Who is Responsible?
Teaching athletes how to take responsibility for their losses can go a long way toward improving their sportsmanship and developing their character.
By Dr. Dennis Johnson
Dennis Johnson, EdD, is Assistant Professor of Sport Sciences and Head Men's and Women's Cross Country Coach at Wingate University. He is an American Sport Education Program certified instructor, co-author of The Coaches' Guide to Nutrition and Weight Control (first edition), and author of The Wrestling Drill Book (both published by Human Kinetics)
Your soccer team is playing a tough match against a league rival. With the score 2-2, and one minute to go, your team gets a corner kick. The kick goes short and the opposing squad takes the ball the length of the field and scores. Your team loses, 3-2.
The coach and players are crushed. They have a high percentage of scores off of corner kicks. They feel they should have won.
Now, as they sit together after the game and talk, what is the conversation among players? Do they blame themselves for the loss, or do they blame factors out of their control? Do they talk about letting down on defense in the last minute? Or do they talk about some of the close calls by the referee?
Traditionally, our sports heroes were those athletes that never blamed anyone but themselves for a disappointing outcome. They praised the other team and talked about how they could have worked harder or played smarter.
Today, however, we see a lot of athletes blame outside factors for a loss. "The refs were terrible," or "The field was horrible" or "The other team got lucky." We see professional athletes, college athletes, high school athletes, and youth athletes do this. We see athletes' parents do this.
If competitive athletics is supposed to build character—including taking responsibility for our own actions—where have we gone wrong? And how do we teach our athletes to understand the importance of not playing the "blame game?"
Attribution Pedagogy
There is actually a theory for how people explain their successes and failures. It is called "attribution theory," and it states that individuals explain those successes and failures based on factors that are both in and out of their control. However, all too often, when individuals succeed, they tend to explain (or "attribute") their success based on their own skill, preparation, planning, and execution. But when failure occurs, they tend to attribute it to luck or something out of their control.
Research has demonstrated that low achievers actually struggle to explain both their wins and losses. After a loss, their thoughts may be, "The other team cheated … I'm not good, no matter how hard I try … The ref was on their side … Why do we always have such bad luck?" Even after a win, they may not attribute their success to controllable factors, but rather feel like they just got lucky or that the other team got bad breaks.
On the other hand, high achievers will say things like this after a loss: "I need to work on X … My mental focus was not strong … I made a bad choice about a strategy … I let up late in the contest." After a win, they know how to congratulate themselves on what they did well.
As administrators and coaches, we often expound about the virtues of sports participation, especially about how it helps to build character. What we sometimes forget is that these positive virtues are not simply a by-product of being a member of a team. In reality, it is the coach who teaches these virtues, and it is the athletic director who must create a culture that emphasizes the importance of this type of teaching.
Therefore, a first step to stopping the blame game is to introduce what I call the Sport Performance Responsibility Model to your coaches. This teaching tool helps coaches encourage their athletes to take responsibility for the results of a contest. After a win, coaches attribute the team's success to: establishing a good game plan, rehearsing contest strategies, engaging in proper physical and mental conditioning, having a good diet, and training to dominate the opposition. After a loss, the explanations may include: not working hard enough in practice, not practicing technique enough, not taking care of my body through proper nutrition and rest. These are all variables that are within the athlete's control—and, just as important they are within an athlete's perceived control.
How To Teach It
Research indicates that both high and low achievers can be educated to explain their successes and failures in a responsible manner. If their coach is willing to teach it, all athletes can learn to attribute the outcome of their play to internal, stable, and controllable factors. Here are some ideas on how to implement the program:
Create a Culture: To start, coaches must create an environment that is positive in nature. Try using a "we build up, we don't tear down" theme to eliminate the trash-talking and the "blaming others" syndrome. Encourage athletes to acknowledge mistakes with a simple, "my bad" or "my fault," and to compliment teammates for positive performances.
Start in Preseason: Discussions about taking responsibility for competition successes and failures should take place during preseason team meetings. Coaches should explain how variables that lead to a win or a loss are usually within the athletes' control. Coaches should also provide examples of what it sounds like to take responsibility for your actions.
Include Parents: At your preseason parents' night, in addition to introducing the team and previewing the season, discuss how you will be teaching the team to take responsibility for its performance. Ask parents to help hold their sons and daughters accountable for their actions at home as well.
Practice and Repetition: Encourage athletes to write goals for each practice and evaluate them at the end of their workout. Include a column for the athlete to explain why the goal was or was not achieved. Then, require athletes to do the same prior to competitive events. In close losses, hold the athlete accountable for his/her failure. Ask them: Did they practice enough? Did they try as hard as they could have? Did they take care of their mind and body?
Train to Dominate: As a former high school wrestling coach of 23 years, I got tired of hearing wrestlers complain after losing a close match that they were cheated by a referee's close call. That's when my coaching staff began to suggest to our athletes that if they "trained to dominate" their opponents, and did so in matches, then the referee would not be a factor, even in close matches. We talked about the things they could do to dominate, like practicing hard, becoming ultra-conditioned, and practicing mental skills training.
Model It: Coaches themselves must model being responsible and explaining team wins and losses with controllable attributions. It is a coach's job to prepare a team for any unforeseen obstacles that may arise in competitions, and if they don't they should take responsibility for it.
In the final analysis, athletic directors and coaches are in a most unique position to stop an ongoing cycle of blaming and excuse-making. Working with your coaches, you can help today's young athletes learn to take responsibility for their actions and prepare them to be responsible adults in the future.
