One of the trends of the last several decades often lamented by coaches in many youth sports is that parents and administrators have become consumed with making sure that each and every child NEVER experiences failure. I spoke to one coach recently who told me about his son's little league baseball experience. Apparently, it takes four strikes to strike out. If a child does strike out, he still gets to go stand on first base. That way he FEELS successful. Though this may seem paradoxical, I can think of few things that we as coaches could do that would harm our athletes more than not allowing them to fail. Failure can be a tremendous learning experience. Failure is often the building blocks for future success. If a child never fails, how does he know when he is successful?
The senior swimmers I coach will tell you that they fail in practice frequently. If they didn't, I probably wouldn't be asking enough of them. It is on that border at the edge between CAN and CAN'T that an athlete finds out the stuff of which he is made. This is where he explores his abilities and summons his motivation to push himself to new heights. Being on this edge is how he learns to do what it takes to excel in life.
Check out this video from YouTube about some incredible successes who began as failures:
Failure is vital to an athlete's development of the characteristics that it takes to be successful. Failing helps define success. As the valley is deep, so is the mountain high.
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