Written by Yesterday, Bryce Strecker wrote that “Resilient athletes aren’t born, they’re built”. It was an extremely informative article that dove deep into how athletes respond to adversity and that it is essential that coaches help athletes refocus. If you have not read Bryce’s article yet, you must take a few minutes to not only read about resiliency, overcoming adversity, and supporting the athlete, but also that each athletes’ response and resilience are different and coaches and teams must adjust how they guide athletes during this difficult time.
I am a believer that resilience is built over time but not all athletes have the same resilience experience and ability to bounce back. Almost all coaches are not trained to provide psychological support to athletes but it is an every day part of the job…and supporting athletes to overcome adversity during practice, competition, or both is one of the many things a coach has to do. And one of these tasks of a coach is not to solve the problems for the athlete, but to help equip them for future success if they do not have a good foundation for overcoming adversity.
Bryce’s five step approach to athletes resetting after adversity include: Recognizing the mistake, feel the feelings, accept the feelings, reset, and focus forward. He uses this approach with athletes, and even coaches, to help keep their emotion out of the next decision they make immediately after something goes wrong or a mistake is made. This ensures that coaches and athletes are giving themselves the “clearest picture possible and allowing our minds to function properly“.
I leave you with this question: What can coaches and teams do to help their athletes work through adversity during practices, drills, and scrimmages? At the end of his article, Bryce provides great ideas to create adversity during those training opportunities for athletes and teams. If you have not read Bryce’s article yet, it is a great opportunity to learn something new to get your athletes performing at their highest levels.