{"id":2836,"date":"2015-01-09T13:20:59","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T18:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gridironstuds.com\/blog\/?p=2836"},"modified":"2015-01-09T13:20:59","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T18:20:59","slug":"so-you-want-to-be-an-underdog-why-athletes-who-seem-to-have-it-all-just-want-to-give-it-all-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/so-you-want-to-be-an-underdog-why-athletes-who-seem-to-have-it-all-just-want-to-give-it-all-away\/","title":{"rendered":"So You Want to Be An Underdog? Why Athletes Who Seem to Have it All Just Want to Give it All Away"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Belief in Your Ability and Success Comes First<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By: Chad Wilson – Editor – Gridiron Studs Blog<\/strong><\/em>
\nTwitter: @GridironStuds<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Have you ever seen the four touchdown underdog storm into a game vs. a bigger and better opponent and take the game over? \u00a0Have you seen them shock the favorite early on and jump out to an incredible lead? \u00a0If you have been watching sports for any amount of time, \u00a0you have certainly witnessed this situation. \u00a0If you’ve seen it happen then you have undoubtedly witnessed what I am about to unfold next.<\/p>\n

The majority of the situations I just described end in this fashion: \u00a0Underdog comes out fired up and gets the early lead. \u00a0Some hold it or increase it into the the mid to late stages of the game and at some point it happens. \u00a0The underdog starts thinking about their history. \u00a0We aren’t winners they start saying to themselves. \u00a0We aren’t supposed to be in this position. \u00a0There’s no way we can beat this team and enjoy this success. \u00a0Right about that time, \u00a0the favorite starts making their move. \u00a0The momentum starts to swing, \u00a0the underdog begins to fulfill the self doubt despite all of the success they have been having and they get overcome with the adversity. \u00a0Game, set, match. \u00a0The underdog did not believe in their future as a winner, \u00a0they did not feel comfortable being in their position on top despite all of their success and so they fell into their familiar role as the loser.<\/p>\n

Have you ever wondered why talented athletes from a clouded circumstance make unbelievably bad choices and derail their futures despite all that they have at stake? \u00a0The answer may lie in the study of the failed underdog losing a big lead to the favorite. \u00a0The same factors at work on the underdog team with the big lead are the same factors at work on the talented athlete from the inner city who seemingly has it all. \u00a0Both of the subjects don’t believe in their future success despite the richness of their current circumstance. \u00a0I mean really, \u00a0how do you lose a 28 point lead in the second half? \u00a0I’ll tell you how. \u00a0Every year that favorite beats you and does so soundly. \u00a0Many times in the past you have played teams like this and have been run off the field of play. \u00a0Once before you even had a lead and gave it away to this team or a team like it. \u00a0Every year we have a losing record, \u00a0just like we have this year. \u00a0Those factors plague the mind of the underdog and do so with more intensity as their lead grows. \u00a0Why does this happen? \u00a0The bigger the lead, \u00a0the more you have to lose. \u00a0The more you have to lose, \u00a0the more you think about how you have lost in the past. \u00a0This type of psychological Russian roulette is played at warp speed and\u00a0gets you to the chamber with the bullet in it with the quickness. \u00a0You come from losing, \u00a0you are not supposed to be successful and so you\u00a0drop the pass, fumble the ball, miss the tackle and fulfill the prophesy. \u00a0It didn’t matter that you were\u00a0successful at all of these tasks for the last two or three quarters.<\/p>\n

How do you go breaking into cars one week before leaving to play college football? Or how is it that you commit any assortment of felonies or code of conduct infractions when it is widely known that you have the talent to become a professional athlete or at the very least obtain a college scholarship at no cost? \u00a0I’ll tell you how. \u00a0Most everyone in your neighborhood is experiencing some type of obvious failure. \u00a0You witnessed this failure on daily basis. \u00a0You may have a large portion of your family members that have fumbled the ball in life. \u00a0Those that you keep company with have slipped off of the road of life more than a few times. \u00a0Some of the folks in your day to day life have even had success sitting right in their hands and now they are spending their days sitting on the crate in front of Circle K food store trying to tell people about it. \u00a0Losing is all around you. \u00a0It seems to be what happens to people who come from where you come from. \u00a0In your mind, \u00a0everyone in your neighborhood, in\u00a0your circle, wears the same jersey that you do. \u00a0You are all on the same team and your team just doesn’t win the big game.<\/p>\n

I have observed this phenomenon over and over during my 42 years on Earth. \u00a0It saddens me every time. \u00a0However, \u00a0the underdog doesn’t always lose. \u00a0Sometimes, \u00a0the underdog gets that lead, keeps that lead and wins the game. Sometimes that inner city athlete goes to college, \u00a0makes it through, \u00a0earns his degree or \u00a0goes pro and never has to pose for the judicial photoshoot. \u00a0 In both cases, \u00a0there is one overriding factor always and that is belief. \u00a0A true belief in your future success, \u00a0in your ability to win, \u00a0in your right to achieve will beat down the seeds of doubt when they try to sprout a gigantic shade tree. \u00a0 This is true for every team that pulls an Appalachain St. over Michigan type upset and in every athlete from an impoverished background that acquires the American dream.<\/p>\n

You want athletes to succeed, \u00a0get them to believe in their future. \u00a0Do not assume that because they are highly touted that they are immune to the underdog mentality. \u00a0In fact, \u00a0assume quite the opposite. A kid with much to lose is often the one that is most fragile. \u00a0Dig deep into any upset and you’ll find that someone got that team to believe. \u00a0It could have been one player on the team, an inspirational speaker, the head coach, \u00a0a psycho strength coach in tight polyester pants screaming the word believe in their\u00a0ears with each rep a player took in the weight room that week. You read the biography of any athlete that overcame their circumstance and there was always someone that encouraged them and believed in them. \u00a0 It might be a grandma, an uncle, a coach or believe it or not their parents. \u00a0How about that?<\/p>\n

You want the best for your athletes, \u00a0first believe in them. \u00a0Second, \u00a0get them to believe in themselves. \u00a0The history of their team is that of being in the losing locker room. \u00a0Show them and make them believe that there’s a place in the winner’s circle for them too. \u00a0Developing their physical prowess is nice and necessary but ignore the power of belief and you will be forced\u00a0to recognize the ramifications of the lack of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Chad Wilson – Editor – Gridiron Studs Blog Twitter: @GridironStuds Have you ever seen the four touchdown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gridironstuds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}