I read the book Beyond Grit, by  Dr. Cindra Kampoff.  She actually spoke at our Minnesota camps last summer.  

I was intrigued by the PEARL analogy in the book.  I decided to do a team-building activity with it.  I bought 50 oysters on Amazon.  They each had a different color pearl in them. 

At practice, I read the excerpt below. We then passed out the oysters and had them dig out their pearl.  You will learn from my mistakes.  Have some gloves they can wear.  We had 6 kids cut their hands.  Have something for clean up...they stink.  You need to find something to have your kids glue their pearl to or put it in.  I ordered a ballerina for them so they could put the pearl inside of it and wear it on a chain.  They keep the pearl close as a momento of their grit.  They loved the concept and activity. 

GRIT 

“We define grit as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress. The gritty individual approaches achievement as a marathon; his or her advantage is stamina.

Grit is not just having resilience in the face of failure, but also having deep commitments that you remain loyal to over many years.”   

-Angela Lee Duckworth

MY HIGH-PERFORMANCE GAME PLAN AS A DANCER

No matter how many championships athletes win or how many goals high performers meet, there's typically no gain without a struggle.  Period.  When you think about your life and where you are going, remember the losses, failures, setbacks, and challenges are often.

Think of a PEARL representing your life as a dancer. The price of a single pearl on a necklace or ring can range from low hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars.  Pearls are VALUABLE in part because of how long it takes to make them.  Did you know while a small pearl takes 2-3 years to make a large pearl can take 10 years? 

A pearl starts with a single irritation -a piece of sand or grit inside the oyster.  Because of that irritation, the oyster builds layers and layers of calcium carbonate around the piece of grit.  The result? A valuable pearl.

YOU are the OYSTER.  The PEARL is the powerful life YOU develop.

You can sit back and let life happen to you.  That is your choice.  But to create a pearl, you need to be intentional and purposeful with your vision, determination, and grit.

YOU must keep going when things get difficult.

If you think about it. Everything that is MAGNIFICENT that one has accomplished required or perhaps demanded difficulty and struggle and grit.  You cannot develop pearls without sacrifices, tough calls and pushing past your comfort zone. 

We have finished our routines. 

Now we need to get gritty.  

Everyone take a personal inventory of what YOU can improve on.  FIX things that we have told you.  WATCH the video with a detailed eye.  Look for little things that can make YOU and your team better.  Practice getting nervous. Rehearse like you are performing to learn how to control nerves.

One thing I observed from watching so many different behaviors is that the kids who go from good to great...PUSH hard all the time.  Some give up.  Some are resentful of corrections.  Some listen but don’t fix.

I would love you to try to keep your PEARL as a memento and symbol of your GRIT,  As a reminder that is will be HARD to get where we are going.  But we have more inside us than we know.  

Coach Clough

Credit to Dr. Cindra Kamphoff