All things are difficult before they are easy. – Thomas Fuller
Let’s be clear…you are exhausted. You’ve pushed your mind, body and spirit for 4 straight months of 5-6 day per week 2+ hour practices. Your body hurts. Your head is spinning. You either just finished your season on a losing note or you are one of the rare athletes who won their last game. There is not another practice to attend. No one is going to yell at you or challenge you to find a little more in your personal tank today. Your veins are filled with adrenaline that has no place to go. You feel like you are in a racecar with no where to drive. What do you do?
Step 1: Breathe. Seriously. Take 5-6 deep breaths and slowly exhale. Remind yourself that their is more to your life than this sport that you just dedicated your life to these last few months.
Step 2: Sleep. Allow your body to get the rest it is begging you to get. You need a lot more sleep than you think. Whatever the next weekend is coming up, plan on sleeping in and then taking some naps in between the sleep.
Step 3: Clean. Wash your uniform and practice gear. Fold it up nicely and put it near the door you leave the house through to take back to your coaches. Completely empty your school backpack and your sport bag. Throw away anything you don’t need anymore and consider throwing that nasty thing in the washing machine and giving it a good cleaning.
Step 4: Academics. Grades should have always been priority #1, but now that the season is over, get back to your routine. Find a place to study right after school and make that place your study place every day at the same time as often as possible. Go reintroduce yourself to your teachers and let them know that wherever you have been lacking, you are ready to change the narrative and be the best version of yourself in their classroom moving forward.
Step 5: Exit interview. If your coaches don’t make it mandatory, ask your coach for an exit interview. Let them know that you want a full evaluation on your season…the good, the bad and the next steps to improve. If you are a Senior, still request the conversation. There may not be next steps, but it is important that you get some good closure with your coach before you graduate. Give them time to tell you how they feel about you and vice versa.
Step 6: Gratitude. Make it a point to be thankful for the opportunity you had this season. No matter how the season went. Lots of time and energy was put in. Make sure to thank your parents, your coaches, your teammates, the managers, your teachers, etc. for supporting you and sticking by you. You’ll be glad you did!
Step 7: Fun: Schedule something in the next week with your non-team friends. Go to the movies, the mall, bowling, to dinner, for a hike, wherever…just do something fun and do it with the people you haven’t had quality time with in a while.
Step 8: Write: Sit down when you start feeling like yourself again and write in a journal about how you feel about your season. What did it mean to you? Were you happy with how you prepared? What did you learn? Were you happy with your effort and attitude? Did you create the relationship with your coaches and teammates you wanted? Be honest with yourself. Then…put a plan together for how you want to prepare and challenge yourself for your next season or the next big opportunity in your life. There is nothing more important than self-reflection.
Step 9: Pride: As your season ends and you’ve given yourself self-reflection, be proud of what you did. You finished. You completed a full season. You did something extremely difficult, and you saw it through to the end. Most will never even take up the challenge that you took all the way to the end. Be very proud of that no matter what the team or individual record was in the end. You deserve to feel good about your commitment!
Enjoying these blogs? Want to schedule a free 30-minute coaching assessment with Coach Rogers? You can do so here: https://www.significantcoaching.net/
Interested in Coach Rogers’ Playbook on College Recruiting? You can find it here: https://bit.ly/Matt-Rogers-Significant-Recruiting-Amazon
