The Joy of Making Mistakes - II

Jackie’s world changes significantly as she starts and progresses through our world of schooling. She is now in a system where she is competing with standards of performance that she is not aware of. Is she good enough in “learning her numbers” to move on to the next step in the grading system? How about her reading? Is she good enough in pronouncing the words and telling the teacher, the school system, and any kind of achievement test, what those words mean, to go on to the next grade?

A child-centered educational program would say, “Jackie is where she is and that’s all right and she’s all right.” We can and need to do this in sports!

Anything  worth doing is worth doing poorly — at first.

If you are coaching anything under the professional level, your players are still learning the rudiments of dealing with the skills required in the game, how you use these skills while playing the game, and the rules and regulations of the game.  Jackie is dribbling the ball, she is involved in the offensive tactics, and she is aware of the 10 second timeline. All the time she could be making the mistake of double dribbling, she may have missed the open player breaking for the basket, and she may have taken her time bringing the ball up the floor and failed to cross the timeline in time.  There are so many ways to make a mistake that is not an error.

In this specific journey up the court, Jackie erred in not doing the correct thing at the correct time by moving too slowly - she knew better. Jackie moving the ball across the timeline was a correctable error. She knew better. The coach could rightly talk to her about that. 

What I did at third base in a softball game when I made a clean pickup of a ground ball and then threw it way over the head of my first baseman was an error. I did something incorrectly that I had done correctly many times and was expected to do correctly by my coach and by myself.

Perhaps baseball has it right. If “Carl”, one of the Chicago Cubs outfielders drops an easy fly ball it’s an error - a special kind of mistake. Carl has the physical ability to catch the ball, he is aware of the significance of the play, and he knows the rules governing it.  

You are Jack’s coach - he is quite young - he loves soccer and is improving every practice. His teammate, Luis, is breaking loose toward the goal for an open shot.  Jack’s wall shot hits him in the back. Jack had not led him. He needs to learn - it was a mistake - and by his actions he “told” you what he needed to learn. 

Be careful  how you coach Jack - to help him learn the correct way. The message we give to our kids in so many ways is that not only is it not O.K. for you to make a mistake - You are not O.K. if you make mistakes. Children do not perceive the difference between making a mistake and being a mistake.