I’m going to be honest, losing sucks. It’s not fun losing and nobody likes to lose. You feel defeated, down on yourself, upset, etc. But you know what, there is a positive to losing in my opinion. People might think that losing is bad, but it actually isn’t. Everyone should experience losing a game at least once in your life (which you most likely will). Losing in your sport teaches you a lot about not only the game and your team, but it teaches you a lot about yourself.

First off, if your team is having a losing season, it doesn’t mean you have a bad team. Some teams that have a losing season have more team chemistry than a team that is having a winning season. Losing bonds a team in a way. You have to deal with adversity as a team. It makes your team work that much harder as one to become successful. You focus on just working together to be successful. Losing shows true character. It shows the people that can handle adversity. Just because you lose does not mean you are bad. Some teammates push away people when the team ends up not doing as well, and that is not the ideal teammate. The team that wants to get better works harder everyday to get better. People learn to step up that need to step up. It ends up making the team grow closer.

We can learn a lot about an athlete by how they react to losing. There’s one side of an athlete where they shut down. This athlete becomes distant with a team. They might not know how to deal with the thought of losing. It happens to the best of us at least once. There is that one game that might hit us a little too hard and that is okay. Only when someone becomes distant throughout an entire season, that’s when it is not okay. You should lean on your teammates. If an athlete doesn’t like losing, then they should get in the gym and work hard on improving instead of closing themselves off and not trying hard anymore. There is no reason to give up. Ever.

The other type of athlete is the one that gets inspired when they lose. When losing, you get this feeling that you never want to get again. You don’t want to be the team that loses. So the other type of athlete is the type that does everything they can to get better. They are loud at every practice and game. They get pumped up and get everyone hyped with them. These athletes do extra reps, exercises, or drills to get better or improve so they can help their team as much as they can. That’s a great athlete in my opinion. The one that takes adversity by the hand and does something with it.

I think every athlete needs to experience losing. Some athletes that don’t lose don’t learn what it means to be humble. When losing, you realize that you aren’t the best out there. There is a thin line between cocky and confident. You don’t want to be cocky as an athlete and I think losing can help with that. All good athletes go through adversity no matter if they are competing at the professional level or just competing at the high school level. Losing is good for everyone, but only if you handle it in the right way.