IF YOU AREN’T LEARNING, YOU ARE FALLING BEHIND

Without fail, when I begin work with a new team, I encounter what I call the “non-believer”. Not that I am attempting to convert someone to a new set of beliefs, as that would be counter to what sport psychology is about. But more accurately, I bump into individuals (athletes and coaches) with an air of arrogance or resistance. I’ve come to realize that taking such interactions personal is me taking responsibility for someone else’s attitude. More importantly, these situations remind me of a lesson I learned early as a coach from a mentor I continue to admire. While talking about how to improve my own skill set, and doubting I get where I wanted to be, he looked at me and simply state, “If you aren’t working ahead, you are falling behind.” I was awe struck AND inspired. The message was powerful and simple. I needed to be intentional about what I wanted to accomplish, while overcoming my ego and being humble enought to admit what I needed to improve. This helped me to focus on learning and improving, and to continue to seek more. As I gained more experience as a coach, I rephrased the statement to better relay to others what I had come to understand, “If you aren’t learning, you are falling behind.”

 

Though my experiences as a mental coach led to write this article, I believe the concept applies to all contexts of sport performance growth. As an example, I have heard athletes comment, “I don’t need this.” I would encourage the athlete to pause and think about the word “need”. True, you may not need the information or skill in the present moment, but being open to learning new mental or physical skills may “add” to what you already have. If you restate the phrase with a specific skill/ability, it sounds silly. “I don’t need to be stronger”, “I don’t need accuracy”, “I don’t need mental toughness”. And I would agree, you may not need any of these, but what if you had them anyway? What potential might be unleashed with a deeper skill set?

 

More practically, athletes and coaches who resist learning something new, whether it be physical or mental, stay entrenched in a fixed mindset. This is an entity theory based idea that believes people either have, or don’t have certain qualities and abilities, and that they are on a set scale of strength or weakness. This can be easy to spot when athletes declare that they won’t practice certain skills because it doesn’t match their abilities, or that they will stick to what they are already good at. Such attitudes are self-limiting and prevent growth. Individuals with a growth mindset instead believe in attempting to learn any skill presented as a way to self-assess and broaden their knowledge. One of my favorite coaches to work with often states that he tries to figure out techniques he isn’t good at so that he can learn how to defeat it, as well as teach his athletes something they can use or beat. This might be why he is one of the most successful coaches in his sport.

 

In a similar vein, refusing to learn something new can be a missed opportunity to practice challenging yourself. I often remind my athletes that sport, ANY sport, is hard because it is designed to test you to failure. Opponents are trying to make you miss, courses are built to put your skills on trial, and scoring is meant to be a reward for risk. In all sports, the essential quality to improving and rising to new levels is in challenging yourself to get better than your current abilities. Learning new mental skills can mean developing what you have to this point, not just attaining something you don’t have. Working to learn new physical skills adds to a repertoir you have already created. And in both, you gain knowledge about yourself and the sport you are working hard to be successful in. Without doing so, your opponents will prey on undeveloped areas of your game and begin to pass you by.

 

I also find myself wondering if athletes who lack openess to learning are masking fear. Is there a part of themselves they don’t want to risk admitting? As though doing so will unleash doubts and lower their confidence? The reality will likely be different. Developing a growth mindset requires you accept where you are, and challenging yourself to reach for more. Or perhaps these athletes are actually overconfident, truly (and falsely) believing that they have all they need to be successful. This is fundamentally wrong, and the results of competition should be proof enough. Otherwise we wouldn’t have terms such as “upset”, “record breaking”, and “underdog”. Or alternatively “maxed out”, “peaked”, and “underperformed”. These all recognize feats of overcoming odds, or a path of discontinued growth. For those who excelled did so by elevating their abilities to get past perceived obstacles to success, while the latter came up short of expectations set when they were ahead of most of their peers and have now been passed.

 

As I stated before, I have experienced the rebuff of athletes numerous times over the years. And though I would prefer to have an eager audience, I have actually come to have concern for those that are dismissive. What I recognize is a pattern that will eventually catch up to them. At some point, every athlete and coach will find themselves up against difficulty that requires adjustment and growth. Yet, being open and conscientious about learning provides you with a life long habit that prepares you for new challenges. So I encourage you to be mindful of your own attitude, and open to the opportunity to learn something in each practice and competition. Should you find yourself needing more help in this area, why wait? Make the call, bring in an expert (or at least someone who may share a point of view that is new to you).