Excuses are the enemy of any athlete.

Excuses shrug off responsibility and place the blame for a lackluster performance on something (court conditions, different ball) or someone else (teammate, bad official, unruly fans). 

Take for example the following excuses, some of which may strike a chord with you:

• “I was stuck in traffic and I didn’t get a chance to warm up.”

• “That set was low."

• “My ankle hurt midway through the competition.”

• “That ref was horrible.”

• “I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

• “My team couldn't pass.”

Some athletes come to a competition with an excuse in hand and some athletes make excuses in the middle of a competition. Both situations take the responsibility out of your hands and onto other variables…

Ultimately, excuses take control right from under your feet and give control to some force outside of yourself, leaving you a nervous wreck. No athlete, in any...

"You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

- Admiral James Stockdale

"I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade."

When Collins asked who didn't make it out of Vietnam, Stockdale replied:

Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by...