Personal Narrative: My Failure In Sports

Failure is one of the best things that can happen to somebody. It drives you to work harder and focus on something like never before. One of the bigger failures that has affected me is not qualifying for state in shot put last year.

I've been throwing shot put since freshman year. I didn't have a coach until junior year. Not having a coach for 2 years showed in meets. I would compete against kids that could throw twice as far as I could. I would try to watch them and practice their technique, but it got me nowhere. Through those 2 years I would walk into a meet knowing I was going to be smoked by the competition. In the off season I would lift and workout, but without a coach it was difficult knowing what to do to improve my throws.

My junior year was the first year we had a coach for shot put.

I was working harder than ever to try and impress the coach. We started working about three weeks before the season kicked off. I was making small improvements along the way. He helped me learn proper technique and drills to help me throw better. I was very excited about the upcoming season and thinking that I would no longer be smoked by everyone else. The first meet of the year came along and was the first time I'd be throwing having been taught proper technique. All of my throws were horrible and looked just like they did the first two years. I was beyond upset because I had failed my coach and myself. That meet drove me to work harder than I ever have. I worked like crazy the next week to prepare myself for the next meet. The next meet I walked out there and threw the farthest I had ever thrown. I beat my old record by four feet. Four feet may not sound like a lot, but in shot put that might as well be 100 feet. I was so excited because I worked my butt of for that moment. The failure of the first meet drove me like crazy to

improve.
Throughout the year I continued to improve and stay consistent. I was beginning to compete with kids that had smoked me the last couple years. Beginning to beat kids that had beat me in the past one of the best moments of my shot out career so far. I was only a couple feet off of qualifying for state and I was showing promise of hitting that mark in the last couple meets. I had made provisional , which lets you have one more shot at making state in the second to last meet. I showed up to the last meet of the year having worked like I had never worked before the week earlier. I went out to throw and pretty much laid an egg. I had thrown my 3 worst throws of the season. I felt crushed, because I had worked so hard and dedicated a lot of time to this event. I had let my coaches down. This has driven me to work extremely hard this off season to go out and qualify for state in my senior year. Failing to make state was probably the best thing to happen to me in shot put because it has driven to me to work hard.