Limitations

One of our son Brock’s coaches isn’t a morning person. So much so that when we have a game scheduled early on a Saturday he makes a big deal about how he dislikes the early start times and that he and his son won’t be their best. The problem with this is that as a coach, your team looks to you for leadership. Especially younger more moldable athletes watch the coach for cues and feed off of them. If the coaches don’t like early games, and more specifically, if they VOICE that fact out loud, it is very likely the players will feed off of that and start whining about early start times.

Once I realized that this was going to be a common theme with this particular coach, I looked at our schedule. Turns out that all but one of our weekend games are to be played in that early morning window. So one could ignore the issue and let it take its course, or we can think of a positive way to combat it in a positive way. We chose the latter.

After the first morning game of the season (which we won), the coach started his postgame talk to the kids with how tough it is to play early in the day and went on and on about it. At the end when it was my turn to speak as the assistant coach, I said, “Guys, you know why I like these early games? Because now we have all day to go do fun stuff with our friends. Good game today, enjoy the rest of your Saturday.”

Not sure if my message hit home with them or with the head coach or not. I vow to keep spreading that gospel every chance I get. This issue led me to remember a saying my wife Sharon has used since the first day I met her. It goes something like this…..

“If you want to fight for your limitations, you get to keep them.”

Translation? If you want to make excuses about why things won’t go well, they probably won’t. Don’t like that early game time? The players will likely use that as an excuse when they lose. If you make excuses for the way things are, or worse, even vigorously lobby others that something isn’t fair or that you couldn’t succeed because of XYZ, you are probably going to be right.

If we want to realize success over time, sometimes we have to set aside our personal opinions or preferences for the betterment of the team. I’m certainly not saying that I don’t default to my limitations sometimes, we all do. However when it does happen, we have to recognize it and not let it take root to the detriment of those that follow us.

Don’t fight for your limitations, wage war against them. Take that negative element and turn it around. Be sure to model that winning spirit to those that are watching us.