The Pressure Of Winning Was Consuming Me

For the next week or so, i started participating in activities like basketball and football, just to pass the time. A few days before my classes started I was playing basketball and I went up for a rebound and when i landed, i fell on my ankle the wrong

It was morning of the first game in my high school varsity career. The coach had told me the day before that I was not just going to play varsity, but I was going to start for my team. I was exhilarated when I found out, but now as I put on my jersey, I felt the anxiety build up inside of me like a balloon about to burst any second. I put on the rest of my soccer equipment, placing the left sock on my foot before putting on the right one, a ritual I always

I was excited for a new beginning in my career, maybe to prepare me for high school in the upcoming years. The idea of beating boys in soccer got me excited, my blood pumping harder through my veins and put an extra spring in my step. It was the first practice of our middle school season, where my life would be turned upside down. I ran down the field as normal, going for another shot on goal, but out of nowhere one of boys came from behind and completely took out my knee, causing me to collapse in pain. Lying down on the field, my sanctuary, the place I saw as home was probably the most grueling time of my life. Injuries were common in my life, but this injury was unlike any other. I could not get up off the field and felt as if there was nothing left in my knee, and every time I tried to get up, I fell right back down. I never sat out a practice until that night and figured one day would be enough. One night was clearly not enough, I was never able to catch back up to my full speed, or be able to cut around the field, which resulted in moving positions from forward, to defense to cut back on the running. I thought this would a temporary position, but I played every game in

We only had two games left and I was determined to play. By the next game I was suited up and ready to play. My ankle was still swollen and still a bit tender. By the end of the first quarter I was practically in tears. What was I to do in this situation? The team was counting on me and I refused to let them down. Nothing was the same, I couldn't run as fast, my reaction time was slower with the fear that I might injure my ankle even worse. We won the game by a landslide a girl on my team was fouled shooting a Hail Mary. There was no time left on the clock and she made all 3 free throws giving is a one point lead. The next game coach noticed me limping a little and insisted that I stay out and rest for a little because track season was right around the corner. Of course it had already started it always runs into basketball season. I thought long and hard and determined I would I test the water. I went through warm ups, ran up and down the court a few times, did some ankle exercises, I still wasn't sure if I should go for it or not. I told my coach and she looked bummed but she told me she cared more about my health and told me to sit up closer to her. This was one of the most important games of the year. In order to get into playoffs we had to win this game. Everything was looking bright until two of our starting five fouled out in the beginning of the fourth quarter. I was nervous and really anxious to see how this would unfold.

It was a cool saturday morning in february, as I was violently woken up by my alarm clock. I rose out of my bed, and started preparing for my championship hockey game later that day. I got up out of bed and refreshed myself as I stretched. I grabbed my dress shirt and my dress pants and went to my parents room to iron my clothes. Not knowing that the iron was already on and hot, I picked up the iron. The iron fell on my foot, and I frantically grabbed it off the floor. I hoped that it wouldn’t start a fire. My foot was burning with pain. I knew in my head that today was going to be a struggle. Unfortunately, it had to be on the same day of my league championship game.

​The world spun as I got up off the ground, it felt like someone had hit me in the back of the head with a sledge hammer. I knew the play had moved down the field but I could not find it. The seconds seemed to take years to pass me by. I think I spun in a circle three or four times to find the huddle forming around the goal line for the field goal attempt. I half jogged, half stumbled my to the huddle barely keeping myself on my feet. I put my hand in the dirt, and watched the ball sail through the uprights. I miraculously made it back to the sideline, where the trainer could see that I was struggling just to stand. She made me sit on the bench and put me

The pain was nothing like I had ever felt before. I had never broken a bone so I didn’t know it would hurt like this. It felt as if the world’s strongest person had just punched me in the lower back. At the time the pain was shooting all the way from the bottom of my tailbone to my mid-back. There was a tear running down my face. Everyone on my team, and all the parents on the sidelines, knew Iam injured. They knew this because I would never cry during a soccer game unless I was in pain.

We were all set up on the field ready for the game, I remember closing my eyes forabout a minute before the game started, that minute felt like 10 years, I froze and thought aboutmyself when I was 3 years old and how I first fell in love with the game and how my ultimatedream was to become pro, I remember the hours of pain and suffering I put myself through tobecome the player I was today, I remembered waking up at 4 a.m. on school mornings to go forruns so that I could run longer in games,I remember skipping parties and hanging with friendsso that I could train, I remembered everything, but one thing truly hit me was how much soccerwas there for me growing up my parents argued a lot and when I was feeling sad and lonely Iwould go train at the fields and it would hell my sorrow. Growing up in a household when yourparents are constantly fighting is difficult, but soccer was my out lit it was my therapist. Duringthe time of their divorce I felt like I had no one but soccer so I decided I need to give back to thegame. Soccer did so much for me, so I wanted to prove to it that it wasn't a waste of time andthat I would make something out of the game. I opened my eyes and didn't feel human anymore Ididn't feel in control of my own body the sport had taken over me for the better. I remembermoments when I was running and it didn't even feel like my feet were touching the floor

Ten years ago I saw my first soccer game and up until recently I wanted to be a soccer player ahead of my second passion which is computers. Like most kids, all I ever dreamed of is being a pro athlete. I played soccer all 4 years of High school. I went to the camps and training sessions of many colleges. I even went to the extent of trying out for many professional teams. On March 29th of this year I went to Score Indoor, an indoor soccer arena in Fairburn, to play a small scrimmage game. Something in my head told me that I shouldn’t play but I shrugged it off. 20 minutes into the game I was tackled hard and long story short, I tore my acl. Tearing my acl crippled so many of my plans. In June I had probably the most important tryout of my life. I was going to try out for 3 of the biggest teams in Mexico. At the time I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. All I ever thought about was going pro.

At last, the day of girls tennis tryouts has came. The day I have been waiting for to finally reveal my skills and techniques. I trained hard all summer to get in better physical shape so that when I got onto the court I could attack each and every ball. The tryouts took place at tennaqua which had six tennis courts available.

At first I just shrugged it off, but sooner than none the pain became so unbearable that the only alternative was to take a couple of weeks off and focus on recovery. During this time, I started biking and lifting weights to the extreme. Even though I was dealing with an injury I was training relentlessly; trying to get better as quick as possible was the only thing on my

During my sophomore year of highschool I loved to play volleyball and basketball. It was my life and I enjoyed everything about it. The intensity of the sports gave me a thrill rush. Sports are what helped me through high school. During volleyball season I was a major blocker for our team. I played weak side witch was your top blocker. I was going up for a block and when I came down I landed really wrong. As I was coming down and felt my feet hit the ground I heard a loud pop in my knee. I had instant pain and fell to the ground. As my coaches were running over to me I could feel tears running down my face. I told myself that pain wasn’t going to take my game away from me. I got up and told my coaches leave me in I am fine. I continued to play till the end of the game. I was in so much pain and aginee. I finished the game and went into the locker rooms and finished my high school career.

Each day, I checked in with the physical trainer to see if I could be cleared for my concussion. If my headaches continued, I was not able to go back to practice. My team members asked about me daily because they wanted me back in. It was hard to face the eyerolls and disappointed faces when I said I wasn’t cleared. Some of my teammates wanted me to lie about my headaches and come back to practice. Even though my main focus was not letting the team down, I fought the want to return to the cheer mat because I needed to be sure I was healthy

I hopped out of my bed and performed my standard procedure and was transported to the soccer pitch. I performed the customary warm up drills with my team and continued to hear ongoing horrendous and rasping whispers from my teammates who really were acting like how I would anticipate the other team to behave.This gave me the motivation of a majestic man on a magnificent motorcycle...but there was still that part of me filled with the fear of what could go wrong. One thing was for sure...I required to get picked in the lineup to actually play. It was my lucky day because the coach did have a slot for me at right defender...but was it really luck or the result of all the hours I committed to every single day. I played my heart out in the first half to the stage where I could scarcely breath when walking off the field. I still detected a feeling that I had to score at least 1 goal if I desired to prove anyone wrong, so I walked up to my coach with conviction and requested for an opportunity at the forward position, and due to my lucky day, he approved! I decided to put 110% of my effort seeing that I

What I was afraid off happened. I suddenly fall and I couldn't move my leg. The team gathered around me, and they carried me out of the pitch. I couldn't move, so I sat down, and I watched the game from the bench. After I had left the match, our midfield was wide open and that caused us to lose with a shocking score. I was devastated and confused. If I was stronger we would've won the match, but instead, I was weak as always, and we lost. The next day, I told my father about what happened, and he took me to the hospital. There I took an x-ray. The doctor looked at my x-ray, and he told me that the bone that?s right under my knee got out of its place because of too much pressure on it. He added on by telling me that I shouldn?t put a lot of pressure on my legs because I was fat and unfit to