The fear of failure

Many athletes have fear of failure, disappointment or ridiculousness. It is a natural feeling not only in sport, but in personal life as well. Everybody wants to be successful and consequently they are too worry not to achieve their goals. This fear of failure leads to stress or anxiety and negatively influence particular performance.

The fear of failure is not the only fear in competitive sport. The athletes are afraid what others will think about them when losing, they are afraid of parental, coach or teammate disappointment. In their heads flash many thoughts before or during a match which effects their performance with lowering the concentration. Consequently, athletes are out of rhythm and cannot focus well because their thoughts are too negative.

If athletes are too afraid of failure, they should realize that failure belongs to every sport. At the end, there is only one winner and many more sad and not satisfied performers. However, even failures are positive addition to every athlete´s development. It is not easy to accept the failure, but as sooner the athlete will understand that, the sooner the individual will be able to accept his/her mistakes or insufficiency and learn from it.

Assuming that, athletes are afraid of failure because of their parents or coaches, they should learn how to play for themselves not for others. If they execute sport because of others, they have much higher burden, worry and consequently much worse performance.

The fear of failure is connected to perfectionism. In this case, athletes always have too high demands on themselves and the loss distracts them. These perfectionists focus too much to avoid mistakes and failures.

If athletes focus on not making mistakes and what not to do, their thinking is too negative and they try to control everything too much. In this case, it leads to worse performance. The athletes should think about the positive side such as good performance, victory, success, happiness or satisfaction. The athletes should learn how to play effectively not perfectly and allow themselves to make mistakes.

What to do if your children feel too much fear of failure?

As long as parents can spot the fear of failure of their children, parents should make sure that they do not put too much pressure and do not have too high expectancies. Parents should reevaluate their approach and let their children perform sport with happiness not with fear. In this time, there are many parents who push their children beyond limits, children feel it and are very nervous. The children should be encouraged in the right way. Also, parents should never punish their children for loss or bad performance.

The loss or failure can be sad, devastating or scary; however, it belongs to every successful athletic career. The athletes should accept it, learn from it, forget and move on. People were not born perfect, therefore, they have to make mistakes and fail. If athletes understand that mistakes belongs to the game, sooner they will not be afraid of failing or losing.