Coach to Coach: To Overcome Early Season Adversity, Become a Champ

Early season adversity is common in football. Whether the adversity is a devastating loss, poor team chemistry, or another issue, a pre-planned process for improvement is necessary. Here are some suggestions for overcoming adversity and becoming a CHAMP.

Can Do

Adversity is often hard to overcome because individuals and teams stay focused on the problem for too long. A loss or setback always stings, and it should, but moving on and not looking back is essential for improvement. I like when teams have rules for limiting how long a loss (or a win for that matter) can be mourned (or celebrated). Move quickly to what you can do to improve for the upcoming game. Flood yourself and your team with can-do beliefs, words, images, and actions. Forget what not to do. You cannot get focused on what you don’t want, so leave it behind. Get your mind quickly on what you can do to improve and take action.

Help

When adversity strikes, we have a tendency to blame others. Instead of looking to blame, look for ways you can help your teammates (I’m including fellow coaches as teammates). Perhaps the best way to help is to give encouragement. Encouragement is leadership, and it leads to confidence, especially when focused on the first step in becoming a CHAMP; that is, can do beliefs and actions.

Helping each other also fosters both aspects of team chemistry: task cohesion and social cohesion. Task cohesion is alignment toward common goals, and speaking can do encouragement and can only help align individuals toward shared team goals. Furthermore, because everyone loves encouragement, hearing encouragement helps create strong, positive bonds between individuals, which is the essence of social cohesion.

Attitude

Most coaches and athletes seem to think that attitudes can be chosen like the morning’s workout routine, but that isn’t the case. Attitudes are less like workouts and more like fitness. That is, they have to be built daily and many repetitions are essential. Further, attitudes aren’t simply temporary ideas in the head. Attitudes are lasting ideas with strong emotional attachments.

Attitudes must be nurtured on a daily basis, and consistency is a key. For example, if you are trying to build an attitude for loving to compete, never bemoan falling behind in a game or experiencing adversity. The coach/athlete who truly loves to compete relishes falling behind occasionally so that he has the opportunity to test his mettle and improve his game. How one responds to adversity is a true test of attitude and separates those with real attitudes from the posers.

In order to respond to adversity with the proper attitude, the attitude must be built BEFORE the adversity is experienced. If you try to build the attitude following adversity, the construction may take a longer time than you have with that particular team.

A great way to condition a strong, resilient attitude that embraces challenge and adversity is to constantly create challenges in practice. Make sure both players and coaches accept adversity and competition as the norm and love the fact that it affords them an opportunity to grow. Again, this attitude must be built both in the head and the torso. It must be believed in the head and felt in the heart. Athletes and coaches working hard toward challenges should be given feedback on their efforts and progress. When they feel recognized, it will help create the emotional connection part of the attitude.

Mindset

A growth mindset, or what we at Champion Mindset Group like to call a Champion Mindset, understands that every single day is an opportunity to get better, and in that day, you will either get better or worse with no exceptions. To help establish this mindset, I like to use phrases such as, “It’s always game day,” or “The scoreboard is always on.” These ideas help players and coaches understand that what they do today will matter to future games. Even on rest days, players can get better with proper rest, nutrition, hydration, and mental game preparation.

When the mindset is focused on today and the present moment, not the past or the future, growth will be at its greatest. Players and coaches who are focused on what they can do in the present moment are at their best mentally and emotionally, unburdened by regret of the past or anxiety over the future.

Purpose

When we first begin to work together, I ask all my coaches and athletes the same question, “Why do you play/coach your sport?” The answer tells me volumes about their motivation. I have never had a coach/player tell me that the only reason he coaches/plays is to win the game or collect trophies. In fact, few ever mention winning it all until we begin talking about specific goals. Most coaches/athletes participate in football because they simply enjoy it. They often aren’t even able to articulate why they enjoy it, which tells me that they are intrinsically motivated.

Coaches and players alike participate in football for various reasons. When adversity hits, it may benefit you to remember your reasons for being involved in football. So state them now. Why do you play/coach? Focus on those reasons. They are the purpose for your involvement in football, and they will lead you to your personal best. Some of the best reasons I routinely hear are to challenge oneself in order to grow, to bond with others, and simply to enjoy the opportunity to play or coach a deeply loved sport. So if you play or coach because you love football, get back to loving football, not just loving a W in the win/loss column. Love each rep, each piece of feedback, every second of game planning and film work, each moment spent together with others bonded in the same cause. Get your mind off the results and focus on the process that allows you to express your purpose.

While winning is important, it’s not the main reason most coaches and players are involved in football. It may be one of the reasons, but it certainly isn’t the only reason. And this isn’t my philosophy. This is evidence I’m citing from hundreds of interviews over the years. It’s important to strive for winning. The integrity of sport demands it. But winning is only half in your influence at best. Excellence is more capable of being influenced, so when you experience adversity, become a CHAMP and focus on a process that will lead you to excellence.

About the Author: Dr. Jared Wood has been an educator for the past 19 years and a sport psychology coach for the past 14 years. He co-founded Champion Mindset Group (champmindset.com), the premiere sport psychology coaching firm in Southeast Michigan, in 2011. He recently completed and published a sport psychology training manual for players and coaches called “It’s Only Cold On One Sideline”. Visit his website 1sideline.com to find free articles and training plans or to purchase a manual and other training materials. You can contact Dr. Wood at jaredwood@mac.com or 248-535-5358. Follow him on Twitter: @1sideline & @woodjared.