Every Competition Can be a “Good” Competition (Even if it was “Bad”)
Recently I came across an article from Dr. Jim Taylor a sports psychologist, that got me thinking about how we are in control to turn our emotions and lessons around. I took the liberty to adapt the article to more of a gymnastics setting.
I have heard this sentence quite a few times, “I had a really bad day.” Usually, this statement is accompanied by a tsunami of thoughts and emotions that was neither pleasant nor helpful including frustration, anger, worry, doubt, and sadness. Over my many years as a coach, I have seen this reaction have a dramatic and traumatic impact on athletes’ psychology, as well as their subsequent training efforts and competition performances.
Given the frequency with which I have heard this sort of judgment on a difficult competition day and how much harm it does to athletes, I wanted to explore it further in the hopes of finding a way to lessen its impact and even change how you evaluate and judge your future competitions experiences.
Good Competitions are Good
To be sure, good competition is not hard to miss and certainly always welcome. You feel ready to rock and roll when you wake up in the morning. You are mentally there in the lead-up: motivated, confident, energized, and focused. You put up good routines during the competition. And, as icing on the cake, you have a great competition result. After the competition, you’re super psyched and happy. As the saying goes, “It’s all good.”
Bad Competitions are Bad
Equally sure, a so-called bad competition is also hard to miss and most certainly not welcome. When I asked some athletes recently why they would make such a pessimistic assessment of some competitions, several themes emerged from their responses:
Bad technique: “I couldn’t get anything right.”
Mental: “My head just wasn’t in it today.”
Feeling: “I felt a bit off today.”
Physical: “I just had no energy today.”
Not fun: “It wasn’t fun for me.”
But Do Bad Days Have to be Bad?
All of the above statements seem to give good cause to conclude that “I had a really bad day.” At the same time, I would argue that such a discouraging conclusion is both inaccurate and decidedly unhelpful as you pursue your gymnastics goals. The problem is that this perception of the quality of your competition day is defined too narrowly in ways that prevent you from seeing the many benefits you get from a day that you might ordinarily decide was awful. In other words, it’s your perception of the competition that makes it good or bad.
A bad competition is usually based on how it compares to the expectations you had going into the competition, particularly related to a specific result you wanted to achieve. If your expectations are very high, anything less than meeting that expectation will be seen as bad. We all compete with high hopes of the “perfect” day, where everything clicks, you feel great, start to finish, getting the result you had wanted. At the same time, as any experienced gymnast knows, perfect competition doesn’t exist; there are just too many variables in our sport that can turn against you. Moreover, the effort you put up through the competition doesn’t always reflect all the good that can come out of it.
Redefine a “Bad” Race
Let’s start with my one definition of bad competition: “When you turn against and give up on yourself.” That is the worst kind of competition because it isn’t perceived as only a failure of the hoped-for outcome, but as a failure of yourself. And there is nothing worse than feeling like you let yourself down because, even if the competition beats you, it’s far worse for you to beat you.
These are the days that you need to broaden your definition of what constitutes a good competition beyond feeling good, going fast, and getting the result you want. Having good competition can mean more than just a good result. For example, you might do all 6 events well, or stick your dismounts, but you still don’t place where you imagined you could.
Additionally, a definition of a good competition based on its outcome (or even finishing) ignores another piece of the puzzle that is essential to achieving your gymnastics goals, namely, winning the mental competition. On those so-called bad days, you have an incredible opportunity to become a better gymnast by strengthening your mind while everything else may be going to hell.
Make Every Competition a Good Competition
I believe that “every competition can be a good competition.” My definition of good competition on days when you could easily define it as bad competition is: “You remain your best ally and you keep fighting until there is no more fight left in you.”
Let’s break that definition down a bit. First, on so-called bad days, it’s easy to go to the “dark side,” meaning you get negative, discouraged, and give up yourself. Instead, you can stay positive and motivated, and choose to keep fighting through the challenges, regardless of the disappointing outcome; on tough days, just crossing the finish line can be a victory. Practicing and ingraining this more constructive attitude is so important because you’re going to have a lot of those “bad” days in your gymnastics career. And you can decide whether your Force is going to be with you or against you (apologies for the Star Wars references).
Second, I’m not asking you to say “I’m lovin’ it!” That’s just plain unrealistic given that there are plenty of good reasons why you aren’t loving it. At the same time, you can’t hate it because, if you do, you will probably give up and your competition will have been a waste. You need to find a middle ground between the extremes of love and hate. That happy medium is to just “accept and deal,” meaning acknowledge that it’s going to be a tough day and decide that you’re going to get the most out of it you can. To use a Navy SEAL motto, “Embrace the suck.”
Third, those bad days are really uncomfortable, and they don’t feel good in any way; that’s why we automatically call them bad days. Yet, these days are great opportunities for you to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. These experiences are so valuable because there is a lot of discomfort in gymnastics and the more you can experience and respond positively to the discomfort on those “bad” competition days, the more prepared you will be to respond positively to the discomfort you will surely feel in future competitions. So, on those uncomfortable competition days, you want to embrace, rather than give in to, the discomfort until the discomfort becomes, if not comfortable, at least manageable. In other words, you win the “competition” against the dark side of you that wanted to give up.
Fourth, gymnastics is a sport that is rife with difficulties. Moreover, everyone in the field has to do all 6 events to place on all around. So, it’s not the conditions that matter, but rather how you perceive (threat or challenge) and react to them (give up or fight). Bad days are a great way to figure out how to compete your best (or just survive) in those tough conditions, so when you get to future competition with similar bad conditions, you have the attitude and tools necessary to respond positively to them, and you will compete as well as you can.
Fifth, as I noted above, so-called bad days can trigger in you a plethora of unpleasant emotions such as frustration and disappointment, all of which can make those so-called bad days even worse. You have the opportunity to turn those emotions around and generate more positive emotions, such as pride and inspiration, that will keep you positive and motivated during the rough times in response to those “bad” days.
Finally, reinterpreting so-called bad days will make you a more resilient and adaptable gymnast. Resilience means you’ll be better able to respond positively to the always-present adversity of our sport. You will have a stronger mind for everything that gymnastics (and life) throws at you every day.
Source - Dr. Jim Taylor - https://www.drjimtaylor.com/4.0/every-race-can-be-a-good-race-even-if-it-was-bad/
