Keep Your Power
What happens to those players that get cut? They go to lower levels or they simply don’t have a team to play for that season. Now if you find yourself in this situation, how are you going to handle it?
An extremely common way I hear athletes handling getting cut is denial. Denying the fact that they simply weren’t good enough to play on that team and that it was simply ridiculous that *insert player name here* made the team above them. Although this is a great solution for making yourself feel better in the short term, this likely won’t lead you anywhere.
If you find yourself saying something along the lines of “How did _____ make the team over me?!” I challenge you to change that phrasing to “What did _____ do that I didn’t do to make the coaches pick him?” Simply changing the way you look at that same situation allows you to keep your power.
In so many situations in sport we have the ability to blame an external factor. I didn’t make the team because the coach is crazy and didn’t pick me. We lost the game because someone else made a mistake. I would have accomplished X but Y got in the way. Anytime you find yourself blaming something external you are giving your power away. You are becoming helpless. Instead of allowing the power to lie with someone or something else, take it on. If you hold yourself accountable (What did _____ do that I didn’t do?) you are giving yourself the ability to make a change. If you talk to your coach and figure out what it was you didn’t do (or did do) that made them decide to go a different direction now you have something to work on. You know what you need to do in order to make the team next time.
Even if you believe in your heart that you deserved a spot on that team, if you didn’t get one… the coach has a reason. I guarantee it. All coaches want to win and if the coach thought you would be the best option to help that happen, you would be on that team. Now instead of sitting back and blaming someone else for your shortcoming, start blaming yourself. Start understanding that there is ALWAYS something you can be doing better. Always something you can be changing or working on that will help coaches see you in a better light. If you keep the power, you can make a change. Stop looking for reasons things didn’t go your way. Start looking at what you can do to make them go your way next time.