23:58
Faizan
Trying out for a competitive sports team often comes after years of hard work to become the best athlete possible. When that ends in rejection, it can be a traumatic experience that takes time to process. Everyone reacts to being cut differently, but several techniques can help you move beyond the bad news and keep your athletic career moving forward.
Talk It Out
It’s disappointing to be cut, but keeping that hurt inside isn’t healthy. Talking about how you feel can help. Call a friend or family member and discuss what happened. Pick someone who will be supportive, but who also knows you well and can keep you grounded. This serves two purposes -- it helps you process your feelings and communicate your hurt, and also lets others know what you're going through.
Put It in Perspective
Being cut from one team doesn’t mean all your efforts to get that far have been wasted. It just means that on that day, before those coaches, you weren’t one of the players picked. Remember all the sports teams you've made, and the accomplishments that helped you achieve the success you've had. Don’t use it as a sign to give up, but also avoid blaming the coach for being biased or shortsighted. You might try out for a different team instead -- focusing on a club squad if you're cut from a school team, for example.
Learn How to Get Better
Getting cut from a team is never fun, but one way to make sure it doesn’t happen again is to learn what you need to make the squad next time. Sometimes, those in charge tell players, or parents of youth league players, what they were looking for. If the coaches at a baseball tryout say they were looking for power hitting and arm strength, you know what needs to improve. There’s also no harm in going up to the coach and asking what you could do better. Don’t complain or cry, but ask what areas he suggests you work on.
Reflect
Just because one tryout doesn’t go well doesn’t mean you should abandon the sport – if that were the case, Michael Jordan would have dropped basketball after ninth grade. But it also offers an opportunity to reflect. Your athletic dreams shouldn’t hinge on whether a coach likes you or not, but if this is the latest of several teams to turn you down, consider whether your skills and talents would be better utilized in a different sport or activity.
Learn Your Lesson
Tryouts can be random events, and anyone can have a bad day at the worst possible time. But once that initial hurt of rejection passes, it's time to take an honest look at what transpired. If there's something you could have done differently, or an area of your game that was clearly not up to par, write that down so you'll know for next time. The more you can own what happened and determine what went wrong, the better prepared you'll be the next time tryouts roll around.
It’s disappointing to be cut, but keeping that hurt inside isn’t healthy. Talking about how you feel can help. Call a friend or family member and discuss what happened. Pick someone who will be supportive, but who also knows you well and can keep you grounded. This serves two purposes -- it helps you process your feelings and communicate your hurt, and also lets others know what you're going through.
Put It in Perspective
Being cut from one team doesn’t mean all your efforts to get that far have been wasted. It just means that on that day, before those coaches, you weren’t one of the players picked. Remember all the sports teams you've made, and the accomplishments that helped you achieve the success you've had. Don’t use it as a sign to give up, but also avoid blaming the coach for being biased or shortsighted. You might try out for a different team instead -- focusing on a club squad if you're cut from a school team, for example.
Learn How to Get Better
Getting cut from a team is never fun, but one way to make sure it doesn’t happen again is to learn what you need to make the squad next time. Sometimes, those in charge tell players, or parents of youth league players, what they were looking for. If the coaches at a baseball tryout say they were looking for power hitting and arm strength, you know what needs to improve. There’s also no harm in going up to the coach and asking what you could do better. Don’t complain or cry, but ask what areas he suggests you work on.
Reflect
Just because one tryout doesn’t go well doesn’t mean you should abandon the sport – if that were the case, Michael Jordan would have dropped basketball after ninth grade. But it also offers an opportunity to reflect. Your athletic dreams shouldn’t hinge on whether a coach likes you or not, but if this is the latest of several teams to turn you down, consider whether your skills and talents would be better utilized in a different sport or activity.
Learn Your Lesson
Tryouts can be random events, and anyone can have a bad day at the worst possible time. But once that initial hurt of rejection passes, it's time to take an honest look at what transpired. If there's something you could have done differently, or an area of your game that was clearly not up to par, write that down so you'll know for next time. The more you can own what happened and determine what went wrong, the better prepared you'll be the next time tryouts roll around.
Posted in: School Sports
