Student Athlete Lifestyle | The Mental Side
One of the most overlooked aspects of being a student athlete is the mental side of it all. Put yourself in this position: you’re in the 4th quarter and you have to take the last shot with 5 seconds to go. Your palms are sweating, your heart is racing, and the anticipation fills the room. You grab the ball and take the shot…. It bounces off the rim. What now? Simply put, sports are hard. They’re hard on the body and definitely hard on the mind.
Treating the Failures
When someone looks up on youtube “greatest sports moments of all time”, the above scenario is definitely not in the first video you click on. You’re always having a lot to deal with at the same time, and no matter what sport you’re playing, there is always a certain measure of difficulty that the athlete is facing.
One of the most important parts of being an athlete is being able to handle defeat. No great success story that was built, whether in college or in a professional setting, was built overnight after all. Failure is something that every person goes through, it should be more synonymous with sports than winning is. It’s no doubt that the fear of failure existed in every athlete at one point - but it’s part of the game. Every athlete (especially the ones like Jordan or Phelps) can tell you how big of a role failure played in their path to greatness.
There is truly no easy path because no matter how hard you try, there will always be some type of way that you’ll fail. But that’s ok. How you deal with that failure is what separates you from the others; it’s what makes you different; it’s what makes you better. There is a general stigma around the word failure that our society has started to develop, and it couldn’t be more toxic to the development of our next generation of athletes.
The two types of failures that athletes find the most are injuries and losses. Both of them suck because they’re out of your control after they’ve happened. This is one of the most important things to recognize though. They are out of your control. One shouldn’t waste the energy focusing on the things they can’t control, but instead focus on the things they can do to improve. It’s less exhausting and puts you in the proper headspace for the future. Being able to keep a short memory as well as learning from all the negatives in sports is a common trait that all the champions have as well. They focus on what they can control, they learn from their mistakes, and they move on quickly.
There is always going to be a time and place to grieve and that’s ok too. However, the real test of your character as an athlete comes when it’s time to pick yourself up. That’s when you begin preparing for what’s to come.
Finding the Successes
Nobody has met a person that doesn’t like winning, whether it’s a little board game with your family, a pickup game of basketball at the park, or the NCAA Championship —— winning is just so much fun.
If you’ve ever won, it’s because you’ve failed. That has nothing to do with your merit as an athlete, it’s just the natural cycle that everyone goes through. Being able to find a way to maximize the wins is where true success comes to fruition though. Think about your favorite professional athletes or any athletes you idolize - why do they win? Aside from the fact that they’re really damn good, we guarantee that they all have some sort of rituals they do to make sure they’re in the proper headspace before, during, and after a competition.
Rituals are anything that helps maintain your composure when it’s time to grind. Rafael Nadal always keeps his bottles facing outwards towards the court. Lebron James used to throw chalk up in the air before games. Tiger woods would always make his own bed at the hotel he was staying at. Once you find a ritual that you can stick with, make sure you make it a routine thing of yours. It will not only help you maintain your individual control of the situation, but it’s also something you can refer back to when you need to focus your mind once more.
If you’re an athlete and you prioritize success above all else, then one thing you need to learn how to make into a ritual is positive reinforcement. This basically means if you’ve done something good during a game or match - treat yourself and others good for it. This can be any type of emotional expression that you and your teammates can recognize. If you’ve done something bad or made a mistake - don’t give it the light of day. The more you dwell on the negatives, the more the negative energy will consume your play. Once you allow positive energy into your play then not only will you be a better teammate to be around, but you’ll also find more success and it will lift you and others up.
Being a beacon of positivity is a crucial part of a student athlete's mental side and once you’re able to do that for yourself, you’ll be able to bring it into other’s lives. Believe us, they’ll be thanking you for it.
Mental Wellbeing
You’re not alone. These are words that many athletes hear, either from the administration, their coaches, or even their own teammates. They are the truth though. You’re not alone.
At many colleges, universities, and educational institutions around the U.S., there are so many resources that allow athletes to perform at their peak 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. These resources don’t have to be physical though, they can be mental as well. For starters, one of the fastest-growing fields for professionals is that of Sports Psychology. Sport psychologists are there to sit down and discuss your greatest failures and successes and help you find out how to make the wins come more often - ultimately you are the one that decides.
Your own coaches are another great resource for you. They’ve likely been in your position before, and so they understand what it’s like. They also have seen you play several amounts of times, after all, they probably recruited you. They know what makes you tick, and you should let them know when you’re struggling or when you’re in that flow state where everything is going right. They’ll be there to minimize your lows and amplify your highs.
Finally - reach out to your teammates. Or any friends and family that understand the sport you play and the things you go through in the heat of the moment. They share a bond with you that is so deeply rooted by your common love for the sport, that they won’t let you down in a time of need. They know how amazing it feels to win and how terrible it feels to lose. Either way, they’re always going to be the best people you can talk to.
It is so incredibly important to prioritize one’s mental wellbeing as a student athlete. To the people who have a lot going on and want to shoulder the burden all alone: don’t. Reaching out for a helping hand or just for a conversation is the best thing to do. Your responsibility to your school, your coaches, and most of all your teammates is greater than you think, and you would be doing them all a disservice by not being your very best. Lastly, you’re doing yourself a disservice by not treating yourself the right way.
Take it from us: you need to allow yourself to flourish in all aspects of your athletic life in order to truly find success. That means the mental side too.