Chris Miller from the University of Southern Colorado NCAA Division Two, Soccer
In my junior year we faced a team where the game was decided in the final minutes on a penalty kick. I played goal keeper and the shooter was able to get the ball past me for the win. After the game, I went and watch game film over and over to find out what my opponent had done to be successful in that situation. Later in the season we faced that same team again. The game came down to a shoot out situation and the kicker that scored in the first game was the last shooter in the second game.
This time I was prepared because I had studied his tendencies so I was able to block his penalty shot for the win, a win that sent us to the playoffs and sent their team home. You can learn form losing if you dedicate yourself and try to learn something that will help you improve your game.
Nobody likes to fail, nobody likes to lose. The biggest problem with most people when they lose is they do not take the time or make the effort to learn from it. Losing is learning if it helped to make you a better player. You can learn from losing and make yourself better in one of two ways: One, take time after your competition or game to replay in your mind and replay if you can on film the game that you just played.
Dissect where you made mistakes and what your weaknesses are and what you need to do to improve them the next time. Then you will learn from your mistakes. We are not talking just about physical mistakes, we are also talking about mental mistakes because most games are won or lost by the heart or the mental toughness of the competitor. The second thing to remember when you lose is to find a way to build that mental toughness as a player and as a competitor that will help to drive you forward and make you tougher the next time you compete against that same individual or that same team.
How do you accomplish this? It is very simple. Go out and work on one thing. It does not matter what it is. You can be doing pushups. You can do sit ups. You can go run a couple of miles. You can go work and do a complete work out. Go work on your skills. Work on your mistakes that you made even for 15 minutes but do something do one thing when you lose a competition even if it is one on one a scrimmage game or a championship game.
Build your mental toughness and determination by going out doing one thing to make you better and to push you toward your ultimate goal which is to be a champion.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services