{"id":13953,"date":"2020-02-03T04:30:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T10:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=13953"},"modified":"2020-03-24T12:55:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T17:55:47","slug":"psychology-winning-fear-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/psychology-winning-fear-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychology of Winning: Fear of Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part 3 of 3: Fearing Failure<\/h2>\n

Controlling the uncontrollable is impossible, and because of this, it causes athletes to struggle with mental toughness. Fearing failure is another reason athletes tend to struggle with their mental game. Failing is inevitable, and athletes need to get mentally tough when it comes to fearing failure.<\/p>\n

Jason Kuhn, a former Navy SEAL, and Division-I baseball player spends his time training student-athletes on mental toughness. Specifically, he works on situations that are uncontrollable.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s helped teams like Vanderbilt football, Georgia Tech softball, Wingate basketball, Anderson University softball, Reinhardt Women\u2019s Soccer and many more on their mental game. Along with their ability to work together to achieve a common goal. He knows through his experience how important the mental game is, and the more you can recognize and change your habitual actions, the better you will be. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/a>
Kuhn with the Georgia Tech softball team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn our lives in combat, in competition, and in a lot of different things that we do, we all know that there are circumstances that are outside of our control,\u201d says Kuhn. \u201cBut a lot of these circumstances are also unfair, or they\u2019re adverse, meaning there are real consequences for failure\u2026 and in those moments, we are going to react or respond with the habits that we have created.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether in recruiting, training or in competition, athletes experience situations that are out of their control. It happens all the time, but how those athletes respond to these kinds of situations helps them be the best they can be.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, how do you turn a fear of failure into something positive and beneficial?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFailure exists necessarily in an effort to increase our ability,\u201d says Kuhn. \u201cThe experience of failing creates an opportunity to make ourselves better by identifying weakness or fundamental inconsistency.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single day, as the circumstance beat us toward self-interest and self-pity, we\u2019re going to interrupt that cause and effect cycle. We\u2019re going to refuse those things and insert thought and action that produce a value such as selflessness, confidence instead of doubt, and influencing the outcome instead of feeling the pressure to force it… freeing us from the fear of failure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simply put, if an athlete can identify a weakness either mentally, physically or both, he or she can turn that failure into something that will make them better.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe process should be a constant evolution of becoming better,\u201d says Kuhn. \u201cEveryone has failed. Everyone will [fail] again, or at least you should if you\u2019re after something you\u2019ve never had. So, rather than choosing self-pity or frustration, let\u2019s use this inevitable experience of failure to our advantage. When we set our vision high enough, we will meet failure. Therefore, reaching our vision requires more effort than currently feels reasonable to surpass the status quo. This is what they refer to as \u2018stepping out of the comfort zone.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Identify Fundamental Inconsistences<\/h3>\n

According to Kuhn, there are some things athletes must do to turn their failures into successes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Athletes need to find fundamental things they do wrong; whether it’s pulling their head before they make contact with a ball or not setting their feet before they take a shot. Once athletes find a fundamental problem, they can then focus all of their energy on that. If athletes can identify something they do wrong and focus all of their energy on that problem, they can turn that into a habit and potentially fix the problem altogether. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mental<\/a>
Kuhn using his Navy SEAL training to help athletes gain mental toughness.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These fundamental problems aren\u2019t just physical either. <\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of times athletes have mental habits that affect how they play. Maybe an athlete talks to him or herself negatively before competing. An example of this is if a baseball player tells himself, \u201cDon\u2019t strike out\u201d before every at bat. Once the athlete realizes they do something like that, then they can focus all of their mental energy on reversing that negative self-talk. Hopefully, into something positive and make that a new habit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Forgive and Move on<\/h3>\n

Kuhn\u2019s says to all of his athletes, \u201cdiscipline is not always easy, but it\u2019s always worth it. That\u2019s how winning is always done, and it pays to be a winner.\u201d Perfection is unattainable. If you make a mistake, move on and focus on the next task at hand. Don\u2019t dwell on mistakes, use them to become a better athlete.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re struggling, focus on something you can fix and work on that until it becomes a habit. By focusing on what you can control, you can turn failures into successes. And in turn become a master of the mental game.<\/span><\/p>\n

At National Scouting Report, we know how important the mental game is to college coaches and how it affects athletes. Let our scouts help you achieve your goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read Part 2: Mental Toughness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 3 of 3: Fearing Failure Controlling the uncontrollable is impossible, and because of this, it causes athletes to struggle with mental toughness. Fearing failure is another reason athletes tend to struggle with their mental game. Failing is inevitable, and athletes need to get mentally tough when it comes to fearing failure. Jason Kuhn, a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":13963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1299],"tags":[1060,147,507,256,1059,1062,1013,222,1026,1025,1063,1061],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13953"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14180,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13953\/revisions\/14180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}