Tuesday 25 September 2018

Regroup and Refocus

I have to say I am still annoyed about yesterday, my non event of a race. Not so much annoyed about pulling out, I still know that was the right thing to do, but more the measure of progress that the DNF indicates. I thought I was better than that and a reality check is never fun.

Disappointment is something that comes with sport. Sometimes training and racing bring amazing experiences and treasured memories, however, sometimes they don't. Sometimes training and racing brings frustration and disappointment that can really get under your skin, shaking confidence and impacting your enjoyment of your sport. It isn't what we aim for, but it does happen.

So what do you do when things don't quite go to plan?

Well an old coach of mine used to have a saying. Time to regroup and refocus.

When disappointment happens, and it will, take a moment to accept that disappointment, to think about it but not dwell on it. This means you need to have a think about why things didn't go to plan, do a bit of analysis on what led to the performance and what could have gone better. Every bad day has lessons to give, it just takes the courage to look for them.

However, once you have identified those lessons then comes the tricky part, let that frustration and disappointment go. The incident is behind you and the lessons have been learnt so there is nothing to be gained by dwelling on your disappointment any longer. Take those lessons and move on, don't wallow in self pity or annoyance, but focus instead on moving forward.

And that of course in the next step, refocus. You have your lessons, you know what to do to prevent your disappointment happening again, so now you have to refocus your energy on putting those lessons into practise. This is no guarantee that things won't go wrong again in the future, but putting those lessons into practise means they aren't wasted and you will continue to build and improve as an athlete.

It is a terrible cliche to say that every failure is an opportunity is disguise, but in this case the saying is rather apt. If treated with the right attitude, failure and disappointment can be great catalysts for improvement and growth, you just have to  have the will to do so.

Regroup and refocus.

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