How making mistakes can be one of your best practice habits.
- Jul 19, 2016
- 2 min read
Too often are today's athletes striving to be perfect in practice. They have become consumed with the results of their performance and are afraid to make mistakes. Coaches are often too demanding, teammates too quick to judge each other, and players too critical of themselves.
The fact of the matter is that practice is meant for growth and development. Mistakes in practice should be seen as opportunities for learning and improving, not as failures. Having a 'growth mindset' is the key to being able to make the most out of practice time.
The video below is a great example of how making mistakes can be one of your strongest practice habits.
As demonstrated in the 'Fail Harder' video, perfect practice leaves no room for improvement. Here are a few key points for both coaches, athletes and parents that will help make practice more productive.
Coaches:
Do not punish mistakes in practice; provide instruction and opportunities for improvement.
Create practice situations that will challenge your athletes through healthy competition.
Acknowledge weaker areas of your team's game and design drills to help improve them.
Players:
Confront your weaknesses in practice, create an action plan on how to develop them.
Embrace failure as an opportunity for improvement.
Shortcuts in practice will cause you to fall further behind in games.
Parents:
Encourage learning and improvement as much as possible during practice.
Promote qualities such as effort and attitude as the keys to success.
Focus less on the results of performance and more on work ethic.
By embracing failure in practice we are actually setting ourselves up for success.
Comments