Every athlete knows that sports are about performance, which is the physical side of games. Athletes can never do amazing every-time they play, everyone has good games and bad games. All of us pick ourselves up after a bad play or bad game and fixed what we did wrong and move on. But what most people don't know is how mental athletic events are. Many people don't realize the thoughts, expectations and emotions that play a role in the performance of an athlete. 
I know from many experiences that most athletic games or practices are 80 percent mental and 20 percentage execution, especially for my sport, softball. My sport I would say is one of the hardest sports mentally to stay focused and positive in because players fail more than they exceed. In softball when hitting, if a player gets 10 at bats and only gets a hit 3 times, that means their batting average is a .300 which is considered very good. In softball, the mind can really control your performance and the outcome of the game.
I have played sports my whole life whether it was basketball, softball, or volleyball and all those games you have to have a good mentality going in and have the control to keep it throughout the whole game even when your team is down, or you had a bad play. I had struggled my whole life being too mental in any sport I play. I have either been really nervous or I was scared to play because I put so much pressure on myself to do well, which just made me do worse. It has taken many games, practices, and failures to get my head right and to find the resilience to bounce back from a rough patch in a game or a bad performance. 
Over the years it has always been rough to get through the mental block of pushing yourself in practice when you are tired or overcoming a strike out when your team needed a hit or even a bad through. But, with all the pressure, I have remembered at the end of the day all of your teammates are going through the same thing mentally. Everyone is just trying to be the best athlete they can be and succeed and be the best. What I also have realized is that as an individual on the team you cannot be the best player all the time, your teammates have to step up sometimes and pick up what you are not doing well that game or games.
At the end of the day, no one is going to be perfect and they only person that can change their performance is you. Not one player can be amazing all the time, but they can be resilient and know that it is in the past and all you can worry about is the outcome of the next game, the next play, or the next at bat.
Until next time,
Lauren
I love that you are bringing attention to the mental side of athletes. I know when I played volleyball and I would miss a block or get blocked on, I'd get in my own head. The hardest thing is bouncing back and changing your mindset. In sports, you can't dwell on past mistakes, only learn from them and improve.
ReplyDeleteSports are absolutely a mental game. You can perform a move perfectly hundreds of times during practice but still make a mistake in a real game. It’s especially difficult when you make a mistake early on in a game and it impacts everything else you do that game. It might not even be a real mistake, just something you thought you did wrong, and it will still hurt your performance. The only way to work around this is to play games where you get in your own head and recover. It’s a whole lot easier to say that than it is to apply it though. I’m sure even the best athletes in the world still struggle with this every game.
ReplyDeleteHi, I am Sydney, one of Lauren's roommates and teammates here at ONU. Softball has been more downs than ups for me. But I truly believe I am the person I am today because sports have made me mentally stronger. They have taught me that what is in the past, is in the past, I can't change it, I can only go forward and do better next time. I myself, like Lauren have struggled with my mental game. I have been THE hardest person on myself ever since I began playing sports at age 8. I push myself to be the best that I can be, because I know I have always a little more to offer. Out of all my years of playing softball, I have never had a "perfect" game meaning no mistakes in the field or no strikeouts during a game. Sports are way more mental than physical and it takes time to find a balance that works best for you.
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