Don't Make it Harder for Yourself

What if I told you that an athletes success in games may not depend on their talent, effort, or motivation? 

As an athlete who has competed in competitive games for nearly a decade and a half, it’s interesting to see how someone’s mindset in a game is altered by off the field issues. 

If someone doesn’t have a clear mind, their attention is dragged away from the competition to the distractions that are found outside the lines. When your mind is taken away from a game, you expose yourself to get beat individually, and challenge your team to cover for your mistakes. 

Credit : Adrian Dennis Getty Images

Everybody who plays sports, unless it’s singles in tennis or golf, knows that you are only as good as your weakest link. When talented players lose focus, you can never gain a rhythm for the game. Whenever you find yourself ‘in a funk’ it is always difficult to escape that which is exactly what happens. As a result, you are weakening yourself and creating multiple flaws in your line-up. 

Usually, issues have to deal with relationships and family affairs, but can even be things like homework assignments due, or what you’re going to have for dinner. They are so difficult to stop thinking about considering how easy they can enter your mind. If you can get past the mental aspect of sports, you only benefit because you can stay tuned in for the full length. 

Image by Chris Neal, The Capital-Journal

Another problem these issues possess is the fact that they don’t go away so easily. They are like mosquitoes that are circling around your head that you can’t get rid of. They keep you up at night, and have you restless during the day. The side effect is that it tires you out mentally and physically. Now, when you enter the game, your body is already fatigued, and slower than normal making you one step behind everyone else. 

Even in games you’ve been waiting for since the preseason schedule came out are tampered with considering the game is not the main focus of your mind anymore. No pregame playlist can exterminate the external issues on your mind. In addition, it translates into poor body language and the negativity finds its way through the team. At the end of each game, the problem only grows worse knowing you were not invested at 110%, and adds to the original issues coming into the game to add insult to injury.

The only thing you can do is try to work them out before the next game starts. Once you overcome adversity, and slow the game down, is when people revert back to their old self. It’s easy to say that needs to be done, but everything takes time. If it was easy, nobody would have issues. The only question left is... are people willing to work on their issues? If you ask me, the answer is typically no.