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Losing Badly (And Well) - Finding Success When Outmatched

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This resource is from a case study in Jim Thompson’s (@JimThompson18) book, The Power of Double-Goal Coaching.

Losing Badly (and Well): Your team is consistently overmatched in games. You’ve lost your first few games convincingly, and you fear you might be looking at a no-win season. You get embarrassed and frustrated during games. As a Double-Goal Coach®, how do you motivate players to maintain effort and improve in the face of a string of blowout losses?

It’s not easy to keep our composure in the public fishbowl of one-sided losses. But it is worth remembering that it is often when things go wrong that Double-Goal Coaches can have the most impact.

Here are some strategies for dealing with this challenge:

  • Prepare yourself. Tell yourself you are going to be upbeat throughout the game no matter what. Visualize yourself encouraging players when they do something right. Stay positive in your verbal comments to fill their Emotional Tanks, which are going to drain as they get behind. Make this about giving your players what they need to keep playing hard rather than about how embarrassed you are by the scoreboard.

  • Establish your game face and keep it on throughout the game. Your game face (which includes your posture) should be of a coach who is proud of his players and continues to coach and teach throughout the game. Emulate the great coaches who outwardly react the same to a touchdown by their team as to an interception by the other team.

To read the full response, including four more strategies for graceful losing, download the book excerpt found below.

To purchase the entire book The Power of Double-Goal Coaching, and to learn more about other PCA books, click here.

These books are used in PCA’s live workshops. To learn more about our interactive coach workshops, click here.

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