Don't Eat Your Mistakes: Admitting when you're wrong

Hey, are you human?  Do you walk upright?  Do you have opposable thumbs?  Are you capable of speech and reasoning?  If you answered yes, then welcome to the human race!  You're a human and than means you are inherently flawed.  Accept it and move on...you have bigger and better things to worry about than screwing up.

Whew!  Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about all of your past, present and future screw ups when it comes to derby.  Don't be shy, you, me and everyone and their brother will mistakes in derby. You'll do something stupid on the track, let the jammer waltz up the inside line, or say something stupid to someone and your mistake will be in plain view of everyone.

So what do you do?

Are you going to be a jerk when you make a mistake, or are you going to own it?  I have to say, I admire the people that own their mistakes, which is definitely not easy to do in derby.  It took me a long time to be able to admit that I had screwed up on the track.  I never wanted to look weak, and I didn't want other people to think I was stupid.  Every time I screwed up and it was noticeable,  I died a little inside.  I hated myself for screwing up, and I was angry at myself for being...human.  Seems stupid now, but the pressure we put ourselves under during derby is incredible.  If you were like me, you're beating yourself up inside and you don't want to own your mistake, but honestly that's the best thing you can do.

The more you ignore or "eat" your mistakes, on the track and in your league, they're going to eat you from the inside. Admit you made a mistake.  You don't have to make a giant production of it, but admitting it is a good way of starting to get a handle on it.  If you can say "I messed that up" out loud to your teammates and they don't act like you killed their first born, then maybe you can forgive yourself and learn from your error.  We tend to treat ourselves way worse than other people will treat us for screwing up.

(As long as we're actually taking responsibility for the error and are working on not doing it again.  Insincere apologies suck donkey dong, so don't do that, ok?  Nobody likes an insincere, angry d-bag.)