Student-Athletes Meet “Life Hacks” Are you a stressed out student-athlete in high school? Do you know someone who is? Some student-athletes face the daunting schedules that their coaches and teachers set for them. I was one of those student-athletes, always trying to balance my obligations as a student and an athlete. Along the way, I picked up some helpful information. These top three “life hacks” are bound to help you get through the vigorous schedule as a high school student-athlete: communicate honestly with your teachers and coaches, get enough sleep, and take ten minutes out of every night to write in a journal to reflect. The first vital tip of them all, is communicating honestly with your teachers and coaches about your schedules. …show more content…
This trick may seem a bit obvious, but a lot of student-athletes are facing this struggle each night. A typical schedule at one point in my student-athlete career would go something like this. I would wake up Monday through Friday at 5:45 in the morning, so I could make it to the school’s gym by 6:10 to begin practice with a two mile run. After the morning’s practice, ending just fifteen minutes prior to the first bell of the school day, I would have no time to review for any of my classes. As I would spend my tiring day in school, I would sometimes find myself in a haze. After three o’clock, I would return to the gym for afternoon practice for an additional two and a half hours. Although, I do recall some practices running until nine o’clock in the evening. I’d then go home to start my school work which included, studying, projects, assignments, other extracurricular items, etc. This schedule cannot fit quality amounts of sleep for student-athletes. You can tell when a person hasn’t been getting enough sleep. These people may seem moody, have compromised abilities, or even see health changes. In my years of putting sleep at the bottom of my priority list, I got very ill several times. Once, I was ordered by my doctor to stay home for three and a half months during my freshman year. Picking myself up after missing that much school and fighting to get the strength to perform again in my athletics was a battle. My immune system wouldn’t have allowed me to get that sick if I had more quality sleep. To combat bad sleeping patters, start putting sleep near the very top of your priority list. Bulky schedules can make student-athletes lose quality sleep, but by making sure you maintain good sleeping patterns you’ll have an easier time keeping up with your
Students in college have to balance many activities: school, friends, work, health, and everything in between. Being a student athlete adds a whole new workload. Not only do student athletes have to balance class, studying, and homework, but they also have workouts, meetings, events, games, and of course, practice. Not even mentioning a social life, a student athlete 's daily schedule is already packed full. Typically, a student athlete wakes up, goes to a workout that is followed by classes, then another workout, and finally time for studying and homework.
The grind never stops day in and day out. It’s early in the morning and you’re going to school, followed by work or sports or maybe even both. After a long day, you finally come home, eat dinner, shower, text some friends and check social media. Before you know it, it’s 10 at night. Teens are struggling to maintain their academics with balancing their passions and work. As a student athlete, I find it hard at times to maintain good grades and pursuit my passions.
As a student who has participated in high school sports and taken multiple AP and honors level classes, I know the challenges that accompany the standard school schedule. Practices and games for the basketball team took up over three hours of my time six days every week. During school days, I had to leave my fifth period early when I had games, taking away from my valuable learning time. This forced me to try to learn the material that I had missed during the time I was participating in an event that allowed me to represent my school district. This, accompanied by the homework of all my classes, led to my loss of sleep. During my freshman year, I went to bed around 12 A.M. every night and woke up at 6:30 A.M. the next day, allowing me three
Many students, teachers, parents, and more throughout the country have a firm stance on the argument that school should start at a later time not only because of our diverse sleep patterns, but also because of the negative stress it puts on our bodies, and it even how it can influence our ability to learn. We hear of students constantly complaining about getting very little sleep every night during the school week. Many teachers, parents, and even other students getting better sleep seem to just blow it off or think that students are overexerting the problem. We are starting to see that there are actual negative effects from students, mainly in high school, losing sleep due to extra curricular activities, homework, and any other activities
Athletes who are sleep deprived report slower reaction times that could lead to injuries so if schools started later, athletes should be at the top of their game every night. Student athletes have many responsibilities throughout their day including maintaining their good grades, behaving well in school, and putting their best effort out during the practices and games. If the star basketball player struggles to get good sleep every night, then has a hard time at school that day, will this player come out at the game that night with his full focus on the game? Probably not. Athletes more than anyone need those 9 hours of sleep or it could potentially kill them. A study was conducted in 2011 on a Stanford basketball team investigating the effects of sleep extension on specific measures of athletic performance, as well as reaction time and daytime sleepiness. It is well known that sleep that sleep deprivation and sleep disturbance can impair mental and physical function, immune response and other restorative processes important for athletes (
Students that do not sleep well at night will struggle to maintain grades and a healthy lifestyle. Students who sleep less usually have lower grades than a student that gets enough rest. Student will feel pressured to sacrifice sleep to be in top shape for their team so they can earn the money given to them. Students who do this will wrestle with lowering grades and the inability to think as efficiently. According to ncaa.org, their blog states that colleges graduate 18 percent fewer college athletes than regular students. The main cause of this is being overworked to the point of exhaustion or to where they have to pick academics to focus on or their sport. Also according to ncaa.org In 2004 only 73 percent of college athletes graduated
Most students can find it hard going to several practices a week and also find time to keep up with their studies. Time management can be very difficult and stressful. Also, athletics tend to overtake schoolwork because of the pressure from teammates, family members, coaches, and the stress of getting a scholarship. (Sports: How much is too much?)
A lot of people throughout the world go into college thinking that playing a division one sport would be something that would be a really significant thing to do and that it won’t be so difficult to do, as the individuals who are getting recruited and going to play a college sport to play the game. In college athletics today, teams are practicing and working out usually around five times a week. Student athletes have to manage their time between all their school work, practices, and sometimes even a part time job on the side. Not only is it a lot of stress put on these particular students, as they have a lot to do throughout the week juggling between all these aspects of being a college athlete, but it is a lot of sleepless nights as well.
Almost all student athletes get butterflies before that Friday night football game, before the fans get to watch them compete, or even the to get the ability to practice. Many argue that high school sports are a distraction in the classroom or even cause career ending injuries. There are many different scenarios that prove that high school sports do the exact opposite of those. When it comes to high school sports, it keeps students fit, boosts a student’s academic performance, and enhances a student’s self-esteem. High school sports are very beneficial and for anyone who is looking to take on a new challenge to take on.
Athletes that wake up extremely early to go to school and stay up late doing homework, are at a higher risk for injuries. In a study done recently, two thirds of tested (tired) athletes got injured in some way (Lewis). The researchers anticipate that when an athlete gets less than eight hours of sleep, it can result in an injury. In 1942, about 85 percent of Americans slept at least seven hours a night. Today, less than 60 percent of Americans acquire more than seven hours of sleep at night (Carroll). Not attaining an adequate amount of sleep is particularly unhealthy for a person's body. However, a bonus to getting more sleep increases their ability to focus more when they perform, muscles relax, and they are less stressed
They will also realize that student-athletes are responsible for taking care of their business on and off the field. There was a study that found that almost half of the male athletes and slightly more than half of the female athletes, who were involved in the study, implied that stresses like pressure to win, excessive anxiety, frustration conflict, irritation, and fear affected their mental and emotional health (Humphrey et al., 2000). This is important to know because this can later or even immediately affect a person’s confidence and self worth. Freshmen are not the only class that deals with stress, which will affect their performance. Although these stress factors are brought to their attention early in their careers, most do not seek help nor do they find a solution to their problem. It is important that coaches have sport counselors that sit in and talk with these often to insure they are doing ok. These athletes are psychologically and physiologically hurting and need
Every high school has different social, stereotypical cliches. Throughout various schools, there are “the nerds” who enjoy completing assignments and value high grades, “the loners” that stick to their secluded, individual group, and “the jocks” or athletes that participate in every sport possible. High school athletes dedicate a numerous amount of time to practicing and playing sports. Multi-sport athletes never receive a break between seasons, after one sport concludes the other begins in a matter of days. Some might find athletics to be tiring, never-ending, and consuming to their personal life, but athletics also has tremendous benefits for adolescents. Participating in high school athletics provides numerous health benefits, generates authentic relationships, and builds useful life skills.
High school stressing has occurred for a long time, but it has changed over the past decades. Things are different now. Girls can play sports, kids can stay up late on technology, students are expected to have straight A’s, athletes are expected to be the best of the best. According to Cline, kids did not used to do sports
While high school student-athletes invest a lot of time and energy into their sport, the collegiate lifestyle brings a new level of difficulty that many incoming freshmen can find intimidating and overwhelming at first. In addition to being under more pressure to perform on a larger, more competitive stage in front of a more expansive audience, they must also deal with the every day challenges that normal college freshmen face: homesickness, transitioning into a more demanding academic workload, and creating a new social network. College athletes have to have their routines extremely time focused, and make time management essential to their daily lives.
Tahoma High School has let me do exactly that. I wake up at 6:30 AM and pack three bags, my school bag, my lunch, and my sports bag. I have gone to school for 8 hours a day, spent about three more hours after school at practice, and then getting home around 7:00 PM still needing dinner, shower, and to do all the homework that’s due early the next day. A lot of people might wonder why i would do all of this but I just go through my day as anyone else would and there was no other way I would rather spend my highschool career. Athletes have a challenging time trying to upkeep with their school responsibilities. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining what so ever and Tahoma high School has let me accomplish all of my future goals that I have been able to do throughout these