete experiences an identity disrupting event such as an injury or catastrophic event. Self-stories are everywhere. We spin the tail of ourselves as the athlete, the individual, and the teammate without even noticing we are doing it. It’s so subtle, we slip into believing those stories are big-T Truth and that affects how we identify and interact with life experiences. Noticing the distinction between who we are and the stories we weave is a skill I discuss in the linked post.

When Athlete Identity Falls Apart: Seeing the Individual as More than Their Stories

Do you hook to a particular narrative of who you are? How has that self-story interacted with living a valued life?