A Culture of Growth
A couple of weeks ago, I was helping coach a new team, and a girl kept dribbling the ball with her left hand even though the right side was open. I told her that she would never get better at driving right if she never did it. I told her that she was going to mess up at first and make mistakes, but mistakes are okay and an important part of learning. She looked at me confused and asked, "So you are telling me it's okay to make mistakes?" This poor kid has been playing her entire career afraid to mess up, and it had been stunting her growth. I have been on teams where athletes were so afraid to make mistakes, they shut down. I have also been on teams where the athletes were encouraged to try new things, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. This kind of team has what professor Mary Murphy calls, A Culture of Growth . My youngest daughter plays on a competitive soccer team. While most coaches emphasize spacing the field and using passing to beat your defenders, h...