Criticism

Thanks to twitter.

I have an interesting topic (interesting to me anyway) today to talk about.  Sorry guys it has been awhile since my last blog post.  Also sorry if this does not interest you.

Criticism.

How do most people like criticism? How do people respond to it?  How do people accept it?

It is a huge controversy especially in the “athletes world.”  Why?

Because of twitter.  Enough said.  10+ years ago we were not able to read personal tweets towards ourselves about what people think or how they feel about us as players or people.  Yes, people still criticized us behind our backs, through the media, but often the media likes to investigate into many situations and find the worst out of everyone to try and bring them down.  So for many years us athletes have chosen to ignore what the media has to say (most of us anyway).

My entire life, I always had people beating around the bush trying to hint to me that I wasn’t going to get anywhere in soccer just because of that “disability” I have.  Am I able to walk? Yes. Am I able to run? Yes.   Am I able to communicate? Yes.  Can I hear? No, but that doesn’t make me disabled.  How did I respond to those?  I ignored them and carried them in the back of my mind each time I tied up my cleats and step onto the pitch for practices or games.

I feel that is what us athletes need to learn to do.  To ignore these critics.  Why?  It saves us room for when we fail, if we respond to them and we do not achieve what we wanted to achieve in the first place.  When you see an athlete talking sh*t, responding to critics, attacking fans and saying they will prove you wrong, they look ridiculous in the end when they “fail.” 

I put quotations for fail for a couple reasons.

1.)  If they DO not respond to the threats defensively, and go on with their lives without responding, they do not look as stupid nor do they have as much pressure on their shoulders the next opportunity they get.

2.)  I believe you fail numerous times in order to succeed.  Even one of the greatest athletes in the world believes so. “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.”  Take your guess, YES, Michael Jordan.

First athlete that I would like to take into consideration for this blog post is Chad Ochocinco.  For those who do not know him; he is the wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals and is one of the most controversial players in the game.  I recently joined Twitter in December, and his tweets get to me the most.  He always has something interesting to share, I enjoy following him.  One thing I do not like about him is that he has over a million followers and STILL continues to respond to personal threats very defensively.  Statistically speaking he has not had a great year for a few years, the more he talks/responds to these threats, the more stupid he is going to feel once he has another “ok” season.  There are way too many tweets for me to even choose from, but he most certainly does attack a lot of people individually.

Another reason of this blog post is the overflow of threats a certain athlete has had on her/her team fans.  The 2011 US Women’s soccer world cup roster was announced on Monday.

Twitter has given people the opportunity to express and speak freely of their emotions, thoughts, and opinions.  But those are not what people look for.  People test athletes to see how they respond to their threats, doubts, and critics.

One of the players that is being criticized is Carli Lloyd who has been named to the World Cup roster, personally, I think she is a great player.  The best midfielder in the US? I don’t know, I will find out when we see them play in Germany J  I also have not seen every player play so I cannot answer this question nor will I ever be able to.  All I know is that she was chosen to this roster or a reason and no one should argue with that until they see the results of the World Cup.  She is responding well to the critics and I applaud her for that.  One quote I really liked that she tweeted. ““A critic is someone who never actually goes to the battle, yet who afterwards comes out shooting the wounded.” 

Now, other teammates of hers are not responding well to the critics.  I have seen some responding by attacking fans.  This is a shame because what happens if they don’t do well in the World Cup, people will get the opportunity to say I told you so.

Yes, I have dreams of my own, but I am keeping my dreams to myself, only me.  Why?  So I cannot be criticized when I don’t make it, each time I fail I will try again, and every time I step over an obstacle, I can say I told you so, instead of hearing it.

Basically my point is: think before you speak, respond wisely to these critics, and respond by stepping onto the field, court, pitch, or anything by giving it all you got.