A flaw in our society as I see it is the insistence that success and winning are the only options and that falling short of that goal makes you worthless and weak both mentally and physically. There is the old saying "failure is not an option" that people love to put on pictures and memes, posting them on their facebooks like badges of honor. Well, I hate to tell everyone, but not only is failure an option but many times it is the most likely option. And that isn't a bad thing, in fact it is a very good thing. This entry I will examine what makes failure good and why it should be embraced rather than feared or, even worse, completely ignored.
I could reference the numerous TV, Political, Scientific etc personalities that failed before they every made it big, but that has been done to death. A good quote I've read referencing these people, however, is that, "Instant success isn't the only kind of success" (http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-people-who-failed-at-first-2015-7) and that really strikes to the root of the problem. It seems in our modern society, many people want instant success and want things to work out perfectly otherwise they figure "What is the point?". Especially with the sports that I coach, most athletes will fail much more than they succeed especially at first. I've yet to meet an athlete that will be able to perform a snatch perfectly the first time they see it done, or be able to have a perfect plant and drive swing in pole vault; it just doesn't happen. The athletes that master these skills are the ones who learn from these daily failures and improve themselves in those areas. The ones that aren't successful are those that look for scapegoats or reasons why they aren't having instant success, usually blaming the coach, or other outside factors that really have nothing to do with why they aren't succeeding. Still other athletes will quit after they fail initially, which unfortunately I am noticing to be an other increasing group. Some people won't let themselves accept that they have lost, that they have failed at something and run away from it rather than embracing it and growing. To give an analogy I will step into the realm of 'video games.
I've been playing a game called Overwatch lately. It is a team based game where 6 people choose different characters to defeat another team in a specific goal (capture the flag type stuff, moving a payload, etc). It can be fun and almost like a game of rock-paper-scissor in determining what character counters another character. A few weeks ago the company that makes the game, Blizzard, released a new game mode that is competitive, where players are ranked and compete against a team of an equal ranking. A problem that has arisen, however, is that many players quit if they feel they are going to lose, thus stranding the rest of their team and basically screwing up everyone's fun. This is analogous of some of the issues I run into with athletes as well. Rather than live in the moment of failure and trying to grow past it, some will just turn and run away from it, never actually experiencing failure and growing as a person and athlete. Well, now that I have listed the problem it's time to list some ideas of solutions, and in terms of athletes it will have to start with the coaches.
Most of the time, the first area an athlete will experience failure will be in actual competitions. Stepping into the circle or runway in a track meet, or on the platform for weightlifting. Some athletes naturally shine in these moments. They have no fear of embarrassment or nervousness and in some cases compete much better than they perform in training. However, sometimes more frequently, and athlete will step into competition for the first time and instantly forget everything they are supposed to do. While this is painful to see an athlete go through this, one of the worst things a coach can do is be apologetic, emotional, and coddling. The athlete needs to know that this result can happen, and you sometimes need to experience failure and live in that moment to realize that it isn't the end of the world, it doesn't lessen you as a person and it helps you grow.
Aside from dealing with failure at that specific moment, your practices and training can help as well. One thing I love the Olympic lifts for is for helping with mental toughness and dealing with adversity. At a certain point it doesn't matter how strong or well trained you are, that bar will always feel heavy. Olympic lifting is all about trusting your technique and going through with the same focus regardless if you are at 60% or 100%. Many times athletes early on will "quit" on a lift halfway through simply because the bar feels too heavy. Staying with the athlete in these workouts can help them not only complete the workout but learn how to stay focused under pressure and block out the noise of their inner thoughts telling them they can't complete what they are starting. As a coach you can use these times in training to help with competition in the athlete's individual sport or event. The better they adapt in training situations, the better they will perform in competition.
Feel free to comment with how you as an athlete or coach deal with failure yourself or for your own team. Failure is going to happen, you can either run away from it, or treat it as a necessary part of your own growth and learn from it.
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