This morning I dropped a container of blueberries and they fell all over the kitchen floor. At this point I could have one of two things…gotten pissed off at the fact that I had to take the time to clean up the mess or laughed at my clumsiness and picked up the blueberries. I initially started to get frustrated and then realized that it wasn’t wasting the time or energy getting upset at such a miniscule thing.
I think this was a simple lesson that so many of us as coaches and athletes make day in an day out. We get upset and mad at a little thing that we couldn’t do or upset at an athlete for a mistake that they made. I’m all about doing little thing right and holding yourself and athletes accountable for doing little things, but I think we have to put things in context as every situation depends. If an athlete is making a mistake for a lack of effort, I will probably get upset and tell the athlete what they need to do and how their lack of effort isn’t going to help them succeed. But if they make a mistake but they are working hard, you have to realize that it’s not worth getting really upset over. Tell them what they did wrong, correct it and praise their effort. Too many coaches lose sight of the big picture and get upset over every mistake. If you scream and yell at every single issue that comes up then athletes will soon tune it out and when you really need to make a point about something it will go in one ear and out the other. If you don’t correct these things they will come back to haunt you, but realize that every mistake isn’t intentional and isn’t the end of the world. It will be better for your health, sanity and your athletes will respect you as well.
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