“Volleyball is a game of mistakes” is a common phrase in volleyball. In fact, Karch Kiraly, the former U.S. women’s national team volleyball coach, has been quoted many times saying that he loves watching his athletes struggle and make mistakes because it is the path to learning and improving.
Performance errors and setbacks are a part of a every sport, for every athlete, at every level. We all understand this concept and yet oftentimes have a difficult time recovering from the previous play and shifting the focus to the next one. If you find yourself worrying about the future, or dwelling on past mistakes during games, try this.
After making a performance error, it is common to re-play the event in your mind. The mental re-replay will either reinforce the impact of the error by dwelling on it, or help you recover and prepare for the next play by visualizing the correction and engaging in positive self-talk. Mentally fixing the error will prepare you for the next play and help you return to focusing on the present moment.
This “fix-it” and “play forward” mentality encourages athletes to control their reaction to error by re-directing attention towards the next play. Rather than responding to a mistake with a barrage of negative self-talk, try correcting the error in your mind and returning to the present moment in preparation for the next play.
Errors do not have to be catastrophic. The goal is not to never make mistakes in games or tournaments. The goal is to mentally recover from mistakes faster and move on to the next play. The question athletes need to answer is: how quickly do you move from an emotion focus to a task, problem-solving focus in competition? (Lodato, 2022). By creating intentional, consistent, and repeatable routines for handling errors in competition, you will learn to let go of the past and mentally prepare for the next play.
Practical Strategies
Here’s a few examples of practical and tangible strategies to embody the “fix-it” mentality and mentally move on to the next play.
- Step away from the baseline in tennis or service line in volleyball
- Redirect attention to a focus point or cue to clear the mind.
- Take a big inhale and mentally release the error on the exhale.
- Make a physical movement to symbolically “wipe it away”. Some volleyball players will wipe the sweat off their forehead or beach volleyball players may pick up sand and throw it to get rid of the error.
- Imagine flushing the away and going down a drain (Ravizza).
References
Lodato, V.A. (2022). Imagery and Visualization Week 7 [PowerPoint slides]. Sport Performance & Psychology, University of Western States.
Lodato, V.A. (2022). Handling Competitive Stress [Handout]. Sport Performance & Psychology, University of Western States.