Adversity
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” - Michael Jordan
What defines a team, teammates, and individual athletes is how they respond to adversity.
Adversity is the negative reality of each possible positive outcome.
The mistake that costs your team a goal versus the play that gets your team a goal, the missed groundball versus the first time groundball that swings momentum, the dropped pass that hits the tip of the stick versus the dramatic outreached catch in the clearing game, questionable calls from referees that put you a man down versus the questionable call that puts you a man up, inclement weather versus bright sunny days, hostile away fans versus supporting home fans, and the pressure of overcoming a deficit on the scoreboard versus winning a game by a large margin.
How do teams, teammates, and individuals overcome adversity?
Acceptance - acceptance of adversity is the first step in overcoming the consequence of misfortune.
Belief - unwavering confidence that your team will overcome adversity.
History - consider the adversities that the team and its members have overcome in the past.
Time - adversity is terminal. It has a start and an end. Once a team and its members accept adversity, believe in defeating it, and consider how they’ve overcome it in the past, then the lifespan of that adversity is shortened.
Every team, teammate, and individual in sports will face some kind of adversity in their career as an athlete. Tough losses, critical mistakes, missed opportunities, biased coaches, parental expectations, and judgemental teammates are all opportunities to overcome adversity.
Adversity is good, mistakes are good, uncomfortable is good.
Young athletes, put yourself in high pressure situations and have a fantastic imagination in training. Imagine before practice that you are playing on the highest stage against the highest level of competition and test yourself each day.
If you can do that, adversity will fear you.
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Defy Athletics