Handling wins and losses
I am a very competitive person by nature. I do not know how I will handle these things as a coach yet because I haven’t handled it. I don't think losing while coaching 8 year olds will feel the same while coaching high school athletes. I do know however, that I don’t like to lose. I like to win, but who doesn’t! I hate it when kids act like a loss is just a loss and not a big deal. To me it is a big deal, and if it is not a big deal to my players, I take it as if they don't care about the sport or their team. You play a competive sport to compete, if you are out to just play and have fun, there are rec leagues. Never except failure.
I think after a loss I won’t be negative, because I disagree with that, the team will already be down about the loss. But I will bring some of the things we needed to improve and do better, I will also end with some positives from the game. I will teach my players that they need to learn from losses, and not to be too hard on themselves afterward. The team must take a loss as a learning situation, true with all aspects of life. Learn to turn a failure into a success.
I also don’t want my team to get used to winning so that they don’t understand failure. This does not mean I don't want to see my team win. If I could every season we would have a perfect record, no one likes to lose. But with some teams that get on a winning streak, you will see them start to get cocky and stop working hard because they expect to win. You should expect to win ever game, if you don't expect to win, you will never win, but I think the team needs to realize to win they must work hard EVERY second of the game. You must expect to win, but also fight to win. Failure never comes from hard work.
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Comments
I respect your outward honesty about how competitive you are and how much winning in competition means to you. I find that as a coach you can either use this to your advantage or it will be used against you. There is nothing wrong with informing a team about how important winning is and how winning comes as a result of the hard work and effort they give. However, the difference between using your competitive nature to your advantage and disadvantage is a result of one of the most challenging things: knowing how and when to make coaching decisions based on reason, not emotion. Part of being a coach is being able to handle situations that are not favorable, so try not to let your competitive nature get the best of your emotion and lead you toward doing something spontaneous just for a chance at winning. You could end up injuring one of your players. Just remember that a good coach doesn’t place the outcome of a competition in front of the physical and emotional welfare of his/her players. Also remember that the mission of a coach is to teach young people and help them grow as individuals, so that they can become better people, on and off the field. Just preaching winning will lead to poor sportsmanship. I believe in developing athletes that learn to win with pride and lose with dignity.
It is hard for me to lose too. But when working with little kids i think you got to let go a lot more then if you are working with high school. With the obesity in the US you can just think of it as they are not on the couch or in front of a TV. You got them out running around and learning some coordination.
I'm also cant stand to lose, but if you let it eat at you, you can never get better at what you are doing. I also think who ever said "Its not if you win or lose but on how you play the game" they must of been a loser and needed a excuse.