Do you draw lessons after every competition?
Last Updated: January 15, 2009 4:23 PM
Cal Botterill Optimizing Life in Hockey
If you were an astronaut, you would 'debrief' after every flight or exercise. When lives are at stake, it is critical to 'draw lessons' from every experience. The exercise is not just to identify mistakes, but to see and recognize solutions.
We should do the same in sport. There is no point in feeling bad indefinitely about our mistakes. The key is to 'see the solution' like great performers do, then look forward to the next opportunity.
Hopefully your coach helps you with an accurate assessment of how you did after a competition. Effort, ability, task difficulty, and luck can all play roles in most sport outcomes. Understanding what factors contributed to those outcomes can help you draw insightful lessons.
If your coach doesn't clarify how you performed, seek out a trusted teammate, and decide what you have learned, and what you need to do next time. Once you have seen the solutions, it's time to 'let go' and get some recovery.
