1. Hustle

Hustle does not just include the physical stamina, energy and explosiveness to get there first. Hustle takes the mental strength to beat your opponent to an objective. Whether it is being first to the ball, training hard or trying to beat the clock, hustling is a very important part of sports. 

2. Attitude

Your attitude comes in many different forms: body language, using your voice, cheering on and off the field, etc. Your attitude when playing has a big part in what defines someone as an athlete. Attitude is how you present your character, but your character is how you present yourself. How you present yourself is ultimately a direct reflection of how you represent your team. Attitude also goes hand in hand with mental toughness. As an athlete, you must develop a growth-mindset. A growth-mindset is believing in yourself. If you believe in your own abilities, you will believe in the abilities of your team, which in turn, helps you to have a positive attitude on and off the playing field. 

3. Intelligence

Your intelligence on the playing field is often known as a player’s “Sports IQ.” Indulging yourself with ways to improve your knowledge is a choice. You must choose to watch the sport, you must choose to practice, and you must choose to engulf your brain in more knowledge. Being a smart player means always being a step ahead. Being a smart player means reading the game. Being a smart player means putting your own impact on the game itself. 

4. Focus

Try not, just do. The more you think about what needs to be done, the more likely you are to make a mistake. Playing a sport is about reaction and instinct. Trusting your abilities is having  focus. When you focus on the play, you are trusting that your gut will not stray you towards the wrong decision. When you have a lack of focus, your mind tends to wander which makes you less instinctive towards the world around you.

5. Bounce Back

Everyone has a bad day and mistakes will always happen. It is not the mistake that brings you down, it is your attitude after a mistake that has ability to take your focus and throw off your game. The bounce back is crucial to every player’s game. Bad days are inevitable. Failure is not falling down; failure is refusing to get up. Many people think that with practice, makes perfect, but that could not be further from the truth. Perfection is an impossible task that will remain unreachable for any human being. You must fail in order to succeed, but you must bounce back from your past in order to keep moving towards the future.

6. Fearless

More often than not, an athlete’s fears include: regression, losing and injury. If we lived our lives in a bubble of fear, we would never be willing to step outside of our comfort zone. Playing fearless means putting your body physically, mentally and emotionally on the line in order to be successful. It is important to be a fearless athlete because fear just stand in the way on one’s own instincts while keeping you further from your maximum potential.

7. Never give up

The game is never over until it is over. There will always be people in the world that try to knock you down and there will always be games that never seem to go your way. There are many things in the athletic world that are beyond our control: the weather, the officials and the other team. What an athlete can control is one’s will to keep fighting. No matter what the score is or how much time is left on the clock, you can’t lose if you have tried your absolute hardest. It is impossible to beat someone who never gives up.

8. Coachable

An athlete that is coachable has the desire to learn from their mistakes in order to better themselves. In addition, athletes that are coachable must be able to handle constructive criticism in a positive way. These athletes are willing to do what is best for the team while trying to improve their own weaknesses.

9. Leadership

Whether you are apart of a team or play a solo sport, a leader comes in all different forms. A leader sees weaknesses as areas of improvements, and strengths as the building blocks to continually surpass past accomplishment. Criticism is used as a motivator, and compliments are their boosters.

10. Love the game

Every moment matters. You play because you love the game. Forgetting about the stress, the blood, the sweat, the tears and the pain, think back to the reason you started it all in the first place. For many, sports were their first love; what has their heart and what will remain a part of them forever. Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become is a little kid that fell in love with the game; play for him or her.