Control the Controllables: The Performance Habit That Changes Everything
A FLEX Playbook for Fall Tryouts: PT 3
Fall tryouts are a masterclass in things you can't control.
In Illinois this month, football started August 5 with a brand-new earlier calendar — players now need 12 on-field practices before their first game on August 20. Everyone else opened August 10, with golf competing by August 13 and soccer, volleyball, and cross country by August 24. Compressed timelines. New coaches. Limited roster spots. August heat. Some schools even shuffle tryout times the week of.
Almost none of that is up to the athlete.
And that's exactly why the single most important mental skill of tryout season is this: knowing the difference between what you can influence and what you can't — and spending your energy only on the first list.
The Two-List Exercise
Grab a piece of paper. Draw a line down the middle.
Left side — OUT of my control at tryouts:
How many spots are on the roster
Who else shows up and how good they are
Which drills the coaches choose
The weather, the field conditions, the 7:30 a.m. start
What the coach is thinking
Whether the calendar moved up a week
The final roster decision
Right side — IN my control at tryouts
My preparation before day one (sleep, hydration, physical turned in, gear ready)
My effort on every single rep
My body language between reps
My breathing when nerves spike
My self-talk after mistakes
How I treat teammates and respond to coaching
My attention: on this drill, not the roster
Now look honestly at where your worry has been living this week. For most athletes, 90% of their mental energy is parked on the left side — the side where energy accomplishes nothing
Every minute spent on the left column is a minute stolen from the right one.
Why This Works (It's Not Just a Poster Slogan)
Worry about uncontrollables doesn't just waste time — it changes your body. Scanning the coach's face, counting roster spots, replaying a mistake: all of it spikes stress, tightens muscles, shortens breath, and narrows focus. You literally run slower and swing tighter while worrying about things you can't touch.
Flip your attention to a controllable — this rep, this breath, this route — and the body follows. Focus is a spotlight. You choose where it points.
The W.I.N. Question
Here's the in-the-moment tool. When you feel yourself drifting to the left column mid-tryout, ask:
W.I.N. — What's Important Now?
Not what's important on cut day. Not what's important to the girl next to you. Now. The answer is always something controllable: the next sprint, the next read, the next swing, the next breath. Ask it between every drill. It snaps the spotlight back where it belongs.
The Nightly Two-Minute Review
Tryout week is a multi-day evaluation — how you recover each night matters as much as how you perform each day. Before bed, answer two questions.
What did I control well today? (effort, attitude, a reset after a mistake)
What's one controllable I'll own tomorrow?
Notice what's missing: any guess about what the coaches thought. That's their job. Yours is the right-hand column.
Coach Takeaway
When an athlete tells me "I'm stressed about making the team," I don't tell them to relax. We build the two lists together. Then I ask: "Which list are you practicing?" Stress doesn't usually come from tryouts. It comes from trying to control the wrong column.
Your Tryout-Week Move
Write your two lists tonight. Fold the paper so only the right-hand column shows. That's your tryout. The rest was never yours to carry.
Control what you can. Release what you can't. Compete in between.
