The Barefoot Coach by Paddy Upton

Author:Paddy Upton [Upton, Paddy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789387894983
Published: 2019-04-24T18:30:00+00:00

RONALDO:

27 goals in 28 games

178 shots at goal (45.5 per cent on target; 15.2 per cent scored)

MESSI:

21 goals in 21 games

105 shots at goal (53.3 per cent on target; 20.0 per cent scored)3

In effect, we can say that 54.5 per cent of Ronaldo’s shots at goal were off target and 84.8 per cent of his strikes were unsuccessful. Messi’s radar was out 46.7 per cent of the time, and 80 per cent of his attempts at goal failed. For what it’s worth, Suarez had better accuracy and success at goal than both of them (55.7 per cent on target and 24.5 per cent goals scored).

In 2008, when Tiger Woods was still the world’s undisputed number one golfer, he only hit 59 per cent of his fairways off the tee. He was ranked a scanty 157th on the PGA tour in that category. He missed his assumed target four times out of every ten attempts. At the same time, Woods was one of the greatest risk-takers and putters in the game. ‘Failing’ in one area didn’t make him a lesser player. As his then caddy, Steve Williams, explained in an interview with New Zealand’s The Dominion Post: ‘When Woods doesn’t three-putt over a 72-hole stretch, he will win the tournament 90 per cent of the time—and that’s a goal they strive for.’4 Warts and all.

The list of examples is very long. To mention just one more, at the time of writing, Kobe Bryant has missed more shots than any professional basketballer in history: 14,481. I guess this makes him the game’s greatest ever failure?

The rather obvious reality of failure is that it will come to all athletes—it is as inevitable as death. If you play, you will fail, and if you are born, you will die. Yet athletes fear failure, coaches get upset, parents are disappointed, fans find fault and commentators dissect every move in great detail. At the outset of every new season, I give the athletes I am working with a guarantee that they will make mistakes and will fail, imploring them to not worry about what is bound to happen. We then focus all our energies on setting up for success.

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