Positive Winning Attitudes

What is a winning attitude?

What do you need? Write down as many words as you can that describe what you have to be to have a WINNING ATTITUDE

IMPROVE FUN EFFORT BRAVE DETERMINED OPTIMISTIC RESILIENT SELF-BELIEF LEARN SELF-ESTEEM SELF-BELIEF Before you show this slide, ask the class to shout out their thoughts/note them down as groups or individuals. Then put up this slide to initiate discussion. Highlight/expand upon certain qualities. Provide examples from your own life and sporting career where you have demonstrated some of these qualities and why it proved important to do so in the long term. In particular, try to pick out some examples of times where you have had to overcome challenges (illness/injury etc) or succeeded against the odds. Highlight the quality of being resilient and taking the opportunity to learn from your mistakes. Ask pupils to give you examples of times when they have had to show certain qualities or when they have seen them demonstrated by people they know/sports people or other well known individuals. MOTIVATED DISCIPLINED FOCUS 4

Motivation Determination Self-belief Self-discipline Respect Focus Motivation – if we have a reason for doing something we are more likely to succeed- wanting to succeed and achieve. Determination –keeping going even when it’s challenging because we want to succeed- setting your goals and having the will-power to keep going until you get them. Self-belief – building up the confidence in your skills and abilities. Knowing that with effort and determination you will do it! Self-discipline – tell the class of times when you’ve been self-disciplined and seen the benefit. Making the correct decisions for you to meet your goals, even when it’s boring or difficult. Respect – if we take time to respect those supporting, helping and leading us we benefit. Showing respect and generosity towards those who help and support us to meet our goals. Focus - keeping your concentration fixed on what you are trying to achieve and not being distracted. Both in the moment of training and competition and in looking towards your goals for the future. Maintaining focus from distractions that will inhibit your opportunity to achieve.

Success on the scoreboard? How do you determine success and winning? Success on the scoreboard? There is more than one way to define ‘success’. Scoreboard winning: black and white, more goals, first across the line etc….. This is about being the best on the day: winning medals, trophies and plaudits. It’s a great feeling – satisfaction & pride. Often how a sporting career is evaluated: number of wins. Many of the pupils will have enjoyed this kind of success too - winning a match, tournament or competition or finishing top of the class in an exam. This kind of success is only in the moment. Once you achieve a win you need to learn from the victory and determine how you can become even better next time. You need to set new goals (refer to goal setting exercise). It only happens as a result of the process of committing your self to becoming the best that you can be: as a culmination of hard work and effort when all the days and days of training and preparation come together at a moment in time. So ‘scoreboard success’ is one way of defining winning.

Or success through sustained effort? The journey to personal success counts for much more – and it lasts forever. Consistent scoreboard winning can only occur as a result of dedicated hard work and determination to reach a goal. It’s like the cherry on the cake. True personal success comes from trying your hardest to be as good as you can be in whatever you do. A great training session can bring an athlete an immense sense of satisfaction: they know that they have made steps to achieving their next goal. In competition if an athlete has done everything they can on the day and everything they can to prepare for an event and they don’t win on the scoreboard, they are still proud and satisfied that they have worked as best they can – and that is more important than the whether they are first or thirty-first. The important thing is taking all the opportunities that you can to maximise your performance. If an athlete does not win, they use this to motivate themselves to train harder and smarter so that they have the potential to win the next time. The most important thing is to try and reach your own potential and to know inside that regardless of the scoreboard result that you have given it your best shot. The best way to do this is have a winning attitude every day. Ask the class if they have ever had a difficulty with something. Perhaps their homework was too hard, or they were losing in a sports match. What did they do? Did they give up or were they determined, hard working and kept going? Did it feel good? Did they say: ‘it was worth it’ afterwards? The key point here is that although winning on the scoreboard is good, a true measure of winning is having the motivation and determination to try your hardest all the time. That’s what personal success is about. A commitment to trying your hardest and becoming the best that you can be in all that you do?

Through their winning attitudes they have made it to the top. Winners were not always the most talented person in the class: they work hard to get to where they are. Through their winning attitudes they have made it to the top. Keira Knightley (pic from Pirates of the Caribbean) is one of the most recognisable actresses in the world – a Hollywood star who has made it to the very top of her profession. Keira is dyslexic. She had difficulties at school with reading, writing and maths. She desperately wanted to become an actress and she knew that in order to do so she would have to learn to read. Through sheer hard work she learned to read and overcome her dyslexia although she sometimes has problems when she gets tired and finds sight-reading difficult. She used to dread acting auditions because she couldn’t read the scripts. Now she makes sure that she prepares well in advance working hard to learn the lines for each audition. Chris Hoy is Scotland’s greatest ever Olympian – he has won six gold medals including two at the London 2012 Olympics. What is amazing about Chris though, is that he says he was never the most talented athlete. He did lots of sports at school – rugby, rowing, athletics, BMX. He was good at sport – but he was never the best. There were always other pupils who were better than him. However, he found he had a passion and talent for cycling and With determination, commitment, dedication and effort has been the one of the best track cyclists in the world for over a decade. Both of them went on to become two of the most respected individuals in their field. Why? Because they worked hard at what they believed in. EMPHASISE THAT THEY WORKED VERY HARD IN SCHOOL TOO, AND ALWAYS TRIED THEIR HARDEST!! Being the best isn’t about talent. It’s about working hard, commitment and believing in yourself. Chris Hoy became an Olympic champion because he never gave up, and was determined to win. He says that because he always finished second at school, it motivated him to try even harder!

RESILIENCE: Lionel Messi Successful athletes work hard in pursuit of their goals. However, they are also resilient. They “bounce back”. They find ways to overcome obstacles and view problems as “challenges” to be overcome. Lionel Messi: Although a fantastically talented footballer, as a child, Messi had a condition called ‘growth hormone deficiency’, and was rejected by his local club in Argentina, because he was too small. When he was 13 he was only the size of a 10-yr-old. However Barcelona scouted Messi and saw the determination in him, signed him, and paid the medical bills to ensure he grew to a relatively normal size. He is now (officially) the best footballer in the world, playing for the best team in the world (Barcelona).

EFFORT & DETERMINATION: Katherine Grainger Always the bridesmaid but (almost) never the bride OR rewarded for sheer determination and effort? Katherine Grainger is Britain’s most decorated rower and is the first British female athlete to win medals at four consecutive Olympic Games. World Champion:1997, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011. Olympic silver medal Sydney 2000 Olympic silver medal Athens 2004 Olympic silver medal Beijing 2008 Olympic GOLD medal London 2012 Katherine Grainger is Britain’s most successful rower. She was born in Glasgow. For over 16 years she dedicated herself to winning an Olympic Gold medal. She was an incredibly successful athlete, winning 6 world titles and 23 world medals in her sport, including 3 Olympic silver medals. Many athletes would have been happy with winning a single Olympic medal or a single world title but Katherine was not satisfied. Her goal had always been to win a gold medal and in 2012 she reached that goal showing all the qualities that make a winning attitude: self belief; determination; effort; resilience; self discipline and motivation.

LEARNING AND IMPROVING Athletes are continually learning how to improve their performances because they are striving to be their very best and to reach their potential. Many athletes say that they learn more from the mistakes that they make in training and competition. “I'm proud of the way I've dealt with setbacks. It's hard when you feel down and you think, 'Why is the world doing this to me?' But you have to pick yourself up again. That's what makes you a better athlete.” – Jessica Ennis Athletes are continually learning how to better their performances. Give some examples of things that you have learnt that have bettered athletic your performances. This may include learning and practicing new skills/strategies, nutritional changes, modifications to training. When you have made a mistake do you ignore it, treat it as bad luck? Or do you work out why it happened and how you can prevent the same thing from happening in the future? Every training session and every race is an opportunity to learn more about what works but often athletes will tell you that they learn more from doing something incorrectly. It’s OK to make mistakes, the important thing is to make sure that you learn from them, and don’t repeat them. Give examples of when this has been true in your career. Encourage the pupils as seeing mistakes as an opportunity for learning and growing. Ask them to volunteer times when they have learnt from their mistakes.

Adopt a positive winning attitude for life! CHAMPION’S CHALLENGE Adopt a positive winning attitude for life! Champion’s Challenge This is an opportunity to conclude and recap on what you’ve talked about. This is your last visit with the pupils. This on-going challenge is to encourage the pupils to adopt a positive winning attitude: to give 100% in everything that they do and to dedicating themselves to becoming the best that they can in all areas of their lives. The traits/ skills you have been talking about are qualities that the pupils will need to use in every aspect of their lives. This talk isn’t just about getting through the rest of the school year, it’s about dealing with every challenge they face and being successful in whatever they do in life. Insert your own successful picture(s) in the blank space here. Celebrating with team-mates, winning an event or holding a trophy or medals.