Excellence is Not Perfection

Perfection is an impossible task in sports. Learn the importance of understanding that excellence is not perfection for teen athletes.

For more tips for teen athletes, read Vegetarian Protein Choices for Teen Athletes and Helping Teens Deal with Jealousy in Sports.

The perfect game is a rarity in major league baseball. Only 23 have been pitched in the modern era. A basketball player that makes 50% of his or her goals is considered excellent, not perfect.  If a quarterback completes over half of his passes, that is considered excellent, not perfect. A perfect score is unheard of in olympic gymnastics, but that doesn’t mean the gold medalist performed poorly.

Perfection, therefore, is an impossible task in sports.  

If your goal is to be perfect then most likely, you will never reach that goal.

Harold Abrahams is the British sprinter in the 1924 Paris Olympics. He is portrayed in the movie Chariots Of Fire (Goldcrest Films) as a perfectionist, driven to redeem past losses.  In the movie, Harold tells his girlfriend, “If I can’t win, I won’t race.”  She replies, “ If you don’t run, you can’t win.”  Harold’s statement reveals a perfectionistic self-esteem based on his performance and others’ opinion of his performance.  His girlfriend’s response gives insight into how to achieve excellence.

Excellence is:

• Trying something you have not done before.
• Analyzing the information from the mistakes you make.
• Trying again with that new information.

Each one of these steps requires that you separate the action from who you are as a person. You don’t attach the outcome to your value as a person or athlete. Focus on the mistake and not you, the athlete. Correct the mistake, and try again with the new information. This helps you to develop excellence.

Excellence, therefore, is more of a journey or process, than a destination.

Beating yourself up for a mistake, internalizing the mistake, or verbally attacking yourself with negative self talk can ultimately produce poor performance, anger, and lack of enjoyment for a sport you once loved.  Excellence is a process that is developed over time, not overnight.  It is often said that a professional baseball player needs 1,500 at bats in the minor leagues to be ready for the majors.  That’s a lot mistakes and successes.

The mistakes you have and will make as an athlete do not define the your worth. What mistakes do you offer you is a chance to have courage and face weaknesses. Mistakes also give you an opportunity to develop excellence in your life. This is a skill that will serve you long after you are done playing sports.  

Bring It Home:

Tell yourself the truth: athletics is not who you are, it is was you like to do.