Winners, even they lose now and then

Every athlete has setbacks. Everyone has setbacks in their lives, you don’t have to be an athlete for this to happen. It is just part of life.

Champion boxers who have never been defeated are rare. But rare as they may be, there are some who go through their whole careers without losing a fight. Now a boxer who has never lost a fight, has at some time lost rounds on points. He may have been the eventual winner, but if you were to look at the judges score cards, some of his rounds were losses. But put simply, if he wins more rounds than he loses, he wins the fight.

The great Valantino Rossi, multiple World Motor Cycle champion has lost some of his races. He has won far more than he’s ever lost. Losing is not so bad. In fact losing is good for athletes. The real champions gain mental strength and more determination from an occasional loss. 

The real difference between champions and the rest, is the champions never stop being champions. They can have a setback, a loss, then just get back into the job of being/becoming the champion. A real champ can lose several times in a row. But the difference is, he’ll examine what he’s doing and change something, to start the wins happening again.

The times when a loss is most difficult to take, is when you don’t think it’s possible. When you know that an occasional loss is inevitable, you’re better equipped to handle it, if it comes your way.

Very often bad races, bad luck comes along as a series of events. It’s often described as a “run of bad luck”. If you’re experiencing a “run of bad luck”. Stop it right there. Don’t accept a “run of bad luck”. It may just happen that you are faced with a couple of unfortunate incidents, one after the other.

This is a good time to get someone else who you trust to look at what you’re doing. Quite often there are bad decisions made, one after the other which cause the “run of bad luck”. How often have we heard of the athlete who had four punctures in one race. I wonder how often, it was one puncture, not handled properly in the first place?

“They say”, you make your own luck. In many cases the luckiest people are the ones who never lose sight of how talented, how fortunate, how grateful they are for what they have.

The motivational speakers have made fortunes by telling people to think positive. Thinking positive has to be followed by acting positive. If your positive thoughts are not backed up by your positive actions, the losses will continue.

My experience with lots of athletes shows that a great race is the next one after an athlete has a shocker. When one of my athletes makes a few bad decisions, maybe paces badly, overfeeds himself, and turns a 9hr 30min day into a 12hr 30min one. It never worries me. I don’t get out the tissues and do a back patting session.

I just want to know as much as I can as soon as I can about the race. We identify the problem, then I leave the athlete to handle the situation as best as they can. Seriously, I’m not there to pat backs and wipe tears. That’s your mothers job. I’m here for direction.

This approach may seem hard? But time has proven to me, that an athlete who has been through the identification process with me, and has been left to handle the loss, are the ones who are going to make it, come back harder and meaner next time.

Winners learn from setbacks — losers dwell on them, milking all the sympathy and attention they can get.