Youth Training Series

Welcome to the first installment of our Long-Term Athletic Development (LTAD) program blog series! Each week, we’ll delve into different topics designed to help our young athletes grow not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally. Our goal is to cultivate well-rounded individuals who excel both on and off the field. This week, we’re focusing on a concept that’s vital to every athlete’s journey: embracing failure.

The Role of Failure in Growth

Failure is often seen as something negative, something to be avoided at all costs. However, failure is an essential part of the process of getting better. It’s through our failures that we learn the most valuable lessons and make the most significant strides toward our goals.

When we push ourselves, we inevitably encounter setbacks. These moments can be frustrating and disheartening, but they are also opportunities for growth. By facing and overcoming failures, we build resilience, improve our skills, and gain a deeper understanding of our strengths and weaknesses.

Unconscious Avoidance of Failure

Sometimes, without even realizing it, we avoid situations where we might fail. This unconscious avoidance can freeze us in our tracks, preventing us from pushing our hardest and achieving our full potential. It’s crucial to become aware of these tendencies and actively challenge ourselves to step out of our comfort zones.

Avoiding failure might feel safe in the short term, but it limits our growth and hinders our progress. By recognizing when we’re holding back due to fear of failure, we can take steps to confront these fears and embrace the challenges that come our way.

The Speed of Recovery: A Trainable Skill

How quickly we recover from failure and try again is a trainable skill. This week, we will be working with our athletes to develop this crucial ability. Not only will we place them in environments where they might fail, but we will also guide them through the process of quickly reflecting on their experience and trying again.

Rapid recovery from failure involves:

1. Immediate Reflection: Quickly understanding what went wrong. Best to share with someone – this builds self-awareness 
2. Actionable Adjustments: Making small, changes to improve. We do not want to try the same thing over and over but also don’t always need to start from scratch
3. Resuming Effort: Getting back into the task (the hardest part).

By practicing these steps, our athletes will learn to bounce back faster, maintain their momentum, and build the resilience needed to handle challenges more effectively.

Learning from Failure

In youth sports and even in school, there is often a significant emphasis on success and achievement. While striving for excellence is important, this focus can condition young athletes to fear failure and avoid taking risks. This avoidance can stunt their growth and limit their potential.

Consider these quotes from our athletes:

• “I remember when the mental side of soccer got to me. The fear of failing froze me up on the field. I just wanted to stop playing.”
• “There was a game where we were so much better than the other team, and we lost. We didn’t know how to handle it. It’s really hard to bounce back when you were expected to win and lost.”
• “One of my teams hasn’t won a game in 3 years. It’s tough. We don’t know how to win.”

These experiences highlight how the fear of failure and high expectations can paralyze young athletes, causing them to avoid risks and miss out on opportunities for growth. This can be especially prevalent in school, where the pressure to achieve high grades and meet expectations can lead students to avoid challenging subjects or activities where they might not excel immediately.

The Journey Ahead

As we kick off this blog series, remember that the road to excellence is paved with challenges and failures. By embracing these moments and learning from them, our young athletes will develop the resilience, discipline, and mental toughness needed to achieve their full potential.

We look forward to sharing more insights with you in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for next week’s topic. Until then, let’s embrace the journey, learn from our failures, and celebrate the small victories along the way.

Steve Cimino