What Else is Left to Do?

When it comes down to being a student-athlete you have to decide if your heart is really in to the sport. Are you willing to give up atleast three hours everyday to dedicate yourself to the sport? Are you willing to stay in on weekends because you have a game the next day? Are you willing to have to work your butt off and prove to your professors that you can balance school and sports?

There’a lot of sacrifice that comes with being a student-athlete. But, if the sport is worth is to you and participating in it makes you happy, you stick with it. Having a strong hatred of running somehow has not stopped me from competing in track and field because I love jumping so much, because of that, I’ll suck it up and run a few sprints as best as I can because in the end, it will help me jump higher and longer. You have to set your priorities straight, find out what is truly in it for you to go out and put yourself through all that pain of exercising. For me, I don’t want to become fat and lazy, I’d prefer to be skinny and lazy. At some point, running has to fit into that equation unfortunately but my motivation for being happy with who I am and being comfortable in my own body is what gets me up and going.

Find what works for you, take baby steps. Start with a bedroom workout, get a little more comfortable and move into the living room, then dare yourself to use that gym equipment that’s been collecting dust in the basement. Before you know you’ll be confident enough to go for a walk or run outside IN PUBLIC or take a fitness class at the gym that has always caught your eye ( I’m still waiting to get the confidence to take a ZUMBA class!). Motivating yourself can be a daunting task, if you can’t do it yourself I’m sure you have a friend who’s willing to show you some tough love and get you going. If the lazy jumper can find a way to work out any of you can!

What Else is Left to Motivate Me?

I’ve talked a lot about how my teammates motivate me and my competitive spirit is what forces me to work out even though it feels like the last thing I want to be doing. It seems like I’ve run out of options for motivation.

One day I happened to stumble in the gym and found myself standing on a treadmill, personally as a student athlete, a large gym with strangers all around is absolutely terrifying. I was afraid I’d sweat through my t-shirt (I knew I should have worn black instead of grey), that I’d start breathing too heavily while I was working out, and that I would make a straight fool out of myself working out on these machines that were foreign to me.

The only thing that seemed to help me get through working out in public was my music. I thought that with my music loud enough it would block out everything and everyone around me. Now that may not be true, but it provided a great distraction. The music also made the time pass by a lot faster, I didn’t notice that I had been running for 15 minutes straight until I looked down to skip over a song and saw  the timer on the treadmill (and yes, I consider 15 minutes a long period of time).

So whether you’re into running to the Rocky Theme Song , hardcore rap, or can get amped up off of country music, I suggest finding what you like best and try working out to, you may be surprised with how it affects your mood during the workout and how it can really help the time go by faster!

Summing Up My Feelings as a Student Athlete

He’s like: 

And I’m like: 

 

and I’m like:

College…Take 2

So I made the decision to transfer schools half way through my college career. This meant not only do I have to make new friends and establish myself at a brand new school but I have to re-start my track training. New coach, new team, new program, new facilities. Everything has changed.

So here I am again debating how much motivation I really have. Motivation to begin again and try to remain at the level of performance I was at in a completely different program. My success from high school is still a motivator to push me to be the jumper I know I can be but it’s also my well-being and happiness that motivates me to stick with track and force myself to run those awful workouts. As I explained in a previous post, I love track because it’s both a team sport and an individual sport. When I’m up to jump, its my time to shine and only I have control over my success. Doing well makes me happy and winning is my goal because of my competitive spirit.

At my new school, things are completely different than I expected and I’m adjusting to the new program and training regiment but knowing that I still have a lot of control over my own performance is what gives me hope that I can be the successful lazy jumper that I’ve been in high school at my first college and at my current university.

High School vs. College

There were a lot of factors that changed my motivation from when I jumped in high school to jumping in college now. In high school, track and field was just a side sport for me, since then, I have made it into a career as I’m entering my sixth year of jumping.

In high school I had no expectations for my success as a jumper. My motivation for track was soccer season and being prepared for the Fall season. There was no pressure to be the best since this was a brand new sport for me. When I realized I had a knack for jumping, winning quickly became a motivation. I realized that I had the potential to win my conference in high jump. Just as I had been successful in all my previous athletic endeavors I wanted excel in track now. I think jumping was easy for me because there were no expectations. Anything I did at a meet was great as long as I put my best effort into it and I think this is why I fell in love with track. No one in my family had ever ran track and I had no one to compare myself to, I could pave my own way to success and that’s what I did and why I wanted to continue track and field in college.

For once I was competing in a sport that my family had no knowledge of. I loved teaching my parents that a relay race can be called a 4×200, not a 2×4 like my mom commonly refers to it as (I have  to remind her track and field has no relation to the Home Depot). College was a place where I could enjoy competing and have the hopes of improving upon the skills I gained in high school.

Once I was a college athlete, my motivation to improve was my previous success in high school. I thought that with all the new coaching advice and training programs things could only go up from here. Boy was I WRONG. My freshman year of college I couldn’t get back to my personal bests in high school, it was brutal. You feel like a failure but I trusted in my coaches training program and used my older teammates’ success as an indicator that if I was patient and trusted in the program I too would see positive results. That motivator worked for me as I peaked my athletic performance at the end of my sophomore year. You think the story only gets better from here but I decided to transfer and now my track career is on a whole new route, read about it here.

Why Track and Field Motivates Me

When I seem to have no motivation, I realize once I’m at practice that track and field motivates me. I’ve played soccer, softball, basketball, lacrosse, and danced competitively. Track and field didn’t enter my life until I was in high school. I picked up the sport so I could stay in shape because soccer and competitive dance were my main focus.

Soccer has been in my life for as long as I could remember. My dad coached me my whole life, I played on various travel teams and was a four-year varsity player in high school. Although I enjoyed playing soccer and I enjoyed being a good at it, there were a lot of things I dreaded. I hated getting in shape for soccer, and although you may be thinking, isn’t running for soccer the same as running track and field? No, they’re completely different and although I share a hatred for them both, nothing sounds worse to me than preseason fitness testing for soccer. Secondly, I always got nervous during soccer games. I was afraid to make a mistake that would be costly for my team. I always had nerves before a game, I almost to the point that I was scared for the game to start. So, even if I do miss the sport, I don’t miss the anxiety it gave me and that awful preseason training.

With competitive dance, I enjoyed it because it was so opposite of how people perceived me. I was always the tom-boy growing up, I wore my older brothers hand me downs and had to learn to hang with the guys when I was younger. When it came time to go to dance competitions I would get all dolled up with make up and curl my hair and wear sparkly costumes. For most people who knew me it was a foreign sight to see me in my costumes. Dance makes me feel confident and happy. It’s something I’ve always been good at, I’ve always been in the front of the formations not afraid to lead the team behind me. When it came down to choosing a sport to pursue in college I was afraid that dance was a real sport and I couldn’t see myself giving up the real physical work outs that track and soccer gave me.

So I ended up pursuing track and field in college and here’s why:

• Track is a team sport and an individual sport- I can shine all on my own and celebrate in the successes of my team as well.
• I never get nervous when jumping- Meets are never a point of anxiety for me, I am always working towards competition day, I hate practices but you have to stick them out to shine on meet day. I only get excited to jump and enjoy the results that come from only being positive and excited.
• You’re the only one on the runway- I don’t have to share the spotlight with anyone else, when it’s my turn to jump everyone’s quiet and all eyes are on me, it’s like a dance competition but I’m performing a solo act. I am the only motivation out there, it’s all in my head and I get satisfaction out of motivating myself and pushing myself to perform at my top ability.

Lazy Jumper…Lazy Blogger

As I have admitted, I’m a lazy jumper and currently it has set in that I can be a lazy blogger as well. Today I wanted to offer some suggestions on my favorite track and field websites. This is where I get my inspiration and motivation during the track season, I like staying on top of what’s going on in the world of track and field. Below are websites that assist me in keeping up with my conference, my division, and my sport as a whole, I hope you get a lot of useful information and inspiration from them too!

 

The Psychology of Motivation

The psychology of motivation is a topic that interests me because it answers questions as to why I act in the ways I do and what the emotional effect is behind all of my decision making. It’s something that affects all athletes.

Enhancing Motivation

• Modify how success is defined- set your own level of success whether it’s a certain distance or height in the long, triple, or high jump, or knowing that you want to place in the top three of your meet, no matter what height or distance you jump
• Use effective feedback- this pertains more to the coaching side of motivation and whether your motivation is triggered by positive and content loaded feedback or emotive feedback such as the kind here.
• Set appropriate goals- your goals should be attainable and specific so your success or failure can be easily measured.

Performance and Motivation Problems

• Decreased performance- this is when you’re in a slump. It happens to all of us, especially us jumpers. Jumping is not only has its physical aspect but the emotional and psychological aspect of jumping plays a big part in your performance. You’re on your own and you control your success. You must keep up your motivation and optimism to be a successful jumper, without it you”l beat yourself down too much.
• Failing to reach potential- this goes along with setting the right goals. Your goals must be attainable and achievable because without success you will continuously feel like you can never reach your potential. Important to this point is that you also must remember to celebrate the small successes, whether its having a good jump during practice or finally perfecting your jump approach  any small step to your end goal should be noticed and praised.

If all of this analysis on psychology and motivation aren’t clicking with you, I’d suggest watching these movies listed below, if they don’t give you goose bumps you’re crazy- these are my top five inspirational sports movies:

1. Remember the Titans
2. Rudy
3. Miracle
4. Field of Dreams
5. Hoosiers

Comment below on your favorite sports movies!

No More Motivation

Lazy Sundays, I’ve had plenty of them, I wake up late, stay in my pajamas for the majority of the day and don’t even want to walk out of my apartment. So you think I’m going to want to work out on a day like this? No.

I’ve been doing my own reading along side writing this blog and I’ve stumbled upon some useful sights that were entertaining and appealed to my inner laziness. First, I found an in-room full body workout, compliments of Nerd Fitness. This blog shows a “20 minute hotel room workout,” if it can be completed in a hotel room, anywhere will work! Starting with a warm-up continuing this workout will work everything from legs, core, chest, back and arms, check it out!

Another way to work out when you’re unmotivated is through disguising the workout. Personally, I used to be a competitive dancer and I get a lot of enjoyment out of dancing, so if I don’t feel like forcing myself to sprint around a track forever or doing plyometric exercises, I”ll take a hip hop fitness class. Disguising your workout by doing something you enjoy is a lot more pleasurable than knowingly forcing yourself into something you don’t feel like doing.

If you have any suggestions for working around your “lazy days” comment below because we know I’m all ears for any way to disguise a workout!

The Power of People

For me, people are my source of motivation. My teammates or friends that work out with me are the reason I get my butt up and out to train. I hate working out on my own. When I have teammates that I can’t let down or friends to go to the gym with, it makes everything much better.

I view my teammates as competition. I want to try to sprint faster than them in a workout at practice, I want to be the best jumper on my team. By showing up to practice and working out with my teammates, I’m helping myself, I’m helping my teammates and my teammates are helping me. Being a member of a good team is a big motivator. The success of the team is just as important as my individual success.

As for my friends, they’re the ones who get me to the gym during off-season or get me out and moving. For some reason, suffering through the same workout pains with a friend is a lot more inviting than suffering on your own. If I’m in a gym by myself, for one, I’m uncomfortable and not very confident, second, I want someone to there to laugh with me if I’m make a mistake or look funny.

It’s a good feeling to have support around you and that’s what my teammates and friends do for me. Therefore, the power of people can be very motivating for my fitness, even if I am just a lazy jumper.