With reduced responsibility for actions, practices become less meaningful and confidence is harder to acquire. A close cousin to the excuse is the justification. In this case, athletes downplay the negative meaning of a poor performance and may even suggest that there are hidden benefits for performing poorly. A tennis player may justify that they lost because the other player had a much higher ranking, and reason that losing to higher ranked players is a good lesson. A more productive outlook would be for the football team to responsibly correct mistakes and the tennis player to realize that ranking is irrelevant.
Every Performance There are few perfect weather days and many reasons indeed to explain performance.
By taking full responsibility for your actions and the outcome of your actions, you set yourself up for success. Performance is yours to flash brilliantly or botch horrifically. Rather than looking for face saving explanations after a loss, redirect your energies to find a better solution the next time. Bite your own lip following a tough loss, even if you know that you can perform 100 times better. By concealing your areas of weakness, you are acting smart and positioning yourself up for a much more valiant effort the next time.