What Mindset Helps Turn Around a Losing Season?
When you are having a losing season, digging yourself out of that hole may seem impossible. If you accept that losing is inevitable, your motivation, confidence, and work ethic will drop significantly.
Not much will change if you are not committed to trying to find an answer. What happens when you are not committed to working towards a solution?
When a team takes on a negative mindset, several consequences can happen:
- Losing can lead to team disunity and finger-pointing. Blaming your coaches or teammates for poor play is the quickest way for your season to spiral downward.
- A lack of individual confidence can infect the team’s mindset, leading to a lack of confidence and trust.
- Overlooking personal accountability prevents you from seeing what you could do to help turn around the season.
- Negative expectations cause you to expect more of the same. Each loss, then, becomes evidence of more losses in the future.
- A losing season can cause some players to shift their focus from team success to prioritizing personal statistics. Selfish play erodes team chemistry.
- Some teams check out mentally when the playoffs seem out of reach. They give up before the season ends.
The question is, what needs to change to turn the season around? Turning around the season starts with a change in mindset.
You need to move from an “Expect-to-Lose” Mindset to a “Work-towards-a-Solution” Mindset.
A “Work-towards-a-Solution” Mindset includes:
- Pulling together instead of the team drifting apart.
- Maintaining a high level of energy and effort in practice.
- Each team member takes responsibility for their attitude and efforts moving forward.
- Focusing on the present instead of past losses.
- Prioritizing team goals over personal stats.
- Keep the emphasis on improvement and view every game, practice, and training session as an opportunity for growth.
- Never give up.
Your experiences can help you build the necessary mental toughness to turn the season around.
Let’s look at an example from collegiate basketball. The University of Vermont women’s basketball team started the season 5-10. Earning a spot in the NCAA tournament looked out of reach to those outside the team.
Despite the odds, Vermont finished the season on a 16-2 run, winning the America East Conference Championship and earning a berth in the 2025 NCAA tournament.
Vermont knew that to turn the season around, they needed a new mindset. Vermont senior guard Bella Vito said the team had some serious discussions to revise their mindset and play the way they knew they were capable.
VITO: “We got tired of losing. We got tired of getting so close and not being able to win those close games. And as a team, we came together, and we had some tough conversations… It’s hard to have confidence when your shots aren’t going in and stuff like that. Having confidence can change the whole game.”
Losing streaks can erode your confidence if you let them. While negative mindsets can harm a team, the good news is you have the power to change that.
Teams that foster a positive mindset can use it to turn a season around, compete with consistency, and as a foundation for future success.
A losing season can feel like an uphill battle, but the key to turning things around is changing how you think about challenges. Instead of dwelling on losses, adopt a “Work-towards-a-Solution” mindset.Mindset is everything!
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