What’s the secret to your child’s youth football success? What would you say if I told you the answer in one word? The word is FAITHFULNESS.

You may not be impressed by that word, which proves my theory that these days, Faithfulness is underrated.

This is especially true in the world of youth football, where flashy performances stand out, skilled athletes get praised, and it’s often more about who you know than what you actually can do.

But faithfulness is really the secret sauce to success in anything, not just youth football. Being faithful has nothing to do with being powerful, attractive, talented or charismatic. A lot of coaches don’t emphasize faithfulness. In fact, it’s hugely overlooked.

Yet I believe these five steps of faithfulness will help your child achieve success in youth football, and later in life:

1. Show up.

2. On time.

3. Every day.

4. With a great attitude.

5. And do the right things consistently.

If your child – and you, for that matter – can show up. On time. Every day. With a great attitude. And do the right things consistently, sooner or later, it will pay off. In the end, faithfulness always pays dividends.

But here’s the catch: Being faithful is not easy.

A faithful person understands the importance of endurance.

A faithful person knows to run their own race, and not compare it to another’s race.

Faithful people understand they must be faithful in the little things before they have a chance at the big things.

I think we often overcomplicate success. We come up with all kinds of coaching strategies and mental tricks to help young athletes succeed. Some of those work and are very necessary, but I have a feeling that a whole bunch of them are just words and that if we were to focus on the basics of faithfulness, our kids would benefit a whole bunch more.

So how about it? Will you encourage faithfulness in your child? Are you modeling faithfulness in your life?

Faithfulness is not sexy. But it will reap rewards if you stay faithful.

Janis B. Meredith is a life coach for sports parents. She provides resources to help parents give their children a positive and growing youth sports experience. Learn more about good sports parenting habits in her book 11 Habits for Happy & Positive Sports Parents, available on Amazon.