An Athlete with a Purpose

This article promotes the Y Athlete, which is a terrific website and resource for any athlete that wishes to use it. The article itself has some valuable points which all athletes should read and understand.  Heed its warning as these "details" mentioned in the article is the difference why some players "Make It" and others "Don't"!

*Mission Statement taken directly from www.YAthlete.com

By Leah Winfield

  The one thing that separates the successful athletes who reach their highest potential level from those who don’t are the ones who lack focus. Focus defined is the concentration of attention or energy on something: i.e. a goal. As an athlete looking to make it in their respective sport professionally, or even just going on to play some divisional level of college sports, having a focused and clear goal oriented mind set is what will propel the athlete towards success.

This is where Steve Webb and the Y Athlete come in to play. Currently, Webb works with the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) as a Divisional Player Representative, residing right here on Long Island, but before this Steve Webb played 8 seasons in the NHL, dividing his time between the New York Islanders and the Pittsburgh Penguins. After his career, he stayed on for a few years to aid the Islanders organization in the development of their prospects as well as the evaluation of talent. But the most remarkable thing about Steve Webb was that, as quoted from the Y Athlete website, “[he] was never supposed to play professional hockey.” Steve Webb was never the best player on his team, nor was he the quickest skater, or the top goal scorer but through all of that, he pushed, persevered ,and made himself better. He had a goal in mind. One goal that he had his mind set on, regardless of the obstacles to come his way, he was going to play professional hockey.

Now, in 2010, Steve Webb has dedicated himself to helping young athletes reach their goals. The mission statement on the Y Athlete website is as follows:


“Every action we take is designed to inspire and empower athletes. Assisting all athletes to be effective in their pursuit of greatness. Building strong leaders by helping athletes learn life skills through athletics.”*

The Y Athlete teaches athletes to have a purpose for anything and everything they do: for this very reason the ‘Y’ in Y Athlete stands for the word ‘why’ itself. Why are you waking up every morning to go on a mile run before school? Why are you taking 100 shots at the free throw line? Why are you doing sprints? What is the purpose of everything you’re training for? The Y Athlete helps to build this principle in your training through many services that they are soon to be offering: 1-on-1 counseling, team consulting, workshops for like minded athletes, and even camps.

On the website, you can even find video footage of fellow Long Islanders who are currently playing NCAA Division 1 level sports, as well as professional and retired professional athletes, all of whom speak of purpose, discipline, decision making, endurance, perseverance and every trait an athlete needs to be successful. A helpful tool that has been developed on the site is the Y Tool, where, for a small fee, you can personally track your progress and evaluate yourself through goal setting: the Y tool is helpful in guiding you towards that goal that you are trying to reach in whatever sport you wish to pursue.
As an athlete myself (who got into the game late nonetheless), upon discovering Y Athlete, I was beyond thrilled. I can personally say that I’m pretty much alone in my pursuit to play club ice hockey (the goal I endeavor to achieve) but upon inquiring to the Y Athlete about their services and having approximately an hour long conversation with Steve Webb himself, I felt incredibly relieved to FINALLY have some sort of guidance.

Webb noted one thing in our phone conversation that has stuck to me, even a week later as I write this, he said that the athlete who doesn’t have their goal in mind, the athlete who does not visually see their goal every single day, are the ones that are easily distracted, are the ones who lack focus and fall short of reaching their dream. It is easy to go home instead of going to the gym to work out because you’re “tired”. It is easy to sleep in and not go on that early morning run because “you don’t feel like it”. It is easy for you to be late for practice or even skip practice because you “had something else better to do”. That is an athlete who isn’t striving for success. That is an athlete who will fizzle out from a lack of focus, and direction.

Sports, no matter what kind, are mental games. The mentally strong athletes are the ones who achieve great things, go on to be professional and thrive in their particular area of sport. Taking that into consideration, Steve Webb realizes this and from his own experiences knows that the successful athlete is the athlete with a purpose, a purpose that provides a drive to do whatever it takes to get to their goal.

Y Athlete is an exceptional outlet for athletes who need guidance (a mentor of sorts), or even the athlete who just needs to be kept focus. For those of you reading this, telling yourself that this is that last bit of help that you need to push you forward in your athletic career then it is strongly suggested that you look into the Y Athlete. For the purpose driven athlete, Y Athlete is the perfect channel to meet like-minded athletes such as themselves.