Nice Try

One off season, I was teaching my young athletes new moves to help grow their game, but when we would scrimmage and they would use the moves and mess up, I would get on to them.

I realized that I was stunting their growth by not allowing them to be creative and try the things that we were teaching. I forgot that failure was a part of the learning process.

Now, I try to say, “Nice try,” when they try something new that we have been working on, and I try to provide clear feedback on what they could do better next time.

Sometimes, I just say, “Nice try,” smile, and let them continue exploring (when we were growing up and playing unorganized sports with our friends in the streets, we didn’t have our parents or coaches critiquing every single play).