What I’ve Learned About Perseverance in Sports
- Linda Herron
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Written by Linda Herron
Women Sports USA®
When I think about perseverance in sports, I do not think only about winning championships, completing difficult workouts, or pushing through the final minutes of a close game.
I think about all the moments no one sees.
Perseverance is returning to practice after a disappointing performance. It is staying committed when progress feels slow. It is supporting your teammates while working through your own frustration. Sometimes, it is accepting that the path you planned is changing—and finding the courage to keep moving forward in a new way.
Sports have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I competed in field hockey at the University of Rhode Island, attended Olympic field hockey camps, played fastpitch softball, coached, ran road races and marathons, and later spent years training as an all-natural bodybuilder.
Every chapter challenged me differently. Together, they taught me that perseverance is not a single courageous moment. It is a series of choices we make throughout our lives.
Perseverance in Sports Begins Before Anyone Is Watching
Athletes often receive recognition for what happens during competition, but perseverance usually begins far away from the crowd.
It develops during the early practices, the repetitive drills, the difficult workouts, and the days when motivation is missing. It grows when an athlete chooses to prepare even though there is no guarantee she will start, win, receive recognition, or achieve her goal as quickly as she hoped.
As a young athlete, I learned that talent could help open a door, but it could not carry me through every challenge. I still had to arrive ready to work. I had to listen, learn, accept coaching, and continue improving.
That lesson stayed with me long after the uniform came off.
Whether we are building a career, starting an organization, recovering from a setback, or pursuing a personal dream, much of the work happens before anyone notices. Perseverance teaches us to value that work—even when applause is nowhere to be found.
Hard Work Does Not Always Produce Immediate Results
Sports teach us to connect effort with improvement, but the relationship is not always immediate.
You can practice faithfully and still have a difficult game. You can train for months and fall short of your goal. You can do everything you know how to do and still encounter circumstances beyond your control.
Those experiences can be painful, but they can also be powerful teachers.
I learned that progress is not always measured by the scoreboard. Sometimes, progress means becoming more disciplined. It means responding to criticism with maturity, learning how to recover emotionally, or recognizing an area that still needs work.
The result may not arrive when we expect it, but the effort is not wasted. Every practice, challenge, and lesson adds something to the person we are becoming.
Setbacks Reveal a Different Kind of Strength
Athletes are often celebrated for their physical strength, but some of the greatest strength in sports is emotional.
It takes strength to remain confident after being left out of the lineup. It takes strength to congratulate someone who earned the opportunity you wanted. It takes strength to return after an injury, learn from a mistake, or begin again after a season does not unfold as planned.
Setbacks can make us question ourselves. They can leave us wondering whether we are still capable or whether the dream is worth pursuing.
I have faced those questions in my own life.
After decades of being active, I experienced nerve pain that changed the way I moved and interrupted the life I had always known. For a long time, I was unable to train as I once had. Something as ordinary as walking became part of a much larger journey back.
That experience changed my understanding of perseverance.
There was a time when I might have defined it as pushing harder. Today, I know perseverance can also mean slowing down, listening to your body, accepting help, and rebuilding carefully. It can mean celebrating a walk instead of a run because that walk represents real progress.
Strength is not always found in refusing to stop. Sometimes, it is found in having the wisdom to change your approach without giving up on yourself.
Rest Is Not the Opposite of Perseverance
Athletes are frequently told to be tough, work harder, and push through discomfort. Determination is valuable, but perseverance should never require us to ignore our health.
Rest, recovery, and medical care are not signs of weakness. They are part of a sustainable athletic life. Coaches can reinforce this message by focusing on long-term well-being, an approach explored in Coaching Healthy Athletes for Life.
There is an important difference between the discomfort of healthy effort and pain that signals something is wrong. Learning to recognize that difference is one of the most important lessons an athlete can carry forward.
Real perseverance is not about proving how much pain we can tolerate. It is about remaining committed to our well-being as well as our goals.
Sometimes, the bravest decision an athlete can make is to speak up. She may need to tell a coach that she is hurting, ask for support with her mental health, step away from competition, or give her body the time it needs to heal.
Protecting the athlete must always matter more than protecting the schedule.
Perseverance Looks Different in Every Season of Life
When we are young, perseverance may mean earning a position on the team or practicing a skill until it becomes natural.
Later, it may mean balancing sports with school, work, or family responsibilities. It may mean adjusting to a changing body, finding a new form of movement, or returning to an activity after years away.
The goal may change, but the athlete within us remains. That lifelong connection to movement is explored further in The Lifelong Athlete: Why Movement Matters at Every Age.
Today, I do not measure progress in the same way I did when I was competing in college field hockey, running marathons, or training for bodybuilding competitions.
My victories now may look quieter, but they are no less meaningful.
Every step forward reminds me that movement is still part of who I am.
We do ourselves a disservice when we compare our present abilities only with what we could do in the past.
Perseverance asks a different question: What can I do today that will help me move forward?
The answer may be one practice, one conversation, one careful step, or one decision to try again.
That is enough.
Teammates Help Us Keep Going
Although perseverance is personal, it does not have to be lonely.
Some of the most meaningful lessons I learned through sports came from being part of a team. Teammates encourage us when our confidence slips. Coaches help us recognize potential we cannot yet see. Families, friends, athletic trainers, and supporters remind us that one difficult moment does not define our entire journey.
There is courage in accepting that support.
We often celebrate the athlete who appears completely self-reliant, but no athlete reaches her fullest potential alone. Behind every determined competitor is usually a community of people who offered guidance, opportunity, encouragement, or simply a reason to keep believing.
That is why creating positive sports environments matters so deeply. A supportive environment begins with the everyday choices described in Creating a Positive Team Culture. A few encouraging words at the right moment can stay with an athlete for years. They can help her remain in the game, recover from disappointment, or believe that she belongs.
Perseverance Is Not Perfection
Perseverance does not mean never becoming discouraged. It does not mean handling every setback gracefully or feeling confident every day.
It means allowing yourself to be human—and continuing anyway.
There will be days when an athlete questions her abilities. There will be mistakes, missed opportunities, changing goals, and unexpected detours. None of those experiences erase what she has already accomplished.
Perfection demands that we never struggle. Perseverance reminds us that struggle is part of growth.
The strongest athletes I have known were not those who never encountered difficulty. They were the ones who learned from it, adjusted, accepted support, and found a reason to take the next step.
The Lessons Stay With Us
Sports gave me far more than physical skills. They taught me how to prepare, lead, recover, adapt, and keep believing when the outcome was uncertain. I share more about these lasting lessons in What Sports Gave Me That Never Went Away.
Those lessons followed me into my career, my personal challenges, and the work of building Women Sports USA®. Creating something meaningful requires the same qualities athletics demanded: commitment, patience, teamwork, resilience, and the willingness to keep going before success is guaranteed.
I have also learned that perseverance is not always about holding tightly to the original plan. Sometimes, it means releasing the plan while holding onto the purpose.
The route may change. The pace may slow. The goal may take a different form.
But the journey can still be meaningful.
Keep Taking the Next Step
If I could share one message with every athlete, former athlete, coach, and woman trying to begin again, it would be this:
Do not underestimate the next small step.
You do not have to see the entire path. You do not have to return immediately to the person you once were. You do not have to prove your strength to anyone.
Begin where you are. Honor what your body and mind need. Let others support you. Celebrate progress that may be invisible to everyone else.
Perseverance is not measured only by how far or how fast we travel. It is found in our willingness to keep moving toward something that matters.
Sports taught me that we may leave the field, the court, the track, or the competition—but the lessons never leave us. That enduring identity is at the heart of The Athlete Never Leaves You, another reflection from From Linda’s Desk™.
The athlete within us continues to dream, believe, adapt, and achieve.
And sometimes, perseverance is simply listening to that athlete and choosing, once again, to take the next step.
From Linda’s Desk™
I believe every woman carries stories of strength that deserve to be remembered. Our journeys may include victories, setbacks, reinvention, and new beginnings—but every part of the story matters.
At Women Sports USA®, we celebrate the athletes, coaches, trailblazers, and everyday women whose perseverance continues to move women’s sports forward.
The athlete never leaves you.
Dream. Believe. Achieve.
Linda Herron is the Founder of Women Sports USA®, a former Division I field hockey athlete, coach, author, and longtime advocate for preserving women’s sports history. Through storytelling, she celebrates the athletes, coaches, officials, and trailblazers who helped change the game.
This article is very beneficial to anyone who wants to play coach or get involved with helping athletes develop as individuals who can be productive outside of playing and coach Her points were very valuable to me and I too had to limit my playing days due to mobility issues and I don't move around like I used to on the fields of play and it made me feel like my coaching days are behind you but after meeting Linda my outlook on quitting is to never do it so I'm hoping I can utilize my knowledge and understanding to help the next generation of women coaches