I recently read a book called “How To Think Like A Fantasy Football Winner” by C.D. Carter.
There’s a section in the book when Carter talks about the different types of fear we experience as fantasy football players.
While I was reading, I couldn’t help but think back to my rookie season as a fantasy player. Many of my friends were seasoned pros when we decided to create our own league, I on the other hand, was a naive newcomer to the game. To be honest about it, I didn’t really know anything about football, I was mainly just wanting to be involved with my friends more and it sounded fun anyway but it was the fear of being left out of something that my friends were doing is what got me into Fantasy football.
Anyway, my rookie season was a joke. I started 0-5, eventually finishing with a record of 3-11. It was a horrible experience. But looking back now I can see the plethora of rookie mistakes that I made and all of them were based on fear.
On draft day, i turned up with a couple of cheet sheets and rankings and followed a strict system based on potential week by week scoring and if I drafted a team , that on average scored me 97pts a week, I would win more games than lose. It worked well apart from the fact that the opposition kept scoring more points than me. I didn’t do hours of research online like my friends, I had found my system and was sticking to it.
I had set myself up for failure from the start.
Many different things can happen during the draft, so you have to be prepared to adjust yourself when something happens. For example, say your strategy is to take two Running backs in the First two rounds. You get the first running back that you wanted and now, in round two, a couple of guys have passed up on an elite receiver, he’s fallen into your lap, but if you take him, it would mean straying away your system. You think of all the positives and negatives of the two players but eventually, you stick to your system and take a running back, even though, the Receiver was the value pick at the time. Fear took over, and won.
You’re going to hurt your roster if you’re not prepared to take any player, at the right time. System’s are only limiting your options on draft day,
So, make adjustments and start building a great roster.
During the season, I was scared to stray away from the system, scared to take risks with my lineups every week and even though I was losing constantly, I still believed everything would click into place eventually but it didn’t. It was as if my fantasy players hated me and just didn’t want to perform. I let defeat after defeat get the better of me and the fear of losing took over.
It clouded my judgement when it came to selecting my lineup every week. It made me offer silly trades (that look awful when I think back) and I was adding/dropping 5-6 players a week on waivers.
Some peoples call these rookie mistakes but these are mistakes created out of fear.
It was only after I had gone 0-5 and realized my season was over, that’s when I started to take risks and play without fear. The fear of losing was gone because, let’s face it, I had already lost.
I started to do more research each week. I looked at matchups, read different articles, searched for different peoples opinions on players each week and made my own decisions based on the hard facts in front of me.
I wasn’t afraid to bench my stud running back that wasn’t performing for that of a promising running back that had a great matchup and was high from scoring loads of fantasy points in the weeks before when I ignored him sitting on my bench.
I won my next two games.
Yea I lost a few more games after that but I had decimated my roster with the foolish things I had done in the early weeks. But just by taking risks and going with my gut feelings (that I got after putting in the homework) is when my fantasy game improved. I was able to control my fears and it made me a better player. I changed my mentality from ‘what can I do to avoid defeat this week’ to ‘what can I do to win this week’ and it paid off.
In his book, Carter said ” You’re going to lose, it’s what happens after losing that counts” and In my case, this was very true. I needed that 0-5 streak to force me to change my game.
I’ve since gone on to become a pretty solid fantasy player but even today, I still make some rookie mistakes, it’s only natural, but if you learn to conquer and control even half of the many fears we experience in this game we all love, then you too will become a better fantasy football player
Follow me on twitter @FFReignMan
Follow C.D.Carter on twitter @CDCarter13 and get the ebook, “How To Think Like A Fantasy Football Winner” by C.D.Carter at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D454Q58
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