It’s Not Whether You Win or Lose! Say What?
Unless your child is at an age where the score of the game isn’t tracked, winning counts and losing hurts. The original quote was “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.” I believed this for a long time, but as I found out in my first year of coaching, losing is not fun at all. I would prefer if the quote went like this “It matters if you win and how you play the game.”
The funniest quote that I read on the subject was “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you place the blame” by Oscar Wilde. I also read a witty comment that the person who originally said “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game” obviously lost a lot.
Getting back to my first year in coaching; my best friend at the time had a vision where kids could play to have fun whether they won or lost. We went 1-7 and, believe me, when you see kids crying in the huddle you know they’re not having fun. That was when I realized that if you want kids to have a lot of fun in sports you have to each them how to win.
You can’t go out on the field and play to win, either. The best way to win is to work hard and smart and then focus on execution. If you focus on winning only your eye is on the outcome, and not the moment. The best teams are focused entirely on the ‘moment in time’ and that moment continually moves forward. If players continually focus on the present, they can’t possibly beat themseleves up for making a bad play. This is the best way to have a ’short memory’.
Work hard and smart, train diligently, focus on the moment and you stand a great chance of winning.
Happy July 4th weekend, everybody.
