So a few years ago I am watching one of my players and a fan asked me this question. Does this player have “it”?
So I ask what do they mean by “it”?
Response: “You know, can they be number one, win pro stops etc. and have the it factor?”
My answer: “I have no idea. Does this player have the talent? Yes is the answer. Does this player have the will? I have no idea is the answer. That is in their heart and mind, and not for me to answer.”
So watching some of the up and coming athletes, some close to me and some from afar, I am struck by the extraordinary talent and lack of fundamentals. I also see a lot of mismanagement of game situations. When I ask a player what happened after a loss I often get the “I played badly” answer. Same athlete wins and I get the “I played good answer.”
Heading to the video when there is some available I often see players winning due more to an opponent’s mistakes than the winner’s proficiency. This can lead to a player hitting a plateau. Loss after loss piles up and the player sees themselves as a round of 16 to quarter-finalist rather than a tournament winner.
Yesterday I talked about listening to critics. Today I want to point out the bigger enemy; namely the folks who tell you how great you are.
How do you fight that? My advice to athletes:
1. Stop listening to critics. I went over that yesterday.
2. Worse than the critics, stop listening to everyone who tells you how great you are. They want to be your friend and want to hang out with a cool player but if you are not winning in the words of Bill Parcels, the former football coach, “You are what your record says you are!”
3. Stop reading social media and watching tik-tok videos of your greatest shots, and start focusing on why you are not winning.
4. If you do not know the answer to “3, find someone who will know the answer and then get to work fixing what is broken.
5. Don’t know what is broken? What side of the court is your opponent attacking you? That is where you start!
6. I taught 8th grade English for 28 years and every year around this time of year I gave the kids my special speech. It went something like this. Whatever your sport, activity, interest area or undertaking, you are not that good! If you were you would not be here. Therefore you have to get better. Now the kids would often retort, “You aren’t that good either!” I would remind them that yes they were correct but I do not walk down the hall with my racquetball shirt and trophy from winning my latest geezer division tournament and thinking I am all that and a bag of chips! I am not that good either and I have to get better too! Yes!
Let’s Go get’em tigers!!