Christian Buck: The Sport of School: Help Your Student-Athlete Win in the Classroom

Transcript

[0:00:31] DA: As a parent, coach, or educator, you probably notice that many student-athletes are driven on the field but struggle academically. You may be wondering, what can I do to help? Christian Buck’s new book, The Sport of School, offers a proven solution: Take what you know about your child’s athletic performance and apply it to the classroom. Packed with case studies, this order of school gives parents, coaches, and educators the tools they need to motivate each type of student. You’ll learn what factors push students to win, how to shift students' perceptions of school and grades, and why visualizing victory makes all the difference both on and off the field. Hey listeners, my name is Drew Applebaum and I’m excited to be here today with Christian Buck, author of The Sport of School: Help Your Student-Athlete Win in the Classroom. Christian, thank you for joining, welcome to the Author Hour podcast.

[0:01:16] Christian Buck: Thanks so much for having me, appreciate it.

[0:01:19] DA: Let’s kick this off, can you give us a rundown of your professional background?

[0:01:24] Christian Buck: Sure, I was on the floor of the American stocks exchange for 11 years, I was brokering and trading equity derivatives and left that world after 9/11 because it really wasn’t congruent with how I wanted to live my life and so I left and got my Masters in Sports Psychology in 2006 and since then, I have been working with students and athletes and teams and executives an improving their performance with an undertone of sports psychology.

[0:01:53] DA: Was there an inspiration for the book and why was now the time to write it?

[0:01:59] Christian Buck: Yeah, the inspiration and "why now" are sort of, there’s two different things. Inspiration was when I was coaching, coming out of graduate school and I was – one of the guys on the team was getting recruited by Yale, and he had pretty decent grades but they weren’t good enough to get through admissions at Yale and it reminded me of when I was in high school for the first three years, my parents were of the mind of be a good kid and get good grades and more importantly, be a good kid. My twin brother and I ran with that one, and after three years I had accumulated a 2.8 GPA or an 83 average. One of the school’s small school in division three school in Ohio was recruiting me and talking to the dean of admissions, he told my college counselor anyway, "don’t’ let him waste the money on the application." I wrote him a letter and said, "I’m going to get in your school, I’m going to get my grades up," and I went from 2.8 to a 3.8 and going back to the athlete that I was coaching, you know, it reminded me that we can do it if we put a little more time in and a little more focus and a little more effort and something that as athletes, we all sort of understand. The inspiration was to help more – when I started, the Sport of School Academy was to help more student-athletes raise their grades. Very similar to the way I did, because I knew it wasn’t about IQ or intellect but about effort and focus and determination. After doing that for say five, six, seven years, I started to realize, this really works. The average student at that time came to me with a 2.8 GPA and left with a 3.5. That could have been as quick as one quarter. Doing it for a couple of more years now, I realized that I just – I can only help one person at a time so the inspiration for the book or "why now", to answer that question is, I’m at a point where I can only help so many kids during the week or the month of the year but if I can get a book out to the parents, teachers or coaches of more students obviously, then I can help more and more kids figure out how to be successful in a much bigger impact and in a greater way. It’s really a vehicle to teach parents for the most part, what I know. What I learned about helping student-athletes raise their grades.

[0:04:26] DA: Can you give us a little bit of background about the demand that student-athletes have on the field? Because I don’t think a lot of people know about how time-consuming being a student-athlete can be.

[0:04:39] Christian Buck: Sure, well, you know, if you're a parent of maybe an eighth grade or to high school, you start to get a real clear picture. I mean, your summer are now driving around and you have club teams and you have club tournaments and you know, this is recruiting aspect to it and then you have what the individual goes through just for their home team sport of practice, if you’re a swimmer, you're practicing, swimming every morning and then you might go in the afternoon. Practices for football are notorious for going to four or five hours, you have to grind when you’re out there and then you got to get home at 8:00 and start doing work. You know, it is – I talk to a lot of my student-athletes about time and how to use it wisely because if you had one class, could you get an A in it? Well yeah, if I have one class and that is all I could focus on, sure. Well, can I do it for five classes? Maybe, but now it becomes a time issue so you know, the pressure or necessarily the time commitment becomes a big deal and the pressure to exceed at a high level depending on what type of sport or you know, what level you’re playing on is going to change how you go about those daily routines and then is there time left over for school? My goal is to get them to treat school like a sport and you know, athletes love challenge, athletes love discipline, athletes love getting better and just applying that same attitude towards school as well as college, as well as their sport because coming out of college or high school, they’re going to be ingrained with the habits that are going to help them succeed.

[0:06:22] DA: Now, you put together a program for athletes to approach education, the sport of school mindset, just like they would approach their sport. Because you're very honest about it. Most student-athletes don’t make it as professional athletes. Can you talk about some of the numbers behind athletes who actually go pro and make a career around it?

[0:06:42] Christian Buck: Yeah, it’s honest, in that it’s just statistical, right? It’s quantifiable and I think it’s less than 3% of college football players play in college and then it’s less than 1% that go from college and then it’s less than 1% that go from college to the pros. That’s football which is sort of a big pastime in the US anyway and a lot of opportunities to play. Well, what if you’re a fencer or if you are in dance team. You just don’t have those opportunities as much. So, if you’re in a what’s called a second-tier sport, soccer, lacrosse, not basketball, baseball, football, especially where the big contracts, big money go into college realm, what’s the plan? You can put all this time in and they loved their sport, and I get it, but it’s equally as important and maybe not, even more, to get smarter, to work harder on your grades, to graduate from a good school, and so on and so forth.

[0:07:43] DA: Now, how does the sports world and the techniques you learned there translate into school?

[0:07:49] Christian Buck: That came about, when I was working with one of my clients who was a real hard worker. He would get there early, he would stay late, he would go to the gym, he would work hard in the off season and so it was already in him to push and to practice and to excel at a higher level – to perform at a higher level. When we decided that okay, what if we just use that mindset and applied it to everything you do? I’ve done this with college students where we decided that the team that I worked with, they were two and 14, the year before I started working with them and we focused not on skill but on effort and just working as hard as you can in the weight room on the field and then in the classroom, they have the highest GPA of most schools in their sport nationwide. It became this mindset of like: we’re just going to outwork you and the sports component to being a student is just another realm to perform that. What I call the have it all or baller, right? The guy that, or girl, that just works hard and has good grades and works hard on the field and it’s that mindset where you know, focus and discipline and drive and determination that all those things that make you a good athlete easily can make you a good student. But we just – for the most part – just don’t see it that way, we just think of school as a chore.

[0:09:17] DA: Yeah, other characteristics that make a great athlete that student-athletes can use and apply those characteristics in the classroom?

[0:09:26] Christian Buck: Sure, if we were to ask most student-athletes, "why do you love or what’s the difference between working hard in sports versus working hard in school?" I think the answer is: it’s more fun.

[0:09:42] DA: It’s true.

[0:09:44] Christian Buck: Honest, I think that’s a legitimate answer but when they see school as a chore, it is a chore, it’s something, make your bed, eat your peas and do your homework and it’s not theirs. It’s not their drive, it’s just sort of society’s opinion of what we should be doing and sort of we’re all grown up with that, you know, it’s school is you have to go to school and learn things that you don’t’ necessarily want to learn for example. If we can change school to see it as an opportunity, to apply what’s already in us, working hard, discipline, focus, and then putting those into play, then school becomes really enjoyable, then school is yours, you see it as a stepping stone to learning and creating habits and routines that are going to set you up for life.

[0:10:36] DA: What are some ways to empathize with your child to understand their needs and motivations so they could start their Sport of School plan?

[0:10:46] Christian Buck: Right. That is the key to the book and it really maybe the undertones of the book is that we have to figure out, "what do they want?" not, "what do we want?" Even what do we want for them, well, we know what we want for them. But what do they want? The honest thing, answer could be to be left alone. I want to be left alone and that’s okay, it doesn’t necessarily mean helpful but it’s honest and if we say okay, well, that’s the case, then their own personal vision is the important part. Once they have their own personal vision of what they want to do and what I call being on autopilot, it’s because they’ve decided it’s a good idea. If we can empathize where they are and say okay, you’re not meeting your potential, I hear it a lot, they could be doing so much better. Okay, well why not? What is holding them back? If it’s a chore, it makes sense. The example that I use is, if your parents are having people over a party and they ask you to clean up the kitchen and the family room, you're going to not put the most amount of effort into it but if you’re having 10 of your friends over, you might do it and make it spotless. What’s the difference between those things and the difference is, because in one scenario, it’s a chore and the other one is it’s something that is – that you want to do. In order to empathize with that, we have to say, or to get into their heads, okay, well, what’s going to change, in order for them to want to do it? One of the things that I suggest is going to college campuses and pretty college campuses, Georgetown, Boston College, there’s so many of them but really nice place with maybe a big football team or basketball games or something that they say, "I want to do that for four years." We all sort of agree or understand that, but it’s to get into that mindset of okay, that’s what’s going to start it rather than no, you have to study tonight. It just becomes a chore.

[0:12:54] DA: Now as every student-athlete the same and this is a one size fits all method or are there different and specific student-athlete types?

[0:13:03] Christian Buck: No, it is definitely different athlete types and I came up with five different types that I learned over five or six years of working with over a 100 student-athletes – one on one for a year at this point – and so the five different types that I have come up with are the workhorse, the rookie, the spectator, the natural talent and the intellectual. And the workhorse we sort of spoke about, it is the one where you can see they work hard, they understand work ethic, they already have it in them. The second is the rookie, who honestly or earnestly wants to do well that just don’t know what that means. They don’t know the rules yet that their B-minus average isn’t going to get them to Harvard. They just don’t understand that yet and that’s okay. They have to learn it at some point. The spectator is someone who wants – they don’t care if they fail and they don’t care if they succeed. They are sort of just watching the game from the sidelines, they’re not really involved. And what we talk about them is, “what is your personal vision?” because right then at that point they don’t have one. The natural talent is one of the most interesting ones I never would have thought of is the ones that are just gifted on the field and they’re out there what looks like working but they’re not. They’re playing, they’re having fun, they’re being creative, it is not hard. So if you were to try to get a natural talent to do math when they are not good at math they don’t get it. They’ve never put in the work like the rest of us have because they are so gifted in what they do and the intellectual deals with some other issues of being a perfectionist and grades come first before other sport and they will do whatever it takes to get the best grades possible and they get a little too anxious about bad grades and too perfectionistic about lowering the bar and being okay with not getting a 100 or whatever it happens to be. So a little bit different on the intellectual.

[0:15:07] DA: Now besides visiting a school as you mentioned and really feeling the atmosphere and wanting to be there, what is the best way to create that personal vision for college for your student-athlete child?

[0:15:18] Christian Buck: Yeah and I work on this with adults who are 60 years old that to answer the question, “what do you want?” is not an easy answer. I would say most people I’d work with don’t know that answer. I didn’t know what I want until I was about 35 so I get it and to ask your students, “what do you want?” again, they might say, “I want to be left alone,” and that’s fine. Okay but let’s get past that or if you could envision any life in the college realm, what would you want? To start to use that vision to both of your advantage, right? That you start to create an image and an idea and that’s why I like going to campuses because it instantly gives you images and adolescence live in ideals not experience. So if we give them more and more experience whether it is going to a camp for a couple of days and seeing more campuses or you’re driving on a vacation and you stop in to see a campus or there are a lot of parents who have older brothers or sisters. So the one that they worried about that they have seen particular schools, have gone through the process before. The more that we can create that personal vision that they want and they can see it, that is going to increase motivation.

[0:16:32] DA: Does this also help the student's perception of what they’re capable of? Because you mention in the book this is paramount.

[0:16:40] Christian Buck: Yes and I will give you a story, one of my clients came to me after two years of an 83, so that is a 2.8 GPA, and we were going maybe four months and we figured, you know I said something to the effect of, “can you get all A’s?” and he said, “no, you know I was just telling my parents I am not an A student. I am a B student,” so his perception of himself was that, “I am a B student,” and I said, “You are not a B student. You are an A student, you just put in B effort.” And you could see it hit him like, “oh yeah” and he ended up going from that 83 to a 94, the 3.9 because he just focused on the effort and not how he saw himself and so, you know we put these limitations on ourselves and we all do this by the way on how much money we’re going to make or what the school we can go to, the girl or guy that we can date and these limitations are self-created and it keeps us however we got there, we got there. And so, what I do is identify that limitation and remove it and see how far they can excel and one of the examples again that I use with my clients is I ask them often, I use to scale of one to 10 a lot and if you worked at a 10, what do you think your grades would be? And one of my girls said, “A hundred” and I go, "no," and she was like, “What?” I go, "100 and you average a 100, maybe you could do it on one test but you know, you might get a teacher that gives you 88 on a paper and you are not even sure why even though you think you handed in a perfect paper." So the real answer is if you went all out, we don’t know but the important part of that is before that conversation they had some idea that they couldn’t do it. “I am not an A student, I can’t get all A’s. It’s not possible.” Well, if we just put in all the effort that you could into school, what could you get? I don’t know but let’s find out because the funny thing is it is really not about grades. It is about effort and focus and drive and personal vision and learning these things in high school rather than someday when you are 35 like I did.

[0:18:55] DA: Now you’re a clear pro but for readers and parents, how should they discuss with their child when there’s evidence of a problem or an issue that’s holding them back from reaching their true potential?

[0:19:07] Christian Buck: That’s a tough question because it varies so much with each person. I would say that the big thing would be to empathize and to not, like you said, to start a conversation and then that’s, “What do you want?” if you are having a hard time and, I am ruling out disorders and anxiety disorders, ADD, things that are outside of my scope, if you can get them to do it once just for one quiz, go get a 100 on it. Just one, let’s just see what happens and reward the effort. It is not about the grade, it is about the effort and what I find is that they get a taste of what that feels like and then they want another 100 and then they want another one and it becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy because that is the autopilot, right? We’re helping them focus on effort not grades and that will work itself out on their own. They’ll figure that part out.

[0:20:13] DA: What is the hardest? If you want to give us maybe a high in someone you’ve worked with and a low in someone you work with and maybe the adversity and what you have learned from that situation for any student-athlete that you’ve worked with recently.

[0:20:27] Christian Buck: Oh sure, I mean I had one student go from a 1-9 to a 4-0. Another one from a 2-2 to a 4-0. Another one from an 83 to a 96 and in all of those scenarios, it was removing the cap of what they’re capable of and then just focusing on the effort, rewarding effort and as well as putting in the personal vision and stuff. So one of my clients he is very, very smart. His family is very, very smart and he was more defiant than anything and started talk about, “Well, what do you want?” And we actually took a trip to visit a couple of colleges near him and they are very good schools and we drove out of there and I said, “Doesn’t it bother you that they don’t think you’re good enough?” he goes, “Yeah,” and so two years later, he went from a 2-2 to a 4-0 and he actually went to one of those schools. He got recruited by them and went to one of those schools. So it was a nice way to sort of wrap up his whole approach to school and where the catalyst was. On the lower points is often and one of my – this is not necessarily low point but it didn’t work and he said, you know after working together for a couple of months, three months maybe and he said, “You know, I hear what you are saying. I’m just not ready for it,” and I thought that was a fair point and I also know that he’ll do all right because he knew it. He knew that for him he likes sleep more than studying and so he would go to bed at 9:00 and that was it. If he had to study or do homework that wasn’t part of the deal after football practice. If he had an hour and a half to do it that was all he had and I appreciated his honesty in that and it was a good answer even though I couldn’t help them but I know someday – I call them knowledge grenades – it is going to go off one day where he was, “Oh I get it. I know what he was talking about now.” So I am not sure if that is what you are looking for but.

[0:22:33] DA: Yeah, absolutely. There are always lessons learned and I am sure you left something in him and then he will wake one day and want to see that other side of not just sports but also the classroom. Christian, let me just tell you something: writing a book especially like this one, which is going to help so many parents and student-athletes out there is so small feat. So congratulations on finishing your book.

[0:22:52] Christian Buck: Oh thank you so much. I appreciate that.

[0:22:54] DA: If readers could take away one thing from the book, what would you like it to be?

[0:23:00] Christian Buck: I’d like it to be that every student-athlete can see themselves in a good light and be proud of the effort they put into it and it is not necessarily about the grades but about the behaviors they use every day to get better, to improve and whatever the grade is, is the grade. As long as they’re working hard and we can inspire them to do that they’re going to be set for success. You know I believe that and this is in the book but you know success comes down to three things: work ethic, ability to solve problems, and intellectual curiosity. And I really feel that if we put in the things that are in this book or the people that are, already do it, they’ll grab on to those three things and be successful long term. So no matter where you are whether one of my clients started with a 3-4 and ended with a 4-2, another one like I said, one started with a 1-9 and then ended up with a 4-0. It doesn’t matter where you start from but everyone can do it. I think we can do it as adults as well. They are just applying it to school in this scenario. And that there is hope that it’s not about yelling louder and having more fights and making them do it but a different approach where you’re more of their coach as a supporter in helping them grow into getting what they want.

[0:24:26] DA: Christian, this has been a pleasure and I am so excited for people to check out this book. Everyone, the book is called, The Sport of School, and you could find it on Amazon. Besides checking out the book Christian, where can people find you?

[0:24:36] Christian Buck: christianbuck.com or on Twitter @cbuckconsulting. I think those are the two best ways and there is a Sport of School Facebook page as well.

[0:24:46] DA: Great, Christian thank you so much for coming on the show today.

[0:24:48] Christian Buck: Thanks so much.

[0:24:51] DA: Thanks for joining us for this episode of Author Hour. You can get Christian Buck’s new book, The Sports of School, on Amazon. Also, you can also find a transcript of this episode and all of our other episodes on our website at authorhour.co. For more Author Hour, subscribe to this podcast on your favorite subscription service. Thank you for joining us, we’ll see you next time. Same place, different author.