Reaction to Failure – an Important Emotional Skill of Every Athlete

All those who were in difficult moments lagging behind the opponent with a big difference know that mental strength is crucial for the winner of a match, race, or competition.

Awkward falls, uncertain results, last-second victories or defeats, wins or losses with buzzer-beater, or by “less than a millimeter”… You can’t become a winner, furthermore, a champion if you don’t experience this and grab the victory at least once in this way, with the accompanying drama, expectations, hopes, condemnations, and fears.

Mental Readiness Shouldn’t Be Left to Chance

Top sport brings a lot but, on the other hand, it requires a lot. Everyday investment in training, gyms, equipment, and travel requires a stable mental structure that can meet all these requirements of professional sports. Intuitive coaches know how to penetrate the spirit of their players, but they can’t keep the mental level of the game under control all the time because most of it depends on athletes themselves. And most of it requires training.

“When placed in front of spectators and a worldwide audience then the anxieties of the player come into play as well,” says Richard Collinge, Head of Medical Services at West Ham United.

“That can affect the tissue tone. It’s all interwoven. The player needs to feel comfortable that he can play a game,” adds the guy in charge of coordinating medical services of a team competing in one of the strongest football leagues in the world, Premier League.

Mental readiness is something that many coaches will leave to chance, and so, most often after the defeat, we hear justifications such as: “It’s all up to the psychology of the team,” “We didn’t get into the game well,” “We had a huge competitive pressure,” “We lacked confidence,” “This is a strong competition,” etc. From the point of view of sports psychology, these are actually not justifications but excuses.

When Is the Moment When Athletes Need Mental Training?

Is it possible to achieve great success in modern sports without a psychologist in the team? It certainly is. Can that success be sustained without a psychologist in the team? Hardly!

When is it obvious that an athlete or a team needs mental training and when the decline in their game is the result of poor mental preparation? The most common situations giving the answer to this question are when the level of play in a competition is below the level of play provided in training.

“I was always asking myself a series of questions: How do I feel in training? Have I got the ability to defend the best ball that a bowler could run into a bowl at me when I walk out into the middle? Or have I not? If so, where do I need to focus my attention?” the cricketer Kevin Pietersen, England’s third-highest run-scorer of all time, explains that training is an excellent indicator of athletes’ match fitness, meaning their full readiness to go out on the field.

There are many areas covered by mental training: anxiety, emotional intelligence, concentration, attention, motivation, reaction to failure, relaxation techniques, self-confidence, coordination of training and other obligations (school, family, friends, partner, cultural…), team communication, building team spirit, nervousness, anger management, determination, courage, initiative, etc.

Failures Are a Privilege

Failures are key life teachers. Athletes have the privilege of being able to face several defeats in a very short time. Why do we say privilege? Because through sports competitions, tolerance for existence is built and the necessary immunity to many demands that life places are acquired.

What will be the performance after a mistake is a question of “win or lose” and reactions to failure aren’t related to talent, tactics, and technique. That’s why we often hear that someone has all of the above, but it’s a shame that when he/she makes a mistake he/she can’t come back in the game. From the experience of sports psychologists, the most common causes of the inability of athletes to return to the game after a mistake are self-condemnation, the expectation of sinlessness, and the inability to endure an effort.