Between the Pipes Newsletter:
November Edition
Dealing With Failure
"The ultimate form of preparation is not planning for a specific scenario, but a mindset that can handle uncertainty."
Overcoming Failure
"I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work." – Thomas A. Edison
Overcoming failure can be defined by three components:
Perspective
Thoughts
Emotions
Tips to Turn Failure into Growth:
After every competition, consider the following questions:
- What is working for you? What did you do well?
- What do you need to improve in your mental game?
- What can your improve technically or tactically?
- What did you learn that will make you a stronger athlete or better team?
Look to make small modifications rather than major overhauls, especially if you are in the middle of your season.
Use past performances to grow and learn. Avoid doubting your skills. You’ll always have ups and downs in your career.
Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out. –
Benjamin Franklin
How to Overcome Failure in Sport
Failing hurts. Sometimes, we feel we’ve done everything we can, and we still don’t hit the mark. At best it makes us feel bad for the rest of the day, and at worst, we think about giving up for good.
To practice endlessly refining your skills and getting your physical condition to its peak and then failing can be the hardest thing to deal with. For some, it’s devastating. This is where the difference between the good and the great is most clearly illustrated: how they deal with failure.
So, How can you ensure you learn from your failures, and not let them tear you down each time?
Don't Be Afraid to Minimize it
It’s not productive to pretend a competition is meaningless simply because you didn’t win, but you also shouldn’t tear yourself down either. Learn your lessons from what happened, wallow for a day or two if you need to, and then pick yourself up and keep your eyes on the prize.
Remember Failure is Part of Sports
Remember failure is part of sport. For someone to win, someone has to fail. Shift your relationship with failure by replacing, “Why is this happening to me?” with a more constructive approach such as, “What can I learn from this?”
Set your Own Goals
Winning is important – of course, but it’s not always everything. If you set your own goals to achieve, then you can strive to succeed on your own terms. That way, even if you don’t win, you have succeeded if you reached your own goals. This can be just as satisfying as a win, and will help ensure you have that sense of progress, no matter what.
Have Self Belief
There are many athletes that are superb, yet don’t quite have what it takes to reach the pinnacle of their chosen sport. One thing that unites the truly great is complete self-belief. They have to hold on to this supreme confidence no matter what the circumstances; there are always plenty of critics that will try to undermine that faith.
Use Failure to Make you Stronger
Everyone has setbacks; you must learn to use them as motivations to succeed. We all fail more often than we win, so it is those who understand this, ask for more of themselves and take the crown next time around.
Remember that there’s always room for improvement. You can always be better. Only you decide when you’ve reached your pinnacle.
Understand your Limitations
If you play sports, you will fail – often, even. The important thing is not to dwell on it. Stay positive, use the loss as a tool for improvement and stay true to yourself and your aims. No great athlete allows themselves to be deflected from their path by failure. They accept it, learn from it and move on. This is just as true if you are a starter for the Boston Bruins or a pitcher on your high school softball team.
Failure is Part of Success
Link to VideoTestimonials:
Why Focus Lacrosse
Hoyt Crance Yale '19
As an accomplished player and coach, Tim Cassi has developed an incredible understanding of what it takes to become a successful goalie at all levels of the game. Whether you are a young goalie who just stepped into the crease, a coach looking to learn more about the position, or an accomplished goalie looking for additional pointers, Focus Lacrosse is an excellent resource detailing the goalie position. Throughout my high school career, I could always rely on Tim to find issues with my game and create effective drills to eliminate these issues. Without a doubt, I can say Tim/Focus Lacrosse played a critical role in my development as a goalie and was a major reason I was able to play Division 1 Lacrosse.
MIAA Goalie- Incoming College Freshman
I have been working with Tim at Focus Lacrosse for 4 years. He was hands down the best goalie coach I had throughout all of the years I have played goalie. I liked Tim more than other coaches because he teaches you to focus on the one thing that actually matters, seeing the ball. Of course proper stance and play style is great for younger kids, but when you get older it is hard to find a coach that can teach you more. He constantly would come up with creative drills to help me lock in, see the ball and save the ball more than ever before. The ability to see the ball and save it, sounds like an easy concept, but one that is often overlooked and very challenging to do. Due to his creative drills, it allowed me to think about the goalie position differently, and allowed me to have great success in the cage. Having a better understanding of how to track and see the ball, helped me get out of playing ruts, because he taught me to only think about moving my stick and body to where the ball is going.
GW Mix - Former MLL President and GM/ Former UPenn and Franklin and Marshall Head Coach
Tim Cassi is one of the most effective and innovative goalie coaches I have ever been around. He constantly works to enhance the mental and physical drills and exercises he incorporates into his goalie training sessions. For almost ten years, Tim has been consistently developing some of the best goalies in Southern California, including a number of US Lacrosse All-Americans, CIF Champions and NCAA Division I starters. If I wanted to play goalie at the highest level possible, or wanted to be able to coach kids to achieve that same goal, I would spend as much time as I could learning from Tim Cassi and his FOCUS program.
Focus Lacrosse Online Platform
The Focus Platform includes access to content for players and coaches to help goalies see and save the ball and coaches teach it!
