Mistakes are Okay!
At least once a week, I have to ask one of my gymnasts, “Where are we right now? What are we doing?”
The answer is, “At practice.”
I say, “Right. At practice. Are we at “perfect”?
It is important to remind our gymnasts that it is okay to make mistakes. For in making mistakes, we have the opportunity to see what we did wrong and correct it.
If we expect our gymnasts to be perfect everyday, to compete perfectly in every meet, to only reward the highest scores, to work the hardest with the most successful gymnasts, then we are missing the opportunity entirely to teach our gymnasts what it means to get better. We are doing them a complete disservice by disallowing them to fail, get back up, learn from that failure, and try again.
If all they think is that they have one chance to get it right, then they will hold back. They will not take risks, they will not seek to to improve. Instead, they will expect that they need to be perfect every time to get the recognition from their coaches or parents.
I can guarantee you that any time there is a mistake made, there is an opportunity to learn from it. This is the life lesson we need to teach our kids.
And we must have the integrity to follow through. We cannot simply say that our gymnasts are allowed to make mistakes. We must react to their mistakes with an open mind and be ready to help our gymnasts see the possibilities that lie within them.
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