A bad call ended the match. What do you say?
Match point in a third-set tiebreak. Your daughter hits a ball you’re sure was in, and her opponent calls it out. Match over. Everyone watching groaned, and you might have too. When you feel robbed, it’s easy to keep the call alive all the way home.
A bad call is one of the healthier things to blame after a loss. Let her blame it, and let it end with tonight.
Your first reaction
What you’ll want to say
The words that come first on a night like this, why they come so easily, and why they tend to miss.
The first keeps the call at the center of the night. The second is a lesson she didn’t ask for. Neither starts with how she saw it.
Your own historyThink of a time a decision went against you unfairly. What helped you move on?
The idea
What’s really going on
The one idea that explains tonight, in plain words.
Blaming the call can be a healthy explanation
Think of a trip wrecked by a storm. “The weather ruined it” isn’t an excuse. It’s accurate, and it says nothing about you.
After a loss, the explanations that tend to help are the ones that leave room for next time to go differently.
“That call cost me the match.”It wasn’t her, and it won’t happen every match.
“We always get robbed.”
“I always choke in big spots.”“Always” turns one night into a pattern she can’t do anything about.
A bad call is outside her control, and it won’t happen every match. Explaining a loss that way is one of the healthier reads. Once she’s said her piece about it, her own last point is the part she can use.
Based on: attribution theory
The ride home
In the car
What to do, in the order it comes up.
If you’re still hot about the call, give it a few quiet minutes of driving first. Your take on the call can drown out hers.
If not, let it be. If she wants to talk, let her say her piece about the call first. Then:
What you might hear
“That call cost me the match.” Let it stand. She isn’t making an excuse.
“Always” is the word to listen for. Bring it back to tonight: “Tell me about tonight’s match.”
“I should have hit it safer.” That’s her looking at her own part, which is something she can work on. Let her lead. If she wants your view, she’ll ask.
Then keep it going. Say back what you heard, in their words, or ask about one thing they mentioned, in a way that leaves the answer to them: “Tell me about the rest of the match.” The urge to fix it, or to talk them out of how they feel, is your cue to do one of these instead.
Hers to decide: whether there’s anything more to say about the call after tonight, or whether to let it go.
Practice
Try it
A rep before the real thing. Pick what you’d most likely say, and you’ll see how it tends to land with your kid, from shutting them down to opening them up.
Match point in a third-set tiebreak. Your daughter hits a ball you’re sure was in, her opponent calls it out, and the match is over. In the car she says, “That call cost me the match.” What do you say?
How this tends to land with your kid
Practice
Then what?
This is where most parents slip back into old habits. Pick what you’d say next.
You say, “Walk me through that last point.” She says, “It was in. I saw it land. She just called it out.” What do you say next?
How this tends to land with your kid
A bad call is one of the healthier things to blame after a loss. Let her blame it, and let it end with tonight.
Practice this one with your own kid
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