The most important thing in Sports is to Never Give Up. The determination that one shows becomes the pillar which holds his or her success. But determination isn’t an easy thing to maintain.
It isn’t always easy, being a sportsman — facing defeat, coping with stress or even handling the victory. It requires a lot of perseverance and a lot of hard work.
Never Give Up even when things Don’t Go Well
Sports can be a metaphor for life. No one can know what’s around the corner. Both victory and defeat take turns and occur from time to time. Negative remarks or setbacks can have a serious and long lasting effect on the brain of a sportsman and affect his or her determination.
The thing to remember in such times is to not let the negative people, situations and results derail you from your path. It’s important to take every negative thing and turn it into something positive.
Every bad remark can either be taken as a cue to give up or a signal to never give up, work hard and improve your performance.
The story of Kirk Cousins is an example of how each setback can be changed into a stepping stone to never give up in sports and maintain determination.
Mental Training and Determination
“Never give up and always believe you can achieve something.”
― Peter Crouch
Sports psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with the psychological factors that are responsible for performance in sports. Mental training is a branch of sports psychology which is used to improve focus and cut off distractions.
It helps in various things such as:
- It trains the sportsman’s mind to focus only on the task at hand and not at less important information at the moment, such as the results.
- It develops the sportsman’s confidence which improves his performance.
- It helps in dealing with high expectations, which could sabotage the sportsman’s confidence when not met.
- It helps teams in improving their communication.
- It uproots the unhealthy beliefs and irrational thoughts that affect the performance.
The trauma of an injury can shatter self-confidence and cause a lack of focus. Once the physical healing is complete, it is important for the sportsman to heal mentally too. Mental training helps the sportsman in that area.
How to Handle Victory?
Everyone acknowledges the bright side of losing but no one talks about the dark side of winning. Winning isn’t success. Those two are very different but very difficult to differentiate. Success is in satisfaction which winning may not always give.
On the other hand, winning may lead to unrealistic expectations. One may start to expect to win at every game after one victory and a single loss may seem like the end of the world. Winning doesn’t make us think how can we do better next time.
It is not being said here that victory shouldn’t be celebrated. It is a great moment to which hard work leads. But, it shouldn’t control the mind. Even after a win, the whole situation should be analyzed to point out the errors that were made and mark them. Those errors should be the areas to work on with determination for the next game, instead of repeating the same routine.
Conclusion
“There are always tough times, regardless of what you do in life. Be able to push through these times and maintain your goal.”
― Nathan Chen
Maintaining determination is important to succeed in any aspect of life and like it has been mentioned, Sports is a metaphor for life. To Never Give Up in Sports and succeed at it, it is necessary to never lose sight of your goal and work towards it with all you have.
Do you know any more ways which can help in maintaining determination in sports and never give up? Share in the comment section below.
Originally published at https://www.beaninspirer.com on November 7, 2019.
