At the end of every season it’s important to reflect on it. Reflecting on your season makes you either feel accomplished or it makes you feel motivated and hungry for more due to it not panning out how you would have liked. Reflecting by yourself is good but where you really want to reflect is within your teammates and your coaches.
Your teammates and your coach will give you very valuable information on how you can improve and what exactly needs to be improved. Before you leave for home for the summer and won’t see them for awhile it is important to touch base with your coaches at the very least. Often times your coaches will have very specific things that they would like you to focus on in the summer so that you can improve overall. Take this advice to heart and use it so that you can do what they say and accomplish what is best for you and for your team.
Summer is coming up on us fast! Summer is the time where athletes really get the chance to work on their craft. As a student-athlete we are finally finished with the “student” part so now we can emphasis the “athlete” part. Using the summer to your advantage is very important. The summer is your time to really focus on lifting and getting yourself stronger and faster.
Summer workouts are usually different from your in season workouts and are often heavier so that your muscles can grow more and so you can become more competitive. The problem with summer though is that a lot of us, including myself before, use summer as a time to be bums. Bumming it in the summer is not a good idea.
It’s not a good idea because summer gives you about two months of pure training and lifting goals. I highly recommend you practice some self-discipline and see you where this upcoming summer can take your athletic goals. You will reap the benefits of your hard-work this upcoming season.
Marketing yourself might not be a such a bad thing after all. Often times athletes get a bad reputation because of a select few who are not good people. These athletes often define what the public sees as athletes but in the grand scheme of it all this is not what we are. Marketing yourself as an athlete is good. It’s good because like yourself, there are many athletes out there. These athletes have teams that they form bonds with and this bond making team mentality can transcend into the professional world as well. Working well in teams is essentially to almost every career and being an athlete gives you the leg up in that portion of professionalism.
It does because you have already dealt with all kinds of teammates and all kinds of struggles together. You have adapted to overcome situations with them and have succeeded together. This skill of meshing well with others and contributing individually but also contributing as a team is essential in any professional environment you are looking to work in the future.
Being an athlete is more than being athletic, it means that you are a competition driven team-oriented individual who can accomplish any task at hand to contribute to something bigger than yourself.
So you’re watching your favorite movie and the actor or actress in it is looking really good. They toned, sculpted, shredded, etc. You seem them and then you see yourself with their body. Okay, you did that? Now stop that. Physique hunting is bad for you and here’s why.
Physique hunting from an athlete’s perspective is not a good thing. It’s not because it limits your potential to become a better athlete and not a better looking person. Trying to become a better looking person and not becoming a better athlete is harmful for an athlete because you may alter the way you do things. Altering the way you do things is very harmful to your athletic career because it breaks routines, can hurt your strength or flexibility, or it can also harm your sport specific movements.
Think of it this way, if you were a cross country distance runner you wouldn’t want to be the size of a bodybuilder. You wouldn’t want to be was cool as that would look because all that weight would put stress on your joints, slower your times, and even hinder your running mechanics. Physique hunting is not good while you’re an athlete because it does not consider your sport and its movements and skills. Training for a better body is good but try to change for an overall healthier or sport specific body instead of one that looks great on film.
Like my title says, let’s talk about coaches. Coaches are a pivotal part of your athletic career. They’re with you from when you start to when you end even though they may change. You may love them and you may hate them. It’s a fact of the game you play that you need a coach because you can always improve and learn more about your game. In my personal opinion there are three types of coaches and I will list them and what each coach does below now:
The Bad Coach:
Any experienced athlete has had one and it is something we all must deal with. A bad coach is one who doesn’t see potential in you, doesn’t put in the time with you, brings you down, or maybe doesn’t even acknowledge you. These coaches are toxic and often do nothing to help you so from my personal experience I want you to learn from them. Learn to be better and to take your craft seriously. Even though you may not be the best you can put in the time yourself to develop your skills. The year you have that coach may not be a good year in the development of your craft but keep your head up and keep working because you’ll pull through.
The Mediocre Coach:
Okay, so this coach tends to come into an athlete’s life around the middle school years. This coach is often a parent or someone in your community who steps up to coach because no one else wants to or maybe they always wanted to coach. Say a thank you to these coaches because they’re stepping up to do something others won’t but at the same time consider these coaches with a grain of salt. Often these coaches don’t understand the game entirely and are the coach from their coaches watching sports. They think that they know how to apply this coaching into the real thing but often it doesn’t work out. Now, just because this coach doesn’t know it all doesn’t mean you should argue with them because you should never argue with a coach unless you have a good cause and right to do so.
The Good Coach:
The good coach is one who isn’t just a coach for your sport but who is also a coach for your life. Often times these are the coaches with the best records, the best players, and things like that. That is because they put the effort in to help each player with their skills as well as their lives. These coaches act as mentors, father figures, and much more to athletes than they may comprehend. Thank you to the coaches who do this because this is what makes athletes love their sport and it helps them create a lifelong passion for sports and are prepped for success in life in the future as well.
In times of struggle and times you need to perform your best you may not fully be there. I understand it and I have felt it. When these times come it is important for us as athletes to get motivated. Everyone is motivated by something and you have to find what that is and let it create a chip on your shoulder so that you can use it.
This video is for all athletes. It is a compilation of videos, music, and speeches that encapsulate motivation for athletes. This video and others may ring some bells in your head to get going and to get that you goal you have done. Your motivation may be lacking to get something you want done but let’s kick that drive into gear and start getting things done. Now more than ever is the best time to start something and to succeed at what you want to do in life and in your athletic career. GO GET IT
Here’s a fact about nutrition, supplementing will only work when you actually eat well already. Nutrition is arguably just as important as your training so why is that we athletes think we can cheat the system and just use supplements and think we’re adequately eating? We don’t skip our workouts and we don’t cut our workouts short so why do we cut our eating and hydration? Well, I believe that it is because eating isn’t the most fun and to eat small and frequently is hard to do! To achieve our athletic goals it is important to have a smart and to actually have a nutrition and hydration plan. After all, the calories and nutrients we get from our supplements come from food itself. The food itself is often times higher in nutrients and more advantageous to your nutrition plan so it is more important to eat than consume.
Once you finally get your nutrition and hydration down then I recommend you start supplementing. It is hard to do so I get your struggle but you must. Once the nutrition is down then your supplements take you to the next level and help you even further. If you feel like it you can consume a multi-vitamin and fish oil before your nutrition plan is fool proof so that you can get the vitamins and minerals your diet may be missing.
Every now and then there will be a time where you will be injured. It’s just bound to happen so come to terms with it now so you don’t get disappointed later. The most important thing to remember is that during that time of frustration it’s important to just accept that it is happening and to be thankful for it.
I know what you’re thinking. How could I be thankful for an injury? Well, you can be thankful because that means time off and rest for your body. It also serves as a lesson to change something in your routine. 90% of the time my injuries that I have had during my career have been from my routine. Too often I don’t warm up enough so I pay the price over time. These injuries have allowed me to come in with the mindset of knowing that by changing my routine now after injury I am going to be stronger and I will have a better workout. Be active and engaged in your process to becoming healthy again and above all remember to trust the process. Things happen for a reason and are only paving the path for your future.
As an athlete motivation is something that you live on, thrive on, and strive for. With motivation everything else becomes easier. Motivation keeps you on your path to success and keeps you consistent with your workouts. This video is one of my personal favorites and is extremely motivating. Remember, it’s all about how much you want it. Just remember that someone else out there is doing one more rep than you and getting even better than you. Use your motivation to get after your goals and excel past your competition.
I can’t stress it enough, the importance of sleep is so important! Sleep is the primary thing for your body to recover and regain its composure. Sleep is important not only for what you generally think of when I say physical body like your legs, and upper-body but also very important for your brain! Mind and body are both important for the athlete because the body gets you the results but the mind helps you get there. Sleep not only keeps you more alert but also balances out your hormones, improves reaction time, strengthens your immune system, and much more. The recommended amount of sleep you should get in hours for an athlete is anywhere from 8-10 hours.
As an athlete sleep is even more important because your body gets stressed easier from your workouts and the stress you put on your mind as well. That is why the sleep amount is higher for athletes than for non-athletes. If you are a younger athlete still in your developmental stages it is even more important for you to get your sleep because you’re in the prime of your muscle and bone growth and development. All athletes should attempt the best they can do to get the recommended amount of sleep so that they can function. Now with your sleep in addition to a nutrition and hydration plan, and your workouts you will operate at optimal ability and stay ahead of the competition.
