Chapter Two

Personal Development

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed [2 Corinthians 4:8-10]

Introducing Personal Player Development

Each year, millions of people worldwide attend personal development conferences and workshops. Two types of people attend these events. The first are individuals looking to better themselves, and the second are people seeking to become a life coach. While the need to become a better person is important, you have to wonder what happened to these people in college. Why didn't they receive the necessary education and guidance to become successful during four years of college? The answer is as simple as it is disappointing; most colleges do not focus on personal development for students. This is why so many college graduates end up leaving their selected careers and venturing into the life coach arena.

Personal Development courses first began appearing in the early 1970’s in California. Their popularity quickly gained them a reputation for weekend quick fixes that were quirky and off the wall.[1] By the 1980’s, organizations running personal development courses had sprung up around the world. The first decade of the new millennia was witness to the industry morphing into various areas of specialization, such as courses in assertiveness, business success, and trauma counseling. Seen from an outsider’s perspective, this was the period during which the industry turned professional.

Personal development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate employability, enhance quality of life, and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations. Personal development is a field of practice and research. As a field of research, personal development topics increasingly appear in scientific journals, higher education reviews, management journals, and business books.[2]

While respecting the history, definition, and field of research, we still must ask: How does personal development connect to the athlete in theory and practice? More importantly, we must ask how researchers study subjects and implement findings to assist athletes in the area of personal development since this population was never the specific intended audience. Unfortunately in sports, personal development programs have become a “check-the-box and move-on” concept.

A Brief History of Personal Development for Athletes

The history of Personal Development for athletes has its origins in two sectors, the college sector, and the professional sector. Both areas recognized the need to develop programs that focused on the personal development of athletes in order to help these players become better people. Although the sectors identified the need for personal development, an actual understanding of the key elements required to develop a holistic approach for programs has only recently become a major priority.

Community and Junior Colleges

The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is the only national governing body of intercollegiate athletics for two-year colleges. The NJCAA has a current membership of 520 institutions, which is second only to its counterpart at the four-year level, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The NJCAA had a program called Leaders for Life, which they tried to encourage member colleges to utilize. This program consisted of a course developed by a former officer within the NJCAA and focused on decision making, developing leadership skills, and planning for the future. Unfortunately, this program did not resonate with member colleges. Mary Ellen Leicht, Executive Director of the NJCAA, reported that, “When we surveyed our colleges as to why, we were told many colleges already had similar college-wide, non-sport specific programs in place.”[3] As a result, the NJCAA discontinued the use of that program, but they continue to encourage colleges to provide life skills training to student athletes.

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

According to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) President Jim Carr, the focus on personal development for the NAIA started about a decade ago. Carr states the rationale behind personal development was, "we really wanted to put some more structures in place and formalize what the coaches and administrators have been doing on their own for about 75 years in NAIA schools, and that is build people of character through athletics and higher education.”[4]

Currently, the NAIA offers a program called Champions For Character. This is a character program offering training for coaches, combined with a recently implemented online program for student athletes. The focus of the program is centered around "trying to make sure that our student athletes and coaches are behaving on the court, on the field in a way that is consistent with champions of character."[5] Further, there is a focus on conduct and competition, a scorecard that measures how schools are doing in a number of different areas, as well as outreach into the community.

National Collegiate Athletic Association

The mission of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the campus educational program, and the student athlete as an integral part of the student body. With this in mind, the CHAMPS/Life Skills program was created to support the student athlete development initiatives of NCAA member institutions, and to enhance the quality of the student athlete experience within the context of higher education.

According to the NCAA, in 1991, the NCAA Foundation initiated efforts to create a total development program for student athletes. Through the collaborative efforts of the NCAA Foundation and the Division 1A Athletics Directors’ Association, the CHAMPS/Life Skills program (Challenging Athletes’ Minds for Personal Success) was created.

In 1994, after several years of development by the NCAA Foundation, the CHAMPS/Life Skills program was introduced to the NCAA membership. That summer, 46 NCAA institutions participated in the first orientation for administrators from around the country. Since then, approximately 40 member institutions and conferences have joined the CHAMPS/Life Skills program each year.

Participants in the CHAMPS/Life Skills program were provided with instructional materials and supplemental resources that supported a student athlete’s development in five areas: academics, athletics, personal development, career development, and community service. The specific problem and challenge in the five areas is centered on the topic of personal development.

Academics, career development, athletics, and community service are the topic areas institutions focus on. However, the area of personal development has been overlooked and many think that the four outlined areas consist of a personal development program. Personal development is its own topic encompassing these four areas. What the NCAA and member institutions have done, and continue to do, is provide an illusion that the four areas are the backbone of personal development.

As a component of development, NCAA institutions are invited to nominate student athletes to attend the annual NCAA National Student Athlete Development Conference held each spring. The mission of the conference is to assemble a diverse group of student athletes who will actively participate in and experience a multitude of challenging and thought-provoking activities. This will enable them to become change agents on their campuses and in their communities. The problem with this annual event is that most of the invited student athletes are handpicked by the athletic department and are usually student athletes coming from the top tier of the academic and socioeconomic background ladder. The athletes who truly need personal development are rarely invited to this event.

Today, the NCAA education services staff oversees the development of the program, offering services, support, and programs to participating institutions throughout the year. The CHAMPS/Life Skills program is supported through the promotional and financial efforts of the NCAA. However, implementing this program was too difficult for the NCAA to manage, and the organization turned the responsibility over to individual institutions. Therefore the question must be asked: Who is monitoring the personal development programs for student athletes at NCAA member institutions? Further: How is curriculum and true training for...