What is attitude? Today it has so many interpretations; good attitude, bad attitude and some times a “bad” attitude is good? Positive attitudes and negative attitudes. The phrase “They have attitude” might mean a combination of arrogance and confidence. Attitude comes in all shapes and sizes. Literally attitude means “ones disposition, the manner of acting feeling or thinking that shows ones disposition, opinion etc”, in a nut shell your attitude is a reflection of what’s going on inside and has a direct impact on your behavior and how others behave towards you.

Where do you begin to develop a winning attitude?

CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE

There is always a choice about the way you [practice or play] even if there is not a choice about the [practice or play ] itself (Lundin, paul Christensen,2000). Although athletes may be born with physical talent, attitude is something they attain through training. “Attitude is NOT something you’re born with,” says Peter Haberl, a sports psychologist with the United States Olympic Committee. “Attitude is a decision.”(ASP, 2007)

MASTERY VS. OUTCOME

Components to a winning attitude are the desire to win, externally driven and the desire to perform your best internally driven (Asp, 2005). The key to the above statement is to focus on performing your best not on the outcome of the event….the Olympic motto is:

Citius
Altius
Fortius

or Faster, Higher, Stronger. Why isn’t it Fastest, Highest, Strongest?” (PCA, 2006), because it is about mastery of your discipline and continuous improvement. Top athletes in the world focus on their own performance and personal bests not on comparing themselves to the competitor or being obsessed with the score. Joan Duda, Sports Psychologist did a study of the teams in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, those teams that were focused on a mastery environment (their personal bests) won more medals than those who were focused on the scoreboard and trying to beat the competition.(PCA, 2007).

BE PRESENT

Be there and be focused. If you let your energy and attention drift you are now just wasting your own time. Sometimes you can draw your energy from the practices/events. There are times when these can be not the most exciting or they are repetitive and low key, or maybe you’ve had a bad day. Know yourself and find ways to reenergize and refocus yourself. You can’t always choose where you have to be or what is happening, but you can chose how you react. You get out exactly what you put in.

HAVE FUN !

I can’t stress this enough, fun is critical part of our lives. Play for the shear joy of playing. Have fun, we play sports because we have a passion for the game, bring that joy and enthusiasm with you. Don’t forget that the joy can be infectious and bring a lift to yourself and everyone around you. Tiffany Milbert is great example of a player who plays for fun and the love of the sport. She brings that same energy to her practices and works hard on the parts of her game that need work. It shows in what a great player she is. (DiCicco, Hacker,2002). On days when your tank is empty find someone else who has the winning attitude to help you reenergize. But be the catalyst whenever you can and fill others tanks as well. As teammates we have a tremendous influence on our team’s energy. You can generate the wave of winning attitude in your team just by your own behavior. When you enjoy what you do it shows.

“ACT AS IF”

Confidence is incredibly important to the concept of acting as if. The coach and the players must act as if they can handle every situation and NOT by being cocky or arrogant. You DO have to act as if you know what it takes to get the job done. (DiCicco, Hacker,2002). Acting as if is a powerful mental tool, it ultimately becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, you do it long enough it becomes who you are. You can recognize those with the right attitude: they are not making excuses or hanging their heads after a mistake; they are moving on and focusing on the next play because they know they are going to fix it and get it next time. Be able to make a mistake and shake it off and move on. Act as if….

DUMP YOUR EGO

If not, you won’t allow yourself to do things that make you look bad and in the end, that will keep you from getting better. Tennis players, for example, who have a weak backhand might try to avoid hitting a backhand shot and run around the ball to hit a forehand because they don’t want to look bad or lose. Do this and that backhand will never improve. (ASP, 2005).

HAVE A PLAN

What are your goals? You need to understand your own objectives. Break it down into manageable pieces. “I want to be the best player there is” …that on a number of levels becomes an unwieldy challenge; it is ambiguous… what does the best mean?? even the best want to get better, and it is too big to wrap your hands around to formulate a good plan.
Get together with your coach or trainer to help you develop a plan.
Focus on the techniques, tactics and mental aspects of your game that when mastered move your performance forward. Focus on what it takes to get to the next level not 8 levels up. You then create a stable and solid foundation for continuous improvement. “By the end of summer I will have a consistent GoalKick that reaches the circle”, that is an example of a manageable goal for a soccer goalkeeper that will move her as an athlete forward by leaps and bounds!

LET IT BE YOU…..

…that has the winning attitude. It makes for a lot more fun, more opportunity for success, an ability to cope and deal, in a healthy manner, with failure and mistakes. It gives you the

ability to move your performance forward in an effective and constructive way and tune out external negative influences. Winning attitudes help you and your team!

Biblography:
• “Catch them being Good”, Tony DiCicco, Colleen Hacker, PhD., (Viking Penguin, 2002) pp 167-169
• “Fish” Stephen C. Lundin, PhD., Harry Paul, John Christensen, (hyperion, 2000) PP 37,67-69
• “Get an Olympic Attitude: How to Be a Winner, Even When You Lose” by Karen Asp (www.http://www.aurorahealthcare.org/yourhealth/healthgate/getcontent.asp?URLhealthgate=%2213811.html)
• Positive Coaching alliance (www.positvecoach.org)

Catherine Gordon is the Founder and Director of Net Edge Training, LLC. Since 1999, Net Edge Training has specialized in goalkeeping training for players of all ages, from youth to collegiate. A former USL W-League goalkeeper for the New Jersey Wildcats. Gordon boasts over 25 years experience between the pipes. A graduate of Purdue University. A consummate athlete she was a letter winner in four varsity sports during high school and throughout her athletic career has received over a dozen awards from Golden Glove, All Tourney to MVP. She played basketball in college for Ft.Lewis College DII and concluded her collegiate career playing soccer her senior year for the Boilermakers Soccer Club. Gordon is a Division I Goalkeeper Coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University, in Teaneck, NJ. Gordon holds a USSF “C” License and a NSCAA Advanced National Goalkeeping Diploma. She also serves as a goalkeeper evaluator for the Olympic Development Program (ODP) and is a Certified Trainer for Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA). Gordon has trained with Tony DiCicco, Tony Waiters and Peter Mellor.

“It is all about the athlete and their opportunity to develop and excel on and off the pitch. My goal is to bring the best and most current practices, strategies, and enthusiasm from these varied sources to today’s Goalkeepers”

* USSF “C” License
* USSF Referee
* NSCAA Advanced National Goalkeeping Diploma
* NSCAA Member
* US Soccer Foundation Member
* Women’s Sports Foundation Member