For coaches, teaching players how to be “mentally tough” and subscribe to a positive mindset is one of the toughest skills a coach has to teach. If you are a player, learning how to be mentally tough and staying positive after making mistakes is one of the toughest things to learn.
We have all had that match where we make a mistake and then we make another mistake and then we make yet another mistake and it feels like our own mistakes keep adding up. And it feels like each mistake weighs heavier and heavier. And when you start feeling the weight of your mistakes, you start playing with a negative mindset. And when you have a negative mindset, it affects how well you play.
I recently got to listen to a former U.S. Olympic volleyball player, Courtney Thompson talk about mental toughness and what that looks like at the professional level and how it can be applied to athletes of any level. After listening to her talk, I sat down with my team and asked them a series of questions to see how each of them works on managing their negative thoughts after making a mistake.
Struggling With a Negative Mindset
It is safe to say that most athletes struggle with a negative mindset in some way. I asked my team what types of negative thoughts they had and how it affected them when they were playing in a match.
Everyone is going to be mad at me. I feel like this is a big one. It’s a little bit of Fear of Rejection and a little bit of Letting The Whole Team Down (or letting their parents down). It doesn’t matter if your players like each other or not, many players feel a great deal of pressure to perform at their best all of the time so that they don’t let the team down.
But it’s not always possible to play at your best all of the time. Performing at your best and giving your best is not the same thing. If you could play at your best all of the time, then it wouldn’t be your best, it would be your average. It’s called regression toward the mean.
Also, it’s important to remember that everyone makes mistakes and the mistakes that happen at the end of a match aren’t worth more than the mistakes that happen at the beginning of a match. Wins and losses are attributed to the whole team’s effort.
I tear myself down. Some players put a lot of pressure on themselves. Sometimes it is because they are a perfectionist and other times because they feel like they are letting others down. They hate making mistakes. I was this way when I played baseball. I hated to…