Devin Ingram (in back in black handing off) felt the sting of losing recently at DGS Relays (Colin Boyle photo)
The legendary Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals head coach Paul Brown once said “When you win say nothing, when you lose say less”. Winning and losing is the product of a sport. Not everyone will win and not everyone will lose. Without the one who loses, who will win? With this message I hope to connect with those athletes getting frustrated with their performances so far and who are progressing well.
Now with a few meets into the season I have been getting very frustrated with myself. The reason being, I have not been beating my past personal bests. I don’t think I have set any goals that are too vast for my abilities. The standard I have set for myself isn’t too high for me to meet. So what is the problem then, why is it that I get frustrated at the mere thought of a loss? Here is the answer, I simply cannot stand losing. Losing isn’t all too bad though, it could lead to success. A loss can either break you or build you. The judge behind how you take the loss is yourself. Don’t let yourself off easy by coming up with an excuse, but don’t sit there and complain about it either. If you do lose, use the loss as a motivational tool to achieve your next win.
The Minooka track family remains strong through thick and thin times (Devin Ingram photo credit)
With the last statement it brings me to the next topic and that would be winning. You may get lucky here and there with a win. That is not a reason to get ahead of yourself because you cannot always win. As our head coach Nick Lundin would say, “Don’t let winning get boring”! When thought upon it makes perfectly good sense. Where is the pleasure in competing when no threat of a loss is at hand? There are tons of things that come with the joy of winning. The win can trigger anyone to have an extra bit of drive to beat you the next time, and those athletes come from everywhere. These athletes could be the one you misjudged to be your lowest competition. The athlete could very well be your own teammate. Will you let that athlete be you? In track and field there are no other side factors pertaining to your success but yourself, granted you are participating in an open event. That’s the joy of it all; if you win you can say you did it. If you lose there is no one else to blame except for yourself.
The key to keeping a level head about winning is to stay humble and the key to keeping your composure about losing is to focus on the main goal at hand. Everybody loses and everybody wins eventually.
Athletes stay healthy and keep progressing! Thanks for your time everyone for reading, stay tuned for more blog entries!