Lessons Learned from Painful Defeat

Losing is never fun. Whether it’s not landing a job or not closing a deal, suffering defeat is always painful. Sometimes however the pain is worse, especially when victory is so close at hand. Such was the case on Monday when Georgia Tech’s Yellow Jackets went down to the 16^th ranked Virginia Tech Hoakies. With victory easily in their grasp, the Yellow Jackets defense gave up a fourth and four pass from Logan Thomas to Corey Fuller for 23 yards. That brought the ball to within field goal range of Cody Journell, who missed one earlier, but this time kicked a 41-yarder for the Hoakies to tie the game and send it into overtime.



Georgia Tech head coach Paul
Johnson must rally his team
after hearbreaking loss

Certainly this was a dagger in the hearts of the Jackets, but the worst was yet to come. On their first possession in overtime Georgia Tech had a third down situation and, instead of taking a sack or throwing the ball away, quarterback Tevin Williams fired blindly and under pressure right into the hands of Virginia Tech defender Kyle Fuller. Six plays later Journell kicked through the winner from 17 yards.

The problem for Georgia Tech is their 17-14 defeat to the Hoakies was more than just a singular loss. It put a serious dent in their hopes for a special season. In fact, Tech now must look at the daunting task of possibly having to run the table in order to finish ranked and have a shot at the ACC title. In order to accomplish both, the Jackets must beat Clemson, Oct. 6 at Death Valley and then top Georgia in Athens November 24. Beyond that the Jackets have BYU on October 27 at home and North Carolina at Chapel Hill on November 11. Both the Cougars and Carolina could also be among the top 25 by the time they meet Tech.

So how do you deal with a heartbreaking loss? How do you get yourself up for that next job interview, prepare for the next client presentation, or for that matter win the next game, or the next several. Believe it or not there are people out there—they are called mental training coaches— that study such things. One such individual is Rob Polishook who founded Inside the Zone Sports Performance Group (insidethezone.com). Rob has appeared numerous places, including on ESPN. He offers five ways to get over the downer associated with a bad defeat.

First, says Rob, you have to allow yourself to accept the disappointment, release the bad feelings and realize that when victory does come, it will be all the more satisfying. Second, know that you are one step closer to reaching your goal. Polishook uses the example of tennis player Raphael Nadal, whose first two years on the court were laden with setbacks. He also refers to Babe Ruth who said every strike out puts him one step closer to another home run. The third way to overcome defeat, according to Polishook, is to listen for feedback. Asks the mental training coach in an article for his on-line publication, “Was there every a great champion, individual or team, that didn’t learn from failures, setbacks and obstacles?” Next, the performance expert said “reframe” the defeat. What can be learned from the loss? And give yourself credit for, in the Tech example, not playing a cushy opponent to start the season. Finally, Polishook says your performance is another step on the road to your ultimate goal. You learn things in the heat of battle that you cannot possibly learn in practice.

The rest of the season for Georgia Tech will not only be a test of football skill. It will be a test of character, of their ability to fight back. It could provide a lesson for everyone who has ever seen a victory taken away in a most heartbreaking fashion.

Quick Takes…Sad to see Arthur Triche leave the Hawks as their head of PR. He was there over two decades after working for awhile with the Detroit Lions. We wish him the best…Braves continue to hold on to that Wild Card lead and seem destined for the one-game play-in game. If that should happen, manager Fredi Gonzalez has no choice, I believe, but to go with Kris Medlen as his starter. Medlen has been lights out, and, while you’d like to see a veteran like Tim Hudson take the mound, you have to go with the hot hand in Medlen—assuming he remains hot through the end of the season…For those who think four games is too many in the NFL’s preseason, check this out: the Cleveland Browns played seven preseason games in 1956, more than half the 12 regular season games. Six preseason games were standard in those days unless, as with the ’56 Browns, a team won NFL championship the year before. In that case the team would play in the annual College All-Star Game against a team of college graduates headed to the NFL, adding an additional game to the usual six-game preseason slate.