2008 Woodie Awards
Athletes may have a leg up in getting through those 'lazy days' of life
Talitha Linden-Darrow
Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: Sports
Have you ever had one of those days when you just feel like you don't want to do anything? All you want to do is lie in bed or just hang out and watch T.V. Sometimes we have the luxury of taking those days off to be lazy and those are some great days. As an athlete, however, those days are very few and far apart and those feelings can act like kryptonite during practice. So how do we get through those practices?
We manufacture our enthusiasm and energy. These may be two things that are commonly thought of as things that you just can't fake, let alone create yourself. This is however exactly what all athletes have to do at some point at practice on days when you just don't feel like practicing. There's an air in the gym or on the field or wherever practices may be taking place, a dread almost for what the coach is about to make you do.
Those feelings can be hard to shake and actually become a physical problem when the execution of the drills becomes sloppy and unfocused. And we all know what happens when our drills become sloppy and unfocused . . . coach gets mad and we run. No one likes to hear that whistle blow and hear the words, "On the baseline!" So to avoid those words and the feeling of our stomachs dropping to the floor as we get ready to run our suicides, we have to fake it and find some way to get our heads back into practice and find some way to feel excited about it. Now, everyone has their own way of doing it. Whether it's thinking about the upcoming game or even about what you're going to do after practice is over, any way to get that enthusiasm back to get through practice without excessive running.
This happens outside of practices too when we all have some sort of job to do, paper to write or any other chore that just isn't what you might want to do at that time but have to. We can't half-ass it, whatever we're doing, and most of the time you don't have a coach there to remind you when you are slacking. It would be great if we all had a personal coach who, when our papers begin to suck and the reading starts to get put aside, will blow a whistle in our ears and make us run.
Obviously, we don't have that so the enthusiasm and focus has to come from ourselves. Athletes have a leg up in this department because we get practice at our practices. It doesn't matter what gets you through your work or your practices as long as it gives you that needed boost of energy and focus. Even if you can't think of anything that can do that, fake it because as long as you are the only one who knows that your heart just isn't in it that day, the running, both figuratively and literally will remain at a manageable level.
We manufacture our enthusiasm and energy. These may be two things that are commonly thought of as things that you just can't fake, let alone create yourself. This is however exactly what all athletes have to do at some point at practice on days when you just don't feel like practicing. There's an air in the gym or on the field or wherever practices may be taking place, a dread almost for what the coach is about to make you do.
Those feelings can be hard to shake and actually become a physical problem when the execution of the drills becomes sloppy and unfocused. And we all know what happens when our drills become sloppy and unfocused . . . coach gets mad and we run. No one likes to hear that whistle blow and hear the words, "On the baseline!" So to avoid those words and the feeling of our stomachs dropping to the floor as we get ready to run our suicides, we have to fake it and find some way to get our heads back into practice and find some way to feel excited about it. Now, everyone has their own way of doing it. Whether it's thinking about the upcoming game or even about what you're going to do after practice is over, any way to get that enthusiasm back to get through practice without excessive running.
This happens outside of practices too when we all have some sort of job to do, paper to write or any other chore that just isn't what you might want to do at that time but have to. We can't half-ass it, whatever we're doing, and most of the time you don't have a coach there to remind you when you are slacking. It would be great if we all had a personal coach who, when our papers begin to suck and the reading starts to get put aside, will blow a whistle in our ears and make us run.
Obviously, we don't have that so the enthusiasm and focus has to come from ourselves. Athletes have a leg up in this department because we get practice at our practices. It doesn't matter what gets you through your work or your practices as long as it gives you that needed boost of energy and focus. Even if you can't think of anything that can do that, fake it because as long as you are the only one who knows that your heart just isn't in it that day, the running, both figuratively and literally will remain at a manageable level.
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