The Mind of an Athlete

Venezia Perez, Sports Editor

Your mind is an incredible thing, and it can accomplish magnificent things when you learn howto control it. When I say control it, I mean understand it, listen to it, and most importantly, use it.When you do those things, it can lead to extraordinary things. Although it can help youremember things, it can also shut down. Comparable to a machine, it operates and controls butbreaks down when so much is thrown at it with no help. These words are intended toembrace another outlook on mental health and athletes. Mental health can make or break anathlete. Clouded thinking, unfortunate circumstances, and the future are some of the biggestreasons why an athlete’s mind is more than what you think it is. There is more to sportsthan just playing and succeeding. The more competitive levels you play at, the more you arevulnerable to experiencing life-altering hardships. The level of mental toughness that people have orlack is tested daily. Sports is more than just physical ability; arguably, it is about 10%physical and 90% mental. Well, honestly, the mental aspect has a tendency to be the“forgotten side” of sports.

From personal experience, I have come across battles with mental toughness countless times and will continue to do so. However, I think I have embraced my hardships, and that has left the ability to become mentally tougher.

There’s a specific feeling that engulfs your mind from time to time. You feel like you haveconquered every challenge, only being so close to achieving what you have been dreaming of,then suddenly feeling unadorned. It’s hard to fully explain these exact feelingsbecause it’s not just one emotion. Ultimately, it’s every “negative” emotion plus some more, all mixed. As much as one tries to believe in remaining optimistic or positive, the urge to let one’s mind wander to countless places submerges the mind.

As previously said, the mind is a powerful thing; whatever you tell it,it believes. Every athlete is just as different as the sport that they play, but the one thing that they may have in common is how big the mental aspect is inan athlete’s life. It is basic human nature to overthink and worry, especially when it comes to performance or whatever the case may be as an athlete. An immense amount of blood, sweat, and tears goes into the sport you play, and sometimes it looks like you’ve never played before. Little bumps in the road lead to major rainy clouds in the mind, becoming a domino effect. I’ve learned that the longer you let your worries or problems linger, the harder it is to digyourself out of that hole. Eventually, you’ll never be able to come back from it until you make achange.

As an athlete, you go through so many emotions, whether they are positive or negative. You learn so many life lessons that carry on to your everyday lives. Sometimes, things don’t always work in our favor but as more time goes on, you can understand that things happen for a reason. Positive or negative, there is a reason for everything. Unfortunate circumstances happen constantly; sadly, they take a toll on the mind. Some of those circumstances lead toathletes having an identity crisis. Many struggle to find purpose in life and constantly ask themselves “Who am I?” Nobody ever talks about these detrimental crises athletes go through. There is no instruction manual and no warnings.

There are so many times when we are told to “suck it up” and “don’t quit” that we force ourselves almost to go silent and suffer in that silence. But as previously said, that does nothing but make things worse. This is almost like contradicting yourself because athletes are taught to be vocal and resilient, and you feel incomplete and lost when you show any sign of vulnerability. Most importantly, I hope that these words shine a light on just a small amount of dilemmas that athletes go through. Hoping that a new outlook and a bit of understanding are brought to the minds of countless athletes out there who may feel unheard.