I faced a struggle as a leader during my time as co-captain
of my high school girls’ varsity basketball team. Whenever I played basketball
I was always very competitive and I would get frustrated easily. I would be
frustrated with my teammates and coaches and I generally was fairly vocal about
my opinions on coaching, and playing. I struggled with being able to listen to
what my coach had to say without always having a response and overall making
excuses. As co-captain I had to set a good example and work on my attitude. For
me this was a challenge. In all other aspects of my life I was respectful,
tried to not have an attitude issue, and generally got along well with all of
my peers including my teammates but when it came to basketball I struggled to
show respect for my coaches and have a more positive attitude whether we were
winning or losing.
I overcame this struggle by trying to listen more, show
respect, apologize for my actions, and play to the best of my ability. Now, all
the disagreements and criticism wasn’t necessarily resolved but I worked on
some issues and I learned a lot of lessons from the experience and later on in
life I have been able to enact some of those changes, better my attitude when
it comes to competitive environments, not always have something to say, and
show my respect to others whether we see eye to eye or not.
