Failure is a Part of Sports – Help Your Athlete Benefit From Mistakes

That’s right – I said it…. “Help your athlete benefit from making mistakes”. Failure is very much a part of sports. There are plenty of opportunities for players to make mistakes during competition--and these mistakes can feel devastating.

Kids often beat themselves up after making mistakes, which doesn't help their confidence. In fact, it's the wrong way to handle mistakes. It hurts their confidence and enjoyment of sports.

FAILURE STARTS BEFORE THE PLAY

Here's what often happens: Athletes young and old often have high expectations about their performance. They tell themselves they're going to win the game for the team, make no mistakes, hit the most runs, throw the most touchdowns, etc. When they don't meet these expectations, they are hard on themselves, which hurts both their confidence and performance. Without confidence, it's tough for kids to play harder when they're having a bad day. If they don't feel confident, it's much more difficult to bounce back from a bad play.

EVEN THE PROS FEEL IT

During the 2009 World Series, Chase Utley of the Phillies and Mark Teixeira of the Yankees talked about dealing with failure. Through game five of the Series, Teixeira was hitting 2 for 19. "When you're in a rhythm during the season, you're going to fail seven out of 10 times," said Teixeira. "When you're not in a rhythm, you're going to fail a lot more." Teixeira understood the importance of accepting failure and moving on. That's what young athletes need to do, too. Even on good days, they'll make mistakes; they can't be perfect at the plate or in the field or on the court. Most young athletes don't think this way. They often analyze their mistakes and beat themselves up.

LEARNING TO LOVE RISKS

But they need to learn how to view failure in a different light. They need to learn how to make mistakes okay in their minds. That way, they can stay composed and play in the present. If they can do this, they'll feel more comfortable taking risks--risks that are the key to growing and learning. We like to tell skaters that if they don't fall down, they'll never learn anything. If they fall down, it means they're pushing themselves and growing. The “Doer” makes mistakes and often at a young age the team that makes the most mistakes will probably win. These are kids who make things happen. They make things happen because they take risks. They bounce back and move on after mistakes.

LEARNING FROM FAILURE

Young players should view mistakes as an opportunity to figure out how to improve their performance instead of being frustrated. For example, if kids had trouble hitting fastballs in their last game, they should consider devoting their next practice to practicing them. Sports parents and coaches can take a number of steps to ensure their sports kids feel like it's okay to make mistakes. One idea is to use the "flushing motion." When a child makes a mistake and looks at the coach or parent, the adult should make a flushing motion, which means: "flush away the mistake, move on." The legendary basketball coach Dean Smith of the University of North Carolina had a simple way of dealing with mistakes. He would tell his athletes to “Admit it, Quit it, and Forget it”. If it works for Coach Smith, it should work for all of us.

Parents and coaches should not remove kids from games after mistakes, or punish them. Instead, keep them in the game, support them, and tell them it's okay.

This tells kids they aren't going to get reamed in front of their peers or yanked from the game. They can get aggressive and try something new. The important thing is to get ready for the next play.

Remember – Admit it, Quit It, and Forget It – We can all work on this!!!! – Have a Great Week!!

**Remember to

1. Always plan ahead for what you are going to eat

2. Obtain adequate amounts of protein

3. Work on Flexibility

4. Supplement your diet with a fish oil and multi-vitamin

Let me know if I can help. Email me at architechsports@gmail.com

God Bless,

Alan Tyson, Physical Therapist, Athletic Trainer, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

8 Mindset Keys for Success

#1 Your Biggest Competition is You!

“The only victory that counts is the one over yourself.” - Jesse Owens, American Sprinter and Long Jumper

When Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, he didn’t just defeat athletes from all over the world. He also helped defeat the message of “Aryan racial superiority” that Adolph Hitler hoped the Germany-held games would spread.

In a way, Owens was racing against racism. But in his mind, he was just racing against himself. As Owens set a world record in 100m dash, the only competition that mattered was the internal battle going on in Owens’ body and mind.

Adopting the Gold Medal Mindset: “I Didn’t Set Out to Beat the World; I Just Set Out to Do My Absolute Best.” - Al Oerter, four-time gold medal winner in the discus throw

Instead of thinking about other competitors focus your competitive energy internally. When you create an excellent, one-of-a-kind training effort, the competition is irrelevant.

#2 Do What You Love

“The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.” - Peggy Fleming, gold medalist in figure skating in 1968

If you’ve heard this advice before, that’s because it’s profound and important. When Peggy Flemming was 12 years old, her coach William Kipp died suddenly in a plane crash. If it weren’t for her intense love for figure skating, she surely would have been discouraged from continuing her training with a new coach. Instead, she won Olympic gold eight years later.

Adopting the Gold Medal Mindset: No Olympian has ever medaled in an event they didn’t like. In life, we should all do what we love and love what we do.

#3 Ignore Nay-Sayers

“When anyone tells me I can’t do anything, I’m just not listening anymore.” - Florence Griffith-Joyner, three-time gold medalist in 1988

Florence Griffith-Joyner (a.k.a. “Flo-Jo”) is considered the fastest woman of all time, based on the fact that she holds the record in both the 100m and 200m. But even she had people telling her that she didn’t have what it takes to win gold.

Adopting the Gold Medal Mindset: At every sporting event, there’s someone booing. At every comedy show, there’s a heckler. And for every musician, there’s a music critic. Recognize that nay-sayers are going to be there no matter what, so there’s no reason to take it personally. Instead, have Flo-Jo’s attitude and stop listening when someone tells you that you can’t do something.

#4 Don’t Get Caught Up with Tomorrow

“I’m trying to do the best I can. I’m not concerned with tomorrow, but with what goes on today.” - Mark Spitz, gold medalist in swimming in 1972 and 1968

There’s an old sports cliché: “We’re just going to take it one day at a time.” However, like most clichés, there’s a good reason it’s so often repeated. The only day you can accomplish anything is today. On training days, you can’t be day-dreaming about winning the main event. When the day has finally come for you to perform, all you can focus on is your performance – not the medal ceremony.

Adopting the Gold Medal Mindset: Remember that for every second an Olympic medalist stands on the podium, they’ve spent hundreds of hours in practice facilities.

#5 Success is Journey

“It’s all about the journey, not the outcome.” Carl Lewis, gold medalist in 1996, 1992, 1988

As a track-and-field athlete, there’s no greater outcome than setting a world record. Lewis set multiple world records and won nine gold medals, so he knows all about achieving the pinnacle of success. Yet he says “it’s all about the journey.”

Adopting the Gold Medal Mindset: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.” Pierre de Coubertin, founder of modern Olympic Games

#6 Cherish the Challenges

“Hard days are the best because that’s where champions are made. So if you push through the hard days you can get through anything.” - Gabby Douglas, two-time gold medal winner in the 2012 London Olympic Games

Gabby Douglas has had her fair share of hard day. In the 2012 London Olympics, she received criticism for her hairstyle and for shaky performances in individual events. But for a 16-year-old, she had a remarkably mature perspective on taking on challenges. Her rigorous training schedule has taught her the old adage that “the strongest steel is forged in the hottest fires.”

Adopting the Gold Medal Mindset: Next time you’re feeling frustrated by a hard day or practice or game performance ask yourself how facing this challenge will help make you a better entrepreneur in the future.

#7 Be Prepared when Your Moment Comes

“I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match.” - Mia Hamm, gold medalist in women’s soccer in 2004 and 1996

As a soccer player, you train for thousands of hours all in preparation of one match: the championship. When that big game comes, the players who perform are those who prepared fully.

Adopting the Gold Medal Mindset: “Olympics — A lifetime of training for just ten seconds.” Jesse Owens Every day think about ways you can be better. Can you improve on your nutrition, sleep, flexibility, film study, etc when your big moment comes, make sure you’re ready to capitalize.

#8 Greatness is About Rising to Yourself

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.” - Wilma Rudolph, gold medalist in athletics in 1960 and bronze medalist in 1956

Every human being is capable of accomplishing great things. Gold medalists are people who make the decision to rise to their personal potential for greatness. Follow this advice and work each day to achieve your potential.

**Remember to

1. Always plan ahead for what you are going to eat

2. Obtain adequate amounts of protein

3. Work on Flexibility

4. Supplement your diet with a fish oil and multi-vitamin

Let me know if I can help. Email me at architechsports@gmail.com

God Bless,

Alan Tyson Physical Therapist, Athletic Trainer, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

Seven Tips to Maintain Your Focus during the “Big Game”

“You have the ability to control your inner response to calm yourself down under competitive pressure” Dr. Alan Goldberg

The BIGGEST secret to you playing your best when it counts the most is learning how to keep yourself calm and composed. If you allow yourself to get too nervous or too excited right before or during a competition, then your muscles will tighten up, you’ll lose your confidence and your play will go right down the tubes! This is what it means to CHOKE! The athlete gets so nervous that he/she ends up performing tight and tentatively — a mere shadow of his or her normal self!

Runaway, pre-game nervousness can come from a lot of different sources: how good your opponents are; how big and aggressive they are; how important a competition is; how big the crowd is (and who in it is watching you); whether you’ll play well today and win; how “excited” your coach may get; how much playing time you’ll get; the court, field or arena you’re playing in — the list goes on and on.

While there are many things about your competitions that can potentially make you nervous, the true cause of your performance-disrupting nervousness isn’t any of the things that I’ve just mentioned above. The real cause of your out-of-control nerves is you! That’s right! YOU make YOURSELF nervous!

It’s not what’s happening around or outside of you that makes you nervous. It’s what’s happening INSIDE that is the real cause of stress! It’s not the size, skill level or reputation of your opponents that makes you nervous. It’s what you say to yourself about them in the days, hours and minutes leading up to the game, match or race that’s the real culprit in sending your heart rate and blood pressure through the roof! Nervousness is always caused by our inner response to the things that are going on outside of us. But here’s the good news about that: If YOU make yourself nervous, then YOU have the ability to change your inner response to calm yourself down under competitive pressure.

Here are seven tips to help you stay calm during your competition and play to your fullest potential. Remember, playing your best when it counts the most is all about being loose right before and during your competitions.

#1. Keep Your Concentration in the “NOW” When athletes allow their focus of concentration to jump ahead to the future, or drift back to the past, the result is always an increase in their nervousness. If you want to stay cool and calm in the clutch, then you have to train yourself to keep your focus in the NOW — especially during your games, matches or races! This means that leading up to the performance, you don’t want to think about and focus on the upcoming competition and its importance. If you want to play loose and relaxed, you must learn to keep your concentration in the now. When you’re in the action, you want to focus on one present-moment play at a time.

#2. Recognize When Your Focus Time Travels and Bring it Back It’s very easy to understand that you need to focus in the now, but much harder to consistently do it! The way that you stay in the now is by immediately becoming aware whenever your focus drifts back to the past or ahead to the future, then quickly return your concentration to the now. Losing your focus won’t make you nervous. What will make you nervous is losing your focus and not bringing it back right away! It’s the break in concentration that you don’t immediately catch that will drive your stress level through the roof and sabotage your play.

#3. Keep Your Focus on You and Your Job Allowing your focus to drift to anyone or anything other than you, (i.e. your opponents, who’s watching, who might be disappointed in you, how well your teammates may be playing, what the coach is thinking, etc.) will quickly make you feel nervous. Staying focused on you and your job will keep you calm and confident. This also means that whenever you perform, you want to make sure that you DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF WITH OTHERS! Comparison will always make you too nervous to play at your best.

#4. Have Fun Performing your best under pressure means that you have to be having fun. Fun is the secret ingredient to staying calm and doing your best when the heat of competition is turned up high. If you make a game, match or race too important, if you put too much pressure on yourself, if you get too serious, then you’ll start getting nervous and your game will do a major disappearing act. When fun goes, so too will all of your game skills. If you really want to perform well, then you have to get into the game, enjoy the tournament, embrace the challenge from a tough opponent, have fun with your friends before, during and after the game!

#5. Leave Your Goals at Home One of the biggest tension-inducing mental mistakes that you can make as an athlete is to take your goals with you into the competition. For example, you think, “I want to go 3 for 4,” “pitch a shut-out,” “win this tournament,” “score a goal,” “break two minutes,” or “prove to the coaches that I’m good.” Focusing on such outcome goals will make you too nervous to play well and, ironically, cause you never to reach them. Instead, leave your goals at home and keep your focus in the action, on “this” play, shot, pitch or move, one moment at a time!

#6. Keep Your Mind Distracted Before and After Games Thinking gets most athletes into trouble and makes them nervous. While you can’t really stop yourself from thinking, you can purposely distract yourself from it. So, in the days and minutes leading up to a big performance or tournament, keep busy. Do not allow yourself a lot of free time to think. Focus on your homework, read a book, watch a movie, listen to music, get involved in non-sports related conversations with friends and do things to keep yourself busy and distracted. “Changing the channel” in this way will help you stay calm and composed in the days and hours leading up to your BIG performances.

#7. Keep Your Focus on Concentration Away From the “Uncontrollables” There are a lot of things that happen in your sport that you do not have direct control over. Any time an athlete focuses on an “uncontrollable” they will get really nervous, lose their confidence and play badly. So make a list of all of the things about this upcoming competition that you can’t directly control. For example, the officiating; the crowd; coaching decisions, (i.e. playing time); the future, such as the outcome of the game, how well you'll play, winning or losing; how you are feeling that day; other people's expectations; etc., and post the list in a highly visible place in your room. Keep in mind that these “uncontrollable” are mental traps. They are lying in wait for you and every other athlete in that competition. The only way to avoid a trap is to know that it is there! If you find yourself thinking about or focusing on one of these “uncontrollables”, quickly return your concentration to something in the now that you can control. Practice these seven tips each day and you will find yourself calmer and more focused during games. Mastering these tips will allow you to play to your fullest potential.

**Remember to

1. Always plan ahead for what you are going to eat

2. Obtain adequate amounts of protein

3. Work on Flexibility

4. Supplement your diet with a fish oil and multi-vitamin

Let me know if I can help. Email me at architechsports@gmail.com

God Bless,

Alan Tyson Physical Therapist, Athletic Trainer, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist