Student- Athlete

    Being a student athlete is exactly what it sounds like, being a student first then an athlete or so they say... Being a student is already hard work, getting assignments done daily, meeting for group projects, and studying to maintain a certain gpa is hard work. Now while playing a Division I college sport, things start to get very heavy.

    A normal day for me looks like waking up, going to class, then lifting, then going to class again, and then finally practice. You might be thinking where do you have time to yourself? You don't. And if you don't know how to manage your time effectively you can easily get lost in the cross fire of it all. Which is why taking the little time you do get to yourself is so important.

    Having self care days has really kept me going honestly, taking time to do things I enjoy. For me that includes just going to grab coffee at a local coffee shop and just debriefing the week with one of my friends. Also just taking time to be in touch with yourself because it can get hard. 

    Being a student athlete also comes with the athletic part. Which has so many aspects to it. Im going to touch on specifically winning and losing. There are such big differences in the teams I've been apart of when we win compared to when we lose. The winning teams have had a solid culture, everyone knew what to expect as soon as we walked into the gym. On the losing teams it was much different...

    On the losing teams I've been apart of there was always one thing that was clear and consistent, lack of trust. This affected everyone from the coaches to the players to the managers bringing us water and towels. Losing makes a player start to question everything, even themselves at times. I've seen some of the best players lose confidence in themselves because of a coach. This often happened when starting lineups would change, players are being held to a higher standard, or minutes played start to decrease. 

    You start to see changes in that player, like them starting to point the finger at anyone but themselves. They also start to change their mindset and worry about other players "They don't do this so why should I?" type of talk. For any player thats lost confidence and has started to think like this, just focus on what you can do to excel when you are given the opportunity. Because all the focus on negative things will take your focus off what really matters and thats being your best.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Put yourself first

 Self care is a major part of maintaining good healthy habits. Not only is self care a major part of having good healthy habits but also good mental health habits to be more specific. I feel like people have to work so so much just to get to a place where they feel somewhat ok. This leaves little to no room for things that are good for the mental because you enjoy doing them.  Self care is an important aspect in maintaining a positive headspace. Knowing when is probably the most important key to this. Having the self awareness to know when you're burnt out or need a break is really key. Thats why it's also good to have little check ins with yourself. Asking yourself questions like, "when is the last time I did something just because I enjoy it" or "How can I benefit more in the future from taking time to myself now". Taking time for yourself and doing something you really enjoy can mean a bunch of different things for different people. That can even include ...
Read more

Overcoming Negative Thoughts

 To have negative thoughts it something that is a normal everyday occurrence for most people. It's ok to have a negative thought every once in a while, but it can become a problem when you're having negative thoughts all the time. Things like self doubt and worry can lead to things like stress, anxiety, and depression. Hopefully with some awareness and practice it's possible to overcome these thoughts. The first step is to understand negative thought patterns. These include some cognitive distortions that are irrational or exaggerated ways of thinking. Some common Cognitive distortions include,  All-or-nothing thinking (seeing situations in black-and-white terms, Catastrophizing (expecting the worst-case scenario), Overgeneralization (drawing broad conclusions from single incidents), and Personalization (assuming responsibility for things beyond your control). By recognizing what these thought patterns are we can move forward to change how we think. The next step is to cult...
Read more

My why

Mental Health is something that affects everyone at some point in their life. Whether it's your own mental health or someone else's, it's important to understand the signs and symptoms of someone that might need help. Things like change in appetite, insomnia, withdrawal, and relying on alcohol or sedatives are the most common signs i've seen most as a college student amongst my peers. It's so important to check on the people closest to you because you never truly know what someone is struggling with internally.  This brings me to social media, which is a huge part of our daily lives. Mental health is talked about more because of social media yes, but is Social Media really helping? I always hear my peers talk about deleting their social media apps because they need the mental break. I was in class this past week and a student mentioned how when they use social media they "always" see a decline in their mental health. Which I've heard not only from that...
Read more