<Peak Level> Playing To Win
Performing At Peak Levels In Sport & Life
Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash
One of the greatest fears to competitive athletes and teams is choking in key moments.
Overthinking what we have to do.
Becoming careful and focusing on not making mistakes.
Choosing to take the safer options.
Playing to avoid losing.
Our trust, instincts and trained ability evaporates.
Below is an example of us playing in an International Sevens Competition in front of a home crowd.
Expectations were set to win the tournament and gain promotion in European Competition.
We won our first two games, yet it was a shadow of how we looked in our preparations before the tournament:
We were taking the safer options
Holding onto the ball and going for contact.
Lacking urgency to make the most of the opportunities.
Our wins were covering up the cracks.
Players knew deep down they were capable of more.
Yet, being capable of more is in our heads, our bodies are showing something different out there on the pitch.
We know what we have to do, yet we are not doing what we say we will do, we are out of integrity.
We discovered some unsupportive meanings we had placed on ourselves:
Players not wanting to let me down, their Country, and themselves.
Feeling that it was a must win tournament.
Making mistakes and errors would be fatal.
The third and final game of day one; we were showing progress.
Moving the ball, avoiding the contact, and making better decisions.
The shift gave an opportunity for us to see the contrast in how we were showing up.
The evening of day one and the morning of day two we invested in using game footage and conversations as an opportunity to reshape our meanings.
There was a new found excitement and feeling of freedom within the group.
The lift in energy transferred nicely onto the pitch, blowing the opposition off the park in the first two games.
We were in the final.
Our first score was a gem; our fly-half threw a 20m pass into space, not knowing if our wing would run onto it or even catch it.
He nailed it without breaking stride.
The players never looked back after that moment, going on to win by 30 points.
Making the shift from playing to avoid losing - to playing for the love of the game, each other and to win.
Even more they had learnt a lesson that would serve them in life.
The change was remarkable and credit to them for flipping the switch, and allowing their trained ability to thrive.
That’s one of those peak level moments I will treasure as a coach.
Here’s to you flipping the switch.
In your corner
With Fire 🔥
Coach Damo
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