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The Importance Of Developing A Mistake Ritual

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This video is brought to you by Vivo Girls Sports -- a digital media property and global online community for active girls and young women. Vivo Girls Sports developed an online video library from a network of highly respected sports experts to answer important questions from the community. Their mission is to keep girls healthy and playing sports.

One of these experts is Tina Syer (@tinasyer4), the former President at Positive Coaching Alliance. Syer played Division I field hockey at Stanford University, where she graduated with honors and was named an Academic All-America. Her coaching experience includes seasons at the high school, college and Olympic Development levels.

In this video, Syer suggests that if there’s any tool that will help players at all levels, it’s having a mistake ritual. Since the most important play is the next play, a mistake ritual allows athletes, coaches and parents to focus forward instead of dwelling on an error. Moving past mistakes is an important way to mentally prepare for the rest of the competition.

Syer encourages each athlete, coach and parent to develop a mistake ritual that works for them, and she suggests a few that she uses with her players such as “flush it” and “brush it off.” These rituals can be verbal and/or physical cues that tell yourself, and those around you, that you’re moving forward from a mistake.