Ideas in the Wild: Author Christian Buck On How Student Athletes Can Find Success In The Classroom As Well As The Field

Many student-athletes are driven on the field, but struggle academically. Parents, coaches, and educators are left to wonder what they can do to help? Christian Buck wrote The Sport of School to offer a proven solution: take what you know about the student’s athletic performance and apply it to the classroom. In the book, Christian breaks down the different athlete types:

• The Rookie sincerely wants to learn but doesn’t know how.
• The Natural Talent excels but doesn’t know how to cope with challenges.
• The Workhorse shows intense dedication to skill building.
• The Spectator simply goes through the motions.
• The Intellectual focuses on athletics only after they’ve met their academic goals.

Packed with case studies, The Sport of School gives parents, coaches, and educators the tools they need to motivate each type of student. I recently caught up with Christian to learn what inspired him to write the book, his favorite idea in it, and how that idea impacted his life.

What happened that made you decide to write the book? What was the exact moment when you realized these ideas needed to get out there?

I decided to write this book after 4 or 5 years of working with student-athletes and had enough evidence to realize that this program works. The original idea for applying sport psychology to school happened the year after I graduated grad school. I recognized many student-athletes were having the same problem I had in high school: I was smart but wasn’t applying myself academically. In particular, one player had decent grades but the college programs that were recruiting him demanded a very high level of academic performance. If he had just put a little more effort into his schoolwork, he could have gone to one of the most prestigious colleges in the U.S. That’s when I decided I could help so many student-athletes reach their potential.

What’s your favorite specific, actionable idea in the book?

In order to increase motivation, create a personal vision and define your student-athlete type, then follow the appropriate interventions. Successful people have their own clear personal vision. They know what they want. They can see what success looks like for their lives. This vision becomes the catalyst of their journey to success. Without it, people tend to get sidetracked by being less focused and tolerant of the task at hand.When students identify their Sport of School student type (The Workhorse, Spectator, Rookie, Natural Talent, or Intellectual), they quickly recognize the behaviors that work for them and build upon them. For example, the Workhorse works hard on the field, in practice, or in the weight room. They learn to take that mindset from the athletic arena and use it to their advantage in the classroom.

What’s a story of how you’ve applied this lesson in your own life? What has this lesson done for you?

When I was in high school, playing for the #1 lacrosse team in the country, I believed my athletic ability and status would allow me to attend most schools who recruited me. In a conversation with the Dean of Admissions of one of those schools, he told me to “not waste the money on an application” because my grades weren’t good enough to get in.

So, in my senior year, I decided that I was going to prove him wrong. My grade rose from a 2.8 GPA to a 3.8. I didn’t get smarter that summer; I had a vision and a drive for the first time. But, the most important aspect to earning better grades was that it changed how I saw myself. I now KNEW that I could get good grades. That changed my perception of what I was capable of by removing any self-limitations and striving to new levels I had never previously considered.