What is a Failure Recovery System?
In my words; it is a conscious routine designed to overcome errors and keep athletes present, and it requires the following 3 steps:
- Acknowledgement – that an error has been made
- Connection – with a teammate / coach
- Re Focus – something to prompt you to what is coming next
In theory I think this tool is very applicable to youth sports, for these reasons:
- Errors are at a higher prevalence
- Those who make the errors (youth athletes) have a decreased resiliency to dealing with mistakes
I am about half way through the season for a Basketball team I coach and there have been some instances that have occurred which inspired me to implement a ‘Failure Recovery System’ with the group.
As mentioned above I love the concept in theory, however this being the first time I had put it into practice I was a little nervous on how a group of 13 & 14 year old boys may take to the idea.
Regardless, at our last training session we presented the above video to the group, before discussing the 3 steps I have mentioned above. We then challenged the group to create their own ‘Failure Recovery System’.
We were met with ….. [silence – I was worried] – but we responded with ….. [silence].
Eventually one of the players spoke and gave an example of how we could acknowledge that a mistake had been made…
[Phew! now discussion was starting to flow and we were off and running.]
After a short period of time we settled on the following as our ‘Failure Recovery System’:
Step #1 [Acknowledgement]: Saying ‘my bad’
Step #2 [Connection]: High five with a teammate
Step #3 [Re focus]: Saying ‘next play’
Later that day I reflected on the discussion we had and in hindsight I was really pleased with how well the group took to the concept.
I believe that over the next couple of weeks prompting will still be required for players to use the ‘Failure Recovery System’, however over an extended period of time I am excited to see how the players take to executing the concept and what the outcome of it is.
I will be sure to keep everyone posted on that – but for now I encourage you to look at implementing this system somewhere in your life (I don’t think sports is the only place it is applicable).
It’s a very simple concept and very easy to implement.
All that is left to do now is hope that it will bring about tremendously resilient and connected youth athletes as a result.
