Stress

There are many stresses and things that could go wrong being an athlete. The biggest thing for me is the time management. I have practices every day along with the homework and family priorities. I often find myself very busy with little free time to relax or do activities. This is the worst during the busiest part of school season and the busiest part of club season when we are gone for days at a time. When you miss school, you have to do all the make up work along with all the current work. It can get very tiring and annoying. Also, it is VERY hard not to get distracted by your phone or other devices, especially after a game day or tournament, when you want to check what people said about the game.
Another stressful thing about playing a sport is being frustrated about being in a rough patch. Sometimes, when you are working at things and trying to get better, you feel like you're getting worse before you get better. There are a lot of failures before success, but eventually you get it. Also, people get frustrated when they are  not doing so well in practice or in a game. In softball this is easy to do, and because so much of the game is mental, one mistake could affect the next play and sometimes the one after that if you get mad, upset, or let it bother you. We just have to remember that it is okay to make mistakes and that you learn from them. 

Another problem with some athletes is getting tired of your sport. If someone is constantly practicing and playing with no breaks, they might get burnt out and not enjoy playing or not want to play anymore. This is probably more likely to happen if the practices seem repetitive, like they're doing the same things all the time in practice. Some people will get burnt out, but some who really enjoy the game won't. It just depends on the person. Some ways to prevent this from happening is to take a break from it, or in your free time do things non sports related, so you're not always thinking about it and you're not always with the same people all the time. Sometimes it's not always the sport you get tired of, but the people. 

In sports, it's important to have good team chemistry. It is important for the team to get along so they can play well together, and when they don't it can be frustrating. That is another tough thing about playing sports; getting along with your teammates and how to deal with it if you don't. When people don't get along or if players have bad attitudes it can affect the whole team, even if it is just a couple people from the team because it can make the game not fun to play. 

All these things are very hard to deal with, but as athletes we have to push through it because that is what happens in sports, and if you love the sport enough it won't matter what you have to deal with to play it. 

College

Most athletes that want to play sports in college seem to always focus on their skill level and if they are good enough to make a team. They worry about the facilities, coaches, teammates, ranking, and their playing time. Athletes seem to be blind to the fact, sometimes, that their grades actually matter too. In order to get into college there are some requirements you must meet, no matter how good you are at sports. One of the things that might be necessary is a high ACT score. 

There are many opportunities students have to take the ACT throughout junior and senior year. There is a test date almost every month, or every other month. A student can take the ACT up to as many times as they want, but of course it is going to cost you a lot of money. This is why it is better to just do well on your first or second time taking it.

As it is important to do well on this test, because it will ultimately affect the college you choose, there are many ways you can prepare yourself. The people in charge of the ACT provide students with the option to order a book, or take online practice tests. This will help students see what they need help on and give them an idea of what the test will be like.

Preparing for the ACT can be extremely stressful, and athletes might not always have the time to prepare. This is why many students, like myself, study lightly for the first test to see what they need to work on. If my scores for the math section are low, while the science scores are high, I then know that I need to work on math a lot more than science. This will take some stress of you for the first time, but later on you will really need to dig in if you don't do well the first time. 

Always remember that it is not always about if you are physically fit for the sports team at your college, but your grades need to be in tact as well. Some people even have to commit to other places simply because their grades weren't good enough for the college's criteria. School is very important and most athletes in college aren’t going to become professionals. You are going to college to get an education and it just so happens you get to play the sport you love as well. Unless you are seriously focused on going pro, focus on the academics.

Competitiveness

Sports are something many people love because it allows them to be extremely competitive and show off their skills. Sometimes this competitiveness can get very heated though. If you are on a team where you are not the best at your position it can get very frustrating. You go to practice every day and can't seem to do anything better than them. The coach seems to favor that person more than you. Sometimes you give all your effort and try so hard, but it doesn't work out. There are many ways you can be competitive with your teammates in a way that will affect the team in a positive way.

While you are on a team to become a better athlete, the people surrounding you should also be your friends. If you don't get along it is just going to start drama and nothing good comes of that. With that being said, it is also possible for you to be friendly towards someone you do not particularly like. Being friends with your teammates on and off the court is something truly great though. This builds chemistry on the team and can truly, I believe, affect the way you play. A little friendly competition never hurt anybody.

Sometimes you are not always going to be in the position you would like to be in. You aren't always going to be the best at what you do and that is super frustrating. If you give it your all and are a dedicated athlete who will do anything it takes, there is nothing more you can do about it unfortunately. There is always going to be someone better than you, but don't let this get inside your head. You can be the best to your ability and that is all that matters. It is much more fulfilling to get yourself to the highest level of play possible for yourself as an individual than to simply get yourself on a great team. You could play on a team that is extremely good, but still not reach your highest potential. It is all about what you can do and the things you will do to reach your goals.

While it is not always a favorable situation to be in, it is good to be surrounded by people better than you. This will push you to reach higher and truly see what you are capable of. Athletes can do some pretty great things with a little competitiveness and encouragement. 

Hitters

Pin hitters are the name for the hitters other than the middles. They are the right sides and left sides. They can also be called outside and opposite. Outside hitters are supposed to be one of the best hitters on the team. They also should be a decent passer and some even play all six rotations because they are good enough passers to stay in for back row. Right sides, or opposites, are supposed to be good blockers, since they are blocking the other team's outside, or best hitter. You can either run a 5-1 or a 6-2 offense (either one or two setters) and some teams run a 6-2 so that they can have a right side hitter and blocker in at all times. 

There are 2 outsides and one right side in the rotation  of six players, but any of these players can be subbed out by a DS or a libero when they get to the back row. The 2 outsides are always opposite each other, or 3 rotations away from each other. 

The outsides usually get the majority of the sets, especially when there is a bad pass or they are out of system. On these bad passes, the set probably will not be perfect, so the hitter has to be ready and be able to put the ball in play and be able to adjust to the set. Since these hitters get a lot of the sets, they can also get tired faster than the other hitters, especially if they are playing six rotations. A lot of the time, a coach will tell their players to try and serve or hit at the other team's outside and make her pass to try and fire her out. If it works, she might not hit as well as when she wasn't tired. This might be because she isn't jumping as high, moving as fast, or hitting as hard. 

The opposites, on the other hand, usually have someone come in for their back row and are not usually six rotation players . The person who comes in for their back row is almost always a DS, not a libero, since liberos typically come in for the middles. 

Also, whenever the setter passes the first ball and the libero has to set, it is almost never going to the middle, so that means that all the balls that the libero sets have to go to the pin hitters. That's another reason why the pin hitters always have to be ready for the ball and be able to adjust to any set. A big part of being ready for a set is transitioning. Transitioning is literally the "transition" between defense(blocking or off block coverage) and offense( being ready to hit). When they transition to their hitting spot, they are supposed to go just past the ten foot line outside the court, although this could change depending on height, quickness, age, and if you are a righty or lefty. For example, if you have long legs and take bigger steps, then you would want to transition further off the net so you have more room for your hitting approach. Also, if you are left handed, you want to start your approach slightly to the right of where a right handed person would start their approach. 

Travel Expenses (537)

There are SO many expenses when it comes to sports. Every sport has two seasons. There is a high school season and a club season. During the club season the 'off season' of the high school season begins. This is when lifting, conditioning and open gyms start. These activities cost money too. Once the actual high school season starts there is a food expense for when traveling on the busses, sweat suits, shoes, socks, playing fee, fan gear, and team shirts that are required to be paid when playing a high school sport.

A high school off season looks a lot like a training and conditioning camp. There are open gyms to participate in and if you do so, then you have to pay. The entire point of an off season is to get the rust off the athlete before actual season begins. The strengthening part of off season is probably the most expensive out of it all. This money goes to the coach that works with all sport groups. He gets us physically ready for our upcoming sport. He uses this money to buy new equipment for our weight room. For some reason all this training cost a lot of money for the parents. It doesn't seem like it, but once the season starts and you look at everything you have paid for it all ads up. There are sweat suits that have to be paid for, fan gear to wear to the games, and the players receive a certain shirt for themselves. To me that doesn't make much sense to pay this much money for playing a sport, especially for a school.

Club sports are very understandable for their expenses. The coaches get paid for teaching and getting kids to colleges. At my age in club, it is extremely critical to get recruited, so playing for the right club and coaches cost a little bit more than just average coaching. It also means playing on an elite team, which means larger tournaments that are going to cost more. Playing for a sport team in Iowa, means there is going to be more travel out of state, because that is where you are going to find challenging competition and more colleges will travel to those kind of tournaments. This means hotels are going to be expensive and not just for one night but could be for multiple nights. This begins to ad up in the spring time when all the qualifiers are offered. When traveling that means gas money too and even sometimes plane tickets too. You are guaranteed to go out to eat when traveling and buying shirts or clothes to remember when you go to places.

No matter what sport you want to play there is going to be a price for it. If you want to play it in college than that means you will have to pay even more. My family and I have figured that you pay so much money over the years playing club sports that you end up paying for your college. Your family pays for you to get a scholarship. Basically if you receive a scholarship, you have already paid for college expenses just in a different way.

Listening To Music

Music is a great way to get pumped up before a game, practice, or a social event. There are many different kinds of genre of music that you can listen too. There is slower versions of hip hop or country to listen too when you are sad or in a pissed off mood. In all sports you will see a bunch of the athletes and teammates walking either into the arena, convention center, gym, or on the field with headphones on or ear buds in listening to music that will put them in game mode.

High school teams prepare for their game in the locker room. They talk, fill up their water bottles, change into their uniforms and finally listen to music before the game. The type of music you will find them listening to is pop and up beating music. If they play slower beat music, their bodies and adrenaline is not going to be ready for game time. A lot of teams have a tradition before they go out and play in their game. Some dance to a certain song, warm up a certain way. There are many different things, but there is always something a team does before they go and play their game.

If you don't listen to music now before you play a game, I challenge you to do so. See if you feel a difference before or after you perform a game. Before you should feel a spark of adrenaline and energy to play. Try it and see if there is a difference in your performance.

JVA

The JVA Hawkeye Cup is a power league that is hosted at the Adrenaline gym (which is also a basketball facility). It is spread out over three weekends in a few separate months. The dates are January 9&10, February 20&21, and March 12&13. This league is set up so that the first day of each weekend is the pool play, where you play all the teams in your pool first. Then the second day is the tournament, or bracket play. That is where you play the teams that did similar to you the day before in their pools and if you lose a match you are moved down or done. Each weekend they take in the rankings from the previous weekend to create the new pools for the next weekend, similar to seeding at a regular tournament.
We have already had the first weekend of the power league and we won it. Since the gym is only 3 minutes away from my house, which is very nice for practices, some of the girls stayed at my house the night before we played the first day for convenience, especially for the girls who live really far away. Some of the girls live almost two hours away from where we practice every week! They make that drive two or more times a week for practices and tournaments.We also have a food schedule for all the tournaments that tells us who's turn it is to bring breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks. We do this every tournament to make it easier on the players and parents. This makes it so that the players or their parents don't have to leave the gym to get food during a tournament or buy food ahead of time, because the concession food is not that good. At the Adrenaline gym, it is really easy for us to have our food set up at our camp because we get to go into the upstairs level where there are tables and chairs just for us and not the other people there. We are looking forward to the rest of the tournament in the future, it will be fun and I think we will continue to do well.

 It is cool to host a tournament where lots of teams from around the state come and play, and it is a great way to get started for the season. 

Energy

Playing a sport and loving a sport are two entirely different things. There are a lot of seniors and a couple of juniors. The juniors don't like basketball at all, but go out for the girls and one of the coaches. When people ask the juniors if they want to go out next year, they say "I don't know", because they hate the sport but love the people in it except for some of the coaches. So enjoying and 'living for the sport' is entirely different than just playing the sport. This is true for every sport.

There are many different things that can either make a person 'love the sport' or 'play the sport'. This can be the coaching, personality of the girls, and your own dividual mind set. The type of coaching can determine whether the athlete likes playing the sport or loves the sport. Most of the time if the coach does not give respect to his players, then it is extremely hard to return that respect back. You will find out that in the beginning of the season, it is super easy to give respect, but if it is a long season like basketball where the coach doesn't try to give respect then it is even harder to give it back. Athletes want coaches that will actually 'coach' the player instead of yelling and degrading them when they make a mistake. Coaches should always explain and tell the athlete what they are doing when they make a mistake to help them fix it next time. Coaches aren't there to be your best friend at any means, but they should be there to talk to you or ask for advice and act as a mentor to his or her players. There are a lot of these coaches around, but many of them are the complete opposite where athletes are absolutely terrified to make a mistake.

To love a sport you have to have the right mindset towards the sport. Girls, especially me has a mindset where I think to just get through the season. I count down the days until basketball is over for the year. This is the complete opposite of what your mind set needs to be. I have this mindset, because I feel like us players get treated like complete shit and I am the kind of person that will stick up and back anyone up, because I know where I stand on the team and already know what sport I want to succeed at. I believe I give the respect to coach, but I will back anyone up when I think that they need it. It's not fair to anyone playing the sport to get treated like they are lower than everyone else. In some cases, its not just players that get treated like crap and need to have a good mindset, its the coaches too. Some coaches think they are better and higher than their staff, so they will make sure their staff knows it too. I have noticed this with high school sports. This is probably the thing that pisses me off the most, because they are working together and not just one person running the entire program. I am the kind of person that will stick up for coaches too. I do not like people that treat other human beings like they are nothing. We are in the 21st century, things need to change; whether that is in sports, life or in the work field. Coaches that get treated like this need to have the mindset of positivity.

Different Kinds Of Bras

Young girls and newly women have some problems picking out bras to play sports in. There is such a large variety of sport bras to choose from. There are some that have extra padding in them, so the person doesn't nip through their jersey when competing at the sport. There are also some types that are tighter around the waist the keep everything compact together. Some sport bras are really thin and doesn't have my support so the newly women have trouble competing in these kind of bras. When girls are picking out bras they look for ones that will just protect them from showing their area. Women have to search for bras special for themselves. Some look for the ones with the extra padding, or the tighter ones that are supposed to help keep everything tight so there isn't any sagging of the breast or to much bouncing of them. Women with larger breasts than normal have to special order their sport bras. These kind of bras have velcro and are re-adjustable so it helps them with less movement in the breasts. There are many different kind of brands to choose from just like in my last blog. Nike is a great brand to help prevent nipping through jerseys and under armor is great for the same reason. The problem with these two kind of brands is that they are really expensive, but they are worth the money. These bras aren't for women with overly sized breasts but for women with sizes between B and D. Champion is also another brand that is bought a lot. The problem with these is that they don't provide support at all, so wearing them means there will be sagginess and nipping through a lot. I think of champion bras as more of a pajama bra than a competing in a sport kind of bra. No matter what kind of bra you buy, there will ALWAYS be movement and nipping through. Sport bras can't be tight enough to prevent this, because otherwise you won't be able to breath when playing. If you think about it, choosing a sports bra for a women is very difficult. There is a lot of aspects that go into choosing the right bra for them. Girls is much easier and a lot cheaper. Moms definitely know how much a 'good' sports bra is. They also know the difference in money for them too. I know my mom hates buying sports bras, because they are so expensive and it is like money going down the drain a lot of times.

Strength

If you are serious about your sport, you want to be the strongest and fastest you can be, right? A way to do that is to strength train. Most athletes do some sort of lifting or strength training either one their own or with a program. Here at Kennedy High School we have several different PE options, one being Performance PE where you can do a combination of lifting and agility & core. If students do not take advantage of this class that might be  because they are in a strength program outside of school, or they do not care about getting stronger. Lifting weights and strength training help you be the best athlete you can be and the best player you can be in your sport because training will make you stronger and quicker, which helps with almost everything; jumping, hitting, kicking, swinging, throwing, running, changing direction, etc. Most coaches, whether it's highs school, club, or college, want their players to lift or do some sort of strength training because they can see that it helps them play better. A lot of the time when a player is being recruited to play in college, the coach wants to know what they are doing to strength train and might even ask how much they can lift. For most sports in high school, the coaches have the players lifting and training during the preseason, and lifting during the season. Some coaches even want their players lifting in the off season so that they are staying in shape, with the exception of players who are playing other sports.  In college, that will continue. During our school volleyball season, I had a zero hour lifting class and lifted, and everyone on the volleyball team had to lift during the season. Now that my lifting class is over, I decided to do workouts at Crossfit 2.2 to stay in shape and get stronger for my club season, which is in full swing in the spring. I want to continue this through my club season and continue it after club is over, which will be preseason time for school volleyball. Some players strive to be the best and set goals and break records. Others just want to better themselves and don't really worry about other people. For me, it is about my personal gain, and not being better than other people. I want to get stronger and stay in shape for volleyball. 

Differences In Clothing

Is there a difference in the kind of socks, pants, shirts or shoes you wear? Do athletes wear more 'sporty clothes' than any other average person? I have noticed that athletes have many 'sporty clothes' and not just sweatpants but nice expensive kind of brand. With me being an athlete, I think of wearing Nike clothing, because I think Nike resembles the athletic and 'sporty look'. When walking the streets or sitting in school, do you see more people wearing Nike socks or Under armor socks? Personally I see more people wearing Nike socks than any other kind of sock. There are some people that say wearing a brand other than Nike, shows that you are poor or doesn't have as much money when a lot of the times other brands are just as nice, they just don't have the 'extremely athletic' theme behind their clothing.

When I think of a very athletic and talented sporting team, I think of them all dressed up in Nike gear. Over the years Nike has done a great job in portraying themselves as the sporty and athletic brand. Nike clothing is very comfortable and I think it looks the best on players. There are many talented teams that don't wear Nike, but many wish they did. When you think of the brand Rox or Prince, you don't think of a very elite sporting team. There are plenty of teams that are in the top 10 across the country and are wearing these kind of brands. What I am trying to say is that Nike has portrayed themselves extremely well and the sporty look and not many brands have done that, so more and more people will buy Nike clothing and think of the other brands as not so nice.

I have heard many comments where people don't believe that athletes dress up a lot. From what I have seen this statement can be some what true, but in many cases it is false. Athletes love to bum at school, but when it comes to dressing up they can pull it off good. I know for me, I love to dress up and look like a girl, instead of always wearing athletic clothes. I would say athletes dress up more than they bum. Yes they have a lot of variety when it comes to athletic clothes and tennis shoes, but athletes ALWAYS know how to dress to impress.