Working On This One Thing Will Transform Your Athletic Career

We lined up, stepped into our blocks, and everyone took their last breath before the gun was shot. This was the biggest stage for my sophomore season, the 100-meter hurdles in the Big Sky Conference Championship. I felt shaky, nervous, and scared instead of calm, confident and prepared. I couldn’t help but think, I had spent countless hours night and day working on some form of training, mechanics, technique, and lifting. My drive was at its peak. How was I feeling this way, and at this moment? The starting official fired the gun and off we went. Soaring over 10 hurdles, racing in between, gliding down 100 meters, all of the competitors racing together. I fell behind them, running poorly, watching them execute excellent races while I was struggling, lacking the confidence to get over my hurdles and run my race. I crossed the finish line in 8th place.

I was furious, disappointed, and frustrated. How could this happen? 

My competitive drive was there, I wanted to win but more importantly, I wanted to become a better athlete. I had my technique down, my sprinting and mechanics were developed, but something was missing.

The decision to be an athlete is not a matter to be taken lightly and many factors come into play when pursuing any type of recreational, sanctioned, or professional sport. Besides the strenuous, time-consuming hours spent on the field, managing our time to balance school, life, and extracurricular activities, managing the pressure to perform well, and many other factors that we as athletes don’t openly talk about, one of the most important and often undervalued concepts of sport is mental training.

Being an athlete is physically demanding. The hours spent at the track after school, early morning weightlifting, handling injuries, and maintaining a proper eating and sleeping schedule; all of this can affect our physical and mental performance in more ways than one. Something that I have grown to learn is the concept of mental training in our sports. From my experience, most of the programs I have seen do not have a standard program dedicated to mental toughness training. Traditionally, athletes are just expected to be tough as nails, as if we aren’t allowed to have emotional responses to sport-related stimuli. Some athletes cannot handle pressure, not because they aren’t physically prepared, but simply because they haven’t conditioned their mind as they have their body.  

Two of the pillars of my competition and coaching philosophy is mental training and having confidence in our pursuit. These concepts are so vital to athletic success and if we aren’t taught as young athletes to be mentally versatile, it can affect the way we compete – fearful and nervous instead of excited and prepared. Luckily, I learned this philosophy at a young age. I grew up in a small town where big dreams were very scarce. You were expected to follow the agenda, be like everyone else within your community, follow the “rites of passage” and many times there was an expectation to blend in and put your high hopes in a box. Luckily, I grew up in a strong-willed household with an extremely supportive family who believed in me and encouraged me to pursue my dreams. I was never one to let others affect my pursuit, no matter the adversity. Throughout my time as a college athlete, I faced much opposition, as we all do from time to time. Individuals who I thought were in my corner turned out to be some of the biggest adversaries to my success. I was shocked, hurt and torn apart discovering these individuals whom I thought were rooting for my development in my sport but turned out to only be celebrating when I wasn’t competing at my best.

I found a way to turn that criticism into fuel that ignites my fire. 

Now, collegiate sports are not for everyone and that is completely acceptable. For me, I was not going to let the doubts of others push me away from my passion. I was not going to allow their negative mindset and lack of respect to pull me down to their level. But more importantly, I was not going to let the negative environment that was closing in on me change the course I felt I was destined to follow. I spent many hours focusing on the mental training aspect of track and field. I taught myself techniques to allow me to drown out the noise and stay in my lane. Fast forward through my collegiate career, I became a four-time conference champion, record breaker and All American. A young girl from “Smalltown” USA who was not expected to go anywhere with her track and field career, made a name for herself and set the tone for her future primarily through mental training.

As I am transitioning out of college and stepping into the professional world, I have found myself wondering what my next step should be. I have been faced with the expectation of ending the pursuit of my dreams, starting my career, and ultimately settling down after I completed my professional degree, but I’ve never been one to follow the crowd. 

I knew I wanted to continue my hurdling career but was sometimes faced with the “not good enough” opinion that creeps into the back of our minds. Because of this, I have questioned if it was time to hang up the spikes forever. While I believe it is important to be sensible about the future and be prepared, I am a firm believer in chasing after your dreams, no matter where you come from, what your background is or what society expects of you. Throughout my career, I have spent just as much time training my brain as I have trained my body to race over the hurdles and that is where I feel I have an edge on my competitors. Of course, athleticism and skill are both important factors but if our mental training is not up to par, we may likely struggle to compete at our truest potential. I have developed from an average athlete to a national level and world competition contender, all because I believe and integrate the power of mind over matter and by having confidence in my abilities. With that being said, I fully believe without serious dedication to my mental training, I would not be at the level I am at today.

Not only is it important that we end the expectation that every athlete is born tough as nails, but it is also important that we influence young athletes to pursue their dreams regardless of the adversity they face with poise and confidence. We cannot allow the next generation of young athletes to be caught up in their heads because of possible exposure to the negative effects of failing to prepare mentally. Having a dream is a wonderful, beautiful pursuit that can lead to many amazing opportunities but having the courage to follow through with the pursuit of that dream takes nothing but absolute grit, tenacity, determination, and passion. We as athletes must prepare ourselves both physically and mentally while having the courage to pursue our dreams, regardless of the adversity we face.