Why your child needs to lose to learn – this is a great guest blog by Luke Towning co-founder of Foot Tech Academy explaining why everyone needs to experience losing to help in their development.
When I was at school there was a lad who was the best at any sport.
He absolutely destroyed anyone in things like football, athletics and rugby. He was captain of the school football team and literally won us matches on his own.
You probably had someone like that at your school.
They were fitter, faster, bigger and stronger than everyone else. It was almost like they were magic.
I thought he was destined to be a pro-footballer and couldn’t wait for him to get me free tickets to his games!
But then a funny thing happened. Around our teenage years his magical powers seemed to leave him.
We all caught up to him and, all of a sudden, we were beating him in races or tackling him more in football training.
See, some kids are born with a physical advantage. They seem to develop faster in their early years than others.
Naturally this helps them win at most sports simply because they are able to run faster, jump higher, etc.
But when everyone else starts to develop you see the tides turn.
What the other kids also now have is a ‘fighter’ mentality. They’ve spent years playing against this amazing child and have had to endure losing time and time again.
Depending on their mindset you’ll now see them overtake this other child because they’ve learnt so much from losing against them.
They’ve learnt how to solve problems, they’ve developed a stronger mentality and they are now physically at a similar level.
The magic child?
Winning all the time has meant they have not had to solve many problems and they might now mentally struggle with losing.
The lad from my school ended up quitting football by the time we got to college. He played here and there but was a shadow of his former self.
Does this happen all the time? No.
But, in the childhood years, the benefits of losing some of the time far outweigh the benefits of easily-winning all the time.
It is the same for team sports. If your child is in a team that is steamrolling everyone else then ask yourself exactly what they are learning from it.
If your child is that magic kid, think about how you can challenge them more.
Maybe move them up an age group or change teams.
It’ll be worth it in the long run.
Luke Towning is the Co-Founder of Foot-Tech Academy; a children’s football coaching school based in North & East Leeds
For more info please visit www.foot-techacademy.co.uk
