The High’s Aren’t So High and the Low’s Aren’t So Low

Even though you’re here to learn about lacrosse, I want to share something I learned competing in a completely different sport.

I’m not talking about soccer, or hockey.  I’m talking about…

luge.

Seriously.

Luge is a winter Olympic sport where you slide down a roller coaster of ice, on your back, feet first.

Wearing Lululemon.

I finished fourth in the Olympics and some of the best advice I EVER got about succeeding in sport came from Luge and NOT lacrosse.

Some of the Best Advice I EVER Received.

Early on in my luge career I was given this advice. Doesn’t seem like much, but it was some of the best advice I ever received.

The highs aren’t so high and the lows aren’t so low.

But what exactly does it mean?

When you work so hard for success, it’s easy to overreact once that success comes. For my team we had difficulty putting two race runs together. We’d get one run down clean, but we’d seem to always screw one of them up. Disaster! We’d be down in the dumps. And down there often.

When success did come, and two runs came together, we would be ecstatic. I mean jump-out-of-your-skin giddy with excitement. This wasn’t the answer either. Our ups and downs looked like the readout on a heart beat machine. Up and down. Up and down.

It was this emotional rollercoaster and it was…exhausting.

But when my coach Lin Hancock told us, “Guys. The highs aren’t so high. And the low’s aren’t so low. You need to stay even,” It all started to make sense.

When you adopt this attitude of consistent persistence your approach becomes more businesslike. It’s just a matter of getting it done. You can celebrate little victories but you must quickly get back to work as usual. You remove the emotion kind of like a Zombie.

And the same approach goes for the failures as well. You must not have them ruin your day. They are just a blip on the radar of success. Learn from them, and move forward.

You might think that Lin gave us this advice when we were down in the dumps. Actually, he gave it to us right after one of our greatest victories. We had struggled and struggled and finally things came through. It was a huge success. But Lin took us aside and said, “Boys, the high’s aren’t so high, and the low’s aren’t so low. Keep your head straight and get back to work.”

I took that advice to my lacrosse career. I used to get so hung up on a bad game, or a bad goal. It stuck with me and I got really down about things. But when I started to apply the “highs aren’t so high and the lows aren’t so low” those “bad” goals weren’t “bad”. They were just missed saves.

Instead of letting them affect my mood, I just adjusted and tried to figure how to save them the next time. They changed from a negative experience to a learning experience.

My New Attitude Ruffled Some Feathers

You see, when you take a businesslike approach to your game, most people won’t understand you.

Many of your teammates, coaches and parents won’t think like this, and at first for me it was a bad experience with others.

When we won a big game people didn’t understand why I wasn’t happy like they were. I was more reserved. Thinking. Scheming about the next game.

When we lost a game and I wasn’t “down in the dumps” I really pissed people off because I looked like I didn’t care.

It took a lot of resolve on my part not to get angry back. It took some educating on my part. I needed to educate some parents, coaches and teammates to look at things a little bit differently. Ultimately that attitude has served me well.

I still get upset when I lose because that’s a normal response.  It shows you care and that’s what’s being a competitor is all about.

But the sadness doesn’t come from losing for losings sake, it comes from thinking about missed opportunities. But that feeling of sadness is quickly replaced by an inner excitement. One driven by the idea that, “I can be better. I will be better. Next time I will be better.”

Every day. Improving. Every day. Learning. Every day. Getting better.

Be The Programmer of Your Goalie-bot

Imagine you aren’t “you” the lacrosse goalie, you are programming a robot who plays lacrosse.

(I’m pretty sure this is going to happen soon, lol)

In all seriousness.  Imagine you are watching you, the goalie-bot, play the game.  If a goal went in, how upset would you be?  How upset would the goalie-bot be?

The answer is…not very.

No, you would see the ball that just went by you and you would think:

1. Did the goalie-bot see it?

2. Did the goalie-bot process where it was going?

3. Did the goalie-bot move effectively in front of the ball?

Sounds a lot like my Three Keys To Making Any Save, doesn’t it?

No emotion.  No frustration.  Just a calculation.

That is really where you need to be mentally.

As a human, we are affected by our emotions.  That is what really drives any sort of hesitation when making a save.  There is fear and doubt and wondering and scheming and thinking and doubting and fearing and wondering.  Those are very human traits.

But as your new “goalie-bot” self, you can remove that emotion.  I often say…

“It’s not the ball itself that makes the save difficult or not difficult, it’s what happens before the shot is taken that makes it difficult.”

It’s all the discussion before the game that puts you in a mindset of, “this is a BIG game!” or not. It’s the weather and the hype and the news and the videos and the Instagram stories about your opponent. All of those things will affect how you feel.

And when you make a save it’s easy to get UP and when you miss a ball it’s easy to get DOWN.

Don’t be like that.  Remember, the high’s aren’t so high.

The lows aren’t so low.

Rise above the noise with your new goalie-bot self and…thrive.