Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
What is the Fall?
The splendour of the Peak has now been forgotten. The reality of the dark side of football sets in. The disappointment, the negative opinions, the season-ending injury or the lack of confidence are now upon you. This period is called The fall.
The Fall is the antithesis of the Peak. Maybe they were right to reject me. I’m not good enough. I should just quit and do something else. I’m never going to succeed. I’m always getting injured. If you have had any of these thoughts, you have more than likely experienced the Fall. It is the darkest time in your footballing career. The times when you truly consider quitting and constantly ask yourself if you’re cut out for this profession; The Fall is the part of football that isn’t shown or glamorised. The Fall can come at any time and often comes soon after being at the Peak. So how do you navigate your way through the Fall?
My experience with the Fall
I made my debut for Brentford F.C in an F.A cup match, I came off the bench and played well. We won the game, and I got an ovation in the changing room from the 1st team players and staff after the game for making my debut. What a rush! My first game on the big stage, and I found it easy. “This is light work,” I thought to myself that week. I couldn’t wait for my next opportunity to play with the 1st team.
The next chance came a couple of weeks after in the league against MK Dons. On the day of the game, I was extremely nervous. I vividly remember the crowd being louder than ever. It felt like there were 100,000 fans there all to watch my league debut, and I could feel myself growing more anxious as kick-off got closer. By the time the referee blew the whistle, I had already had that dry throat and spit feeling. Every footballer knows this feeling; it usually comes at the end of a game or pre-season when you’ve done a shed load of running, not at the start of a game. This was a sign of things to come.
We were 3-0 down by halftime, and it felt like it was all my fault. This feeling was reinforced when the manager opted to drag (substitute) me off for the second half. I remember being in the changing room when all the lads had gone out for the 2nd half and putting a towel over my head in despair. “I blew it, I had one chance, and I blew it” As if things couldn’t make me feel worse, the team drew 3-3 in the 2nd half.
The effect of the Fall
This was one of my many experiences with the Fall but perhaps the most impactful on my career. It absolutely shattered my confidence and plagued me for many years after. I never recovered from this Fall during my time at Brentford. I would constantly think that everyone was judging me from that game. Even years down the line, if I were to make a mistake on the pitch, I would remember the feeling I had making those mistakes in that game, and it would feel like I was right back there with everyone blaming me for the team’s misfortune.
These are the effects of the Fall:
- Lack of self-belief in your ability
- Makes you self-centred and feel as if everyone is focusing on your shortcomings
- Exaggeration of the actual fallout of the Fall
- A feeling that all those who were naysayers or rejected you were right to do so
- Unreal expectations of how the event should have panned out.
I’m sure if you have experienced the Fall, you will understand any or all of these effects.
The truth of the Fall
The truth of the Fall is that nobody really cares about your failures. Is that a good thing? I mean, you kind of want people to care about you, right? And people do indeed care about your success and failures, but people definitely don’t linger on them as long as we do. I’ll prove it to you. Think of the last football match you watched. Think of a player in that game who didn’t play particularly well. Now ask yourself, would you have thought about this player’s performance in that match again if I didn’t ask you to? Most will answer no, and that’s because people are more concerned about their own 4 stages in their life than others.
I wish I knew this after that game instead of putting myself in a mental prison of people’s imaginary opinions of me. The truth is, everyone is concerned about themselves and is hovering between all 4 stages and looking around, thinking that everyone is judging them also. This realisation is liberating because now you know that people aren’t noticing your imperfections as much as you think they are.
The Necessity of the Fall
The Fall has such an impact on us because we initially have unreal expectations and don’t believe the Fall should be part of the journey. The truth of the Fall is that it is inevitable, and it is necessary. The best athletes in the world have setbacks and fail at things. Stephen Curry is the undisputed best 3pt shooter in NBA history, and his field goal percentage (conversion rate from 3) is 43%. This means he misses 57% of the shots he takes, and he is the best. More than half of the shots he takes misses, but he is still the best ever. He fails his objective 57% of the time.
Trent Alexander Arnold is one of the best Right-Backs in world football, but he has lost possession a whopping 1047 times so far in the premier league. He’s lost it 326 more times than the player in 2nd place. However, Trent is constantly near or at the top of the assist rankings every year and is widely regarded as one of the best players in possession in the world. What does this tell you about mistakes? Mistakes and failures are inevitable, and in order to be great, you need to make more mistakes than everyone else.
Perception and the Fall
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan is known as the best basketball player of all time, and he states the necessity of failure. Every successful athlete understands that the Fall is necessary to reach your full potential. The Fall is just a natural and necessary part of your footballing career and any career for that matter. You will have setback after setback, but your perception of it is more important than actually being in the Fall.
Imagine you’re on a train with 3 children going wild, running all over the place, making noise and causing mayhem and their Father was just there sitting down, acting as if nothing wrong is happening. What would you say to the Father? Something along the lines of “control your kids, mate”, or “they’re doing my head in”. Now the Father replies, “I’m sorry, their mother just died, and I wanted them to have as much fun as possible before I break the news to them” Damn! I bet your feelings towards the whole situation flipped.
This is the power of perception; you can have the same exact event happen, but with different perspectives comes different mindsets and then actions. Regardless of what events happen in your career, having the right perception of the Fall is imperative to your success as a footballer.
The opportunity of the Fall
To summarise, The Fall is a hard place to be in because it inherently comes with initial negative feelings, but there is also great power in the being in this place. It provides clarity on what went wrong and allows you to improve and grow as a payer and a person. Once you realise that the Fall is inevitable and that your greatest heroes also went through their own Falls, it no longer has the same lasting sting that it once had. The most important thing is your perception of the Fall. Your perception is reality. If you think you are finished and done, then you are. If you believe that this is temporary and that you will once again get to the Peak (stage 2), you will.
Next week I will be writing about the last stage 4, The Decision.
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