As I reflect back on this amazing experience I have had in my world tournament, I can immediately make connections to the book Mindset. Parents, teachers and coaches “need to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning” instead of only praising kids brains and talents making the child doubt as soon as anything is hard or goes wrong. I can connect my coach, Tony Luque, to this quote. In our tournament we lost all of our games, great games but the victory was still not seen. We lost games by just 1 goal and lost others by more than 15 goals but our coach would always tell us “Rise up, the tournament has not ended, we have faith and have always had faith in all of you. You are capable of doing great things but you have to believe in it”. Tony would always congratulate us for our effort even though the results were not the best; he knew that we were playing with our heart, fighting for a Peru in the world cup.
As the book says, it is important that kids reflect on their effort. This is why after a game, I took 10-60 minutes writing about what I had to work on, what I did well, how did the group do. We should admire the effort we put into our work and not only its outcome, this is a great problems in schools, students and parents only focus on a number instead of appreciating their effort. This is why the Innovation Academy (IA) is a great program, we are graded through feedback allowing us to create beautiful work and not create work just for a number, we follow our passion for learning.
Parents, teachers and coaches should not protect students from failure. Failure is the best tool for learning; only if you accept that you have failed before. Every word and action can send a message judging or developing new traits or interests. “Children are very sensitive to these messages” This is why my mom’s signature on her mail is “to teach is to touch a life forever”. Anything you do or show a student can make a difference in their lives. I remember some teachers, in 4th grade Mr. Sostak (I’m not sure if he’s last name is written like that), he made me want to become a teacher! Then in 5th grade Mr. Wittig, a great teacher, always funny but giving tons of constructive comments that have helped me until now or Mr. Topf, the founder of the IA, the teacher that changed my way of thinking educational wise. Even my kindergarten teacher Ms. Chela, she told me “Gino”, I still remember.
“Many coaches lament that when they give their athletes corrective feedback, the athletes grumble that their confidence is being undermined. Sometimes the athletes call home and complain to their parents. They seem to want coaches who will simply tell them how talented they are and leave it at that”. This is true. I am a professional athlete and I have passed through stages like this, especially when I just started playing water polo. I wanted to be the best, and didn’t realize that to be the best you had to learn from the best by constructive feedback in this case from Tony. Tony changed my way of thinking about feedback, he always shouted at me, always calling my name, giving me responsibilities, critiquing me and I realized it was because he cared about me and wanted me to success. This is why “Children need honest and constructive feedback. Constructive means helping a child to fix something, build a better product, or do a better job”.
Growth mindset coaches don’t simply ask did I win or did I lose. They investigate in depth, check their player’s effort, compare the amount of mistakes created, evaluate the game and their opponents. A great coach knows that sometimes losing a game brings experience and experience takes you closer to the gold medal.
I can say that this quote is true based on past experiences: “GM coaches do not have to be soft. They do not tolerate coasting. If players were coasting during practice he turned off the lights and left. Practice would be over. They had lost their opportunity to become better that day”. Coaches and teachers with a growth mindset are great at motivating and analyzing player. With these skills the coach can help his players fulfill their potential not only in their sport but also in life.
To end up, I wanted to highlight that it is important not to judge or label people, people with a FM do this a lot. Failure doesn’t mean that you are dumb it means that you need to work harder and put even more effort, it helps you measure yourself and at the end as any successful entrepreneur you will find glory.
As the book says, it is important that kids reflect on their effort. This is why after a game, I took 10-60 minutes writing about what I had to work on, what I did well, how did the group do. We should admire the effort we put into our work and not only its outcome, this is a great problems in schools, students and parents only focus on a number instead of appreciating their effort. This is why the Innovation Academy (IA) is a great program, we are graded through feedback allowing us to create beautiful work and not create work just for a number, we follow our passion for learning.
Parents, teachers and coaches should not protect students from failure. Failure is the best tool for learning; only if you accept that you have failed before. Every word and action can send a message judging or developing new traits or interests. “Children are very sensitive to these messages” This is why my mom’s signature on her mail is “to teach is to touch a life forever”. Anything you do or show a student can make a difference in their lives. I remember some teachers, in 4th grade Mr. Sostak (I’m not sure if he’s last name is written like that), he made me want to become a teacher! Then in 5th grade Mr. Wittig, a great teacher, always funny but giving tons of constructive comments that have helped me until now or Mr. Topf, the founder of the IA, the teacher that changed my way of thinking educational wise. Even my kindergarten teacher Ms. Chela, she told me “Gino”, I still remember.
“Many coaches lament that when they give their athletes corrective feedback, the athletes grumble that their confidence is being undermined. Sometimes the athletes call home and complain to their parents. They seem to want coaches who will simply tell them how talented they are and leave it at that”. This is true. I am a professional athlete and I have passed through stages like this, especially when I just started playing water polo. I wanted to be the best, and didn’t realize that to be the best you had to learn from the best by constructive feedback in this case from Tony. Tony changed my way of thinking about feedback, he always shouted at me, always calling my name, giving me responsibilities, critiquing me and I realized it was because he cared about me and wanted me to success. This is why “Children need honest and constructive feedback. Constructive means helping a child to fix something, build a better product, or do a better job”.
Growth mindset coaches don’t simply ask did I win or did I lose. They investigate in depth, check their player’s effort, compare the amount of mistakes created, evaluate the game and their opponents. A great coach knows that sometimes losing a game brings experience and experience takes you closer to the gold medal.
I can say that this quote is true based on past experiences: “GM coaches do not have to be soft. They do not tolerate coasting. If players were coasting during practice he turned off the lights and left. Practice would be over. They had lost their opportunity to become better that day”. Coaches and teachers with a growth mindset are great at motivating and analyzing player. With these skills the coach can help his players fulfill their potential not only in their sport but also in life.
To end up, I wanted to highlight that it is important not to judge or label people, people with a FM do this a lot. Failure doesn’t mean that you are dumb it means that you need to work harder and put even more effort, it helps you measure yourself and at the end as any successful entrepreneur you will find glory.