As an athlete, you are guaranteed to experience some kind of sports anxiety, better known as “choking,” that will affect your overall performance. The nervousness usually arises due the mind acknowledging that you are performing in front of an audience and that there are certain expectations you feel you must exceed. Whether it’s during a normal training day or the biggest game of the year, the bottom line is that the feelings are there and should be dealt with. Some people deal with it better than others, but for those that struggle under the conditions, there are methods to reduce, if not eliminate, that anxiety physically and mentally.

Understand that pre-performance butterflies are normal.

Don’t try to fight off these jitters. Instead, accept them and use them to excite yourself. This is a normal feeling of adrenaline that will fade away once the game or race begins.

Don’t rush.

Give yourself plenty of time to prepare for your performance. Arrive early, get a solid warm-up, and stay relaxed.

Visualize.

Mentally prepare yourself. Close your eyes, focus on taking slow, deep breaths, and imagine yourself performing well.

Stay in the moment.

Once the event begins, try not to think about the outcome. Instead, focus on what’s happening in the present. Take the performance one step at a time. Stay focused, positive, and have some fun!

Review the performance.

Once the event is over, acknowledge the overall performance. Notice things that you can improve on but don’t focus on them. Focus on the things you did well. Recognize the thoughts, behaviors, and actions that assisted your performance. Use your overall performance review, including the physical and mental aspects before and during the event, to train for the next race or game.

For athletes who “choke’ during competition, it is important to know that the thoughts you have regarding the event can be controlled with the appropriate mental exercises. It helps to understand why you experience those feelings and what you can do to treat them. Follow these basic tips and remember that it’s not all about performing perfectly. Learn from your experiences, use them to improve your game, and just enjoy your sport!

In today’s field of competition, having a solid game plan for athletics and academics is required for high school student-athletes to take their game to the next level. College recruiters are looking for skill both on and off the field. Fortunately, what may appear as two completely different categories actually can allow student-athletes to focus more effectively and perform well in both.

Athletics Improve Academics

Studies have proven that athletics improve academics. Physical activity advances brain function, concentration levels, behavior, self-esteem, and energy levels. Also, playing sports shows us the significance of commitment, cooperation, and can help reduce stress levels developed within the classroom. Everything you learn from athletics is applicable towards becoming a better student. In the area of college recruitment, you can use all of this to your advantage to stand out from the crowd.

Accomplish More Than You Think You Can

A great athlete has the potential to be a great student, and vice versa. Focus, discipline, and motivation are all essentials in the foundation of a strong athlete and student, and success does not exist without one of the three. If these qualities are already present within you, it is important that you apply these attributes to your entire life. You will achieve more than you’ve already achieved. Everyone possesses the ability to accomplish more than what he or she thinks is possible.

Enhance Your Future

Only a small percentage of high school athletes will actually find a career in professional sports. Regardless of this fact, all athletes can use the skills they learn in school to become successful for whatever their future holds. For example, thinking logically and quickly are abilities gained from the classroom that support a professional athletics career, as well as any career.

Success is a gift earned by those who strive for it. Use everything you learn from the books and from your athletic experiences to always improve who you are. Always remember, you carry the potential for greatness.

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” – Mark Victor Hansen

What Every Student-Athlete Needs to Know About Social Networking

As we all know by now, social networking sites are considered to be a part of the daily routine of most peoples’ lives. When anything good, bad, exciting, or sad happens, our first thought is to write about it on Facebook, Twitter, or a blog. But before being too hasty and writing anything that may be on our mind, everyone should consider the pros and cons of social networking. For student-athletes, especially, social media sites can either make you or break you when moving forward.

­­­Everything You Say and Do Can Be Seen

Nowadays on social networking sites, there are tons of different privacy settings that you can play with. You can choose to show every little thing on your profile to anyone that stumbles across it, or you can choose to hide everything so only friends can see. But just because you hide everything doesn’t mean that people still can’t see what you are saying and doing. Things that you share with friends, like pictures and comments, can be seen on your friends’ pages if they do not have everything hidden. Also, there are many companies, professional and college teams that admit to making fake profiles and befriending potential prospects so they can get a feel of what you are like off the field. This is why you should always be cautious with what you are putting on the internet, because you never know who may see it.

Learn From Others’ Mistakes

Unfortunately, there have too many times that student-athletes have gotten in trouble for things they had said and done on social networking sites. One example is former University of Texas center, Buck Burnette. After Barack Obama had been elected president, Burnette wrote a status that consisted of racist vocabulary. The next day, Coach Mack Brown released him from the team. Even things you say that may not sound offensive at all can potentially get you in trouble. Ask former San Diego Chargers cornerback, Antonio Cromartie, who made a comment on Twitter about the training camp food, and was then fined for it. These are examples of why you need to be careful about the things you put on your social networking sites. One wrong statement or picture could affect your whole entire career.

Use These Sites For What the Name Comes From: Networking

With the popularity of social networking sites, college recruits are now using them to get in contact with and get a better idea of what a prospect is all about. Social networking profiles are great tools for coaches to find athletes they are interested in and get to know them. It’s also a great way to talk to current athletes that play at schools you are interested in and get their input on the program.

Social networking sites need to be used with caution by student-athletes. Use it for the purposes it was made for: to connect with friends and network. Remember that the internet is available to all the public, so let your social networking sites be a positive representation of you.

To learn more about the internet and your sports career, visit our blog post “Google Yourself Before You Get Googled” HERE.

To get more advanced recruiting tips, strategies and advice visit our website and sign up for our complimentary SportsForce College Recruiting Guide and updates below.

FREE sign up for SportsForce College Recruiting Guide:

http://www.sportsforceonline.com/resources/resources_recruiting_recruiting_guide.html

To get access to more advanced college recruiting tips, strategies and advice visit our website and RESOURCES section.

The SportsForce team, which is comprised of former college and professional athletes and coaches, is relentlessly committed to providing an ongoing education to help you best navigate your journey as a student-athlete, parent or coach to reach your potential.

Article courtesy of SportsForce, home for professional and affordable College Sports Preparation and Recruiting Education, Tools, Tips, Online Profiles, Highlight Videos and Premium Services.

www.sportsforceonline.com

info@sportsforceonline.com

858.350.5889

In the National Football League, the most critical and talked about issue right now is concussions. Too often in the NFL, concussions are not being reported or players are going back on the field without sufficient amount of time to recover. But concussions aren’t only a problem in professional football; they are a problem in all sports. This is why I have listed below important information for every athlete to know about concussions.

What is a Concussion?

A concussion is a brain injury that occurs when there is an impact to the head. Concussions are temporary and usually take about 3-4 weeks to fully heal, but there are some incidents of prolonged effects after suffering a concussion. There are various symptoms associated with concussions. Some of the most common symptoms are:

-Nausea -Memory loss -Dizziness

-Headaches -Confusion -Loss of Consciousness

The Risks of Playing With a Concussion

Playing any given sport with a concussion poses very serious risk to your safety and health. It can prolong the amount of time you have the concussion and cause more frequent and intense symptoms. Also, playing with a concussion can cause long-term and even permanent brain damage. This is why it is so critical to allow yourself enough time to full recover from a concussion.

Take the Necessary Precautions

The only known cure to a concussion is rest. It is up to you to determine whether or not you are better and ready to play again. It’s very important to check up with a doctor and have him or her clear you to play again. It’s also crucial that coaches don’t push an athlete to perform when they are not better yet. This is one case where it is especially essential to listen to your body and not push yourself to the extreme.

The most important thing to remember when it comes to concussions is that you can never be too cautious. Athletes, parents, coaches and teammates must all do their part to make sure that proper care and recovery is taken and no one is being pushed to perform when they shouldn’t.

For the latest news about concussions and more information, visit http://www.sportsconcussions.org/

Working towards a goal or a dream can be incredibly taxing. We understand our clients are working towards the goal of playing their sport in college. Early practices, late practices, double sessions, weight training and more, plus academics, work and a social life are a lot to fit in for the student athlete. Many athletes do an excellent job of creating a balance of the many demands in their life. But sometimes, becoming burnt-out may seem unavoidable. Below you’ll find some tips to avoid the burn out and keep that balance going in your life.

Check In With Yourself

Only you can know if you’re headed for a burnout. Every now and then, do a mental check-in to make sure your head is still in the game and you’re still on the path you want. Are you overtired? Are you stressed out? Is your schedule out of control? Take some time to do inventory of your day to day life and ensure you are happy and still working towards a goal without overworking yourself.

Continue Playing All the Sports You Love

There is much debate on specializing within the world of student athletes. Essentially, there are two schools of thought. Some may argue that only focusing on one sport is the best way to ensure a college roster spot, while others say playing multiple sports looks best to coaches. Many, however, will agree that playing multiple sports helps to avoid the burnout. If you like soccer and baseball, play both if possible. The switch between sports can help to avoid a burnout and shows coaches dedication on another level as well as an ability to balance. To learn more about the importance of multiple sports, click here.

Take a Break

While there is the opportunity to play your sport year round between club teams, camps and high school, it is important to take some time off. Take a few days or even a week to rest your body and mind. When you get back to your sport and training you will feel that much more energized!

Reassess ad Reorganize

Sometimes you don’t just need a break, but you need to shake things up completely. Would getting your workouts in in the morning free up more time for homework at night? Is it really necessary to stay out really late on Friday night to be dragging for Saturday morning practice? Along with checking in with yourself, sometimes you need to reorganize and prioritize things in your training plan. This can range from checking how you are fueling your body to what time makes the most sense for you to squeeze in a weight training session so you still have a social life. See what works for you!

Enjoy

It’s pretty hard to burn out on fun. As long as you are enjoying the journey as a student athlete, keep working hard. Some athletes may never feel burnt out. As long as you’re still enjoying yourself and training the best you can, keep moving towards your goals!

Additional Resources

If you are feeling stressed about the College Sports Preparation process then contact us for advice and sign up for our free guide HERE to learn more about the process and action items to take

The SportsForce blog reported on a story like this back in February, which you can see here, and SportsForce would to share an earlier article that extolled the virtues of athletics for girls. Bringham Young University concluded a study in 2007 that stated that playing high schools sports increase the chance of a woman graduating from college by 41 percent.

Playing on a high school team increases young women’s odds of graduating from college by 41 percent, according to recent BYU grad Kelly Troutman and her mentor, sociology professor Mikaela Dufur, who report their research in the new issue of the journal Youth & Society.

“If the goal is for girls to get a higher education, our findings favor the idea of girls playing high school sports,” said Dufur, who played in the marching band but did not play on any sports teams in high school. “Not only are girls good for sports, sports are good for girls.”

Beckett Broh, a sociologist at Wittenberg University in Ohio who is not affiliated with the BYU research, concluded in a 2002 study that athletics help students’ academic performance during high school more than any other extracurricular activity. Broh said school administrators facing tight budgets should take the new BYU study into consideration before putting an athletic program on the chopping block for the sake of cutting costs.

“This is pretty powerful evidence that interscholastic sports are worthy of our education dollars,” said Broh. “This is one of the first few studies that have done a really careful look at long-term benefits of sports.”

Troutman and Dufur analyzed a sample of 5,000 female students from the high school class of 1992 who were randomly selected to participate in the National Education Longitudinal Study. Those students, both athletes and non-athletes, completed surveys in 8th grade, 10th grade and 12th grade. Six years after finishing high school, the participants completed a final survey that included questions about post-high school education.

Visit the BYU website for the full article and browse all of our Girls Sports pages at SportsForceonline.com

Sport: Baseball Positions: Shortstop Height: 5’10” Class: 2011 School: El Capitan Lakeside, CA

While only a junior, Tyrone Wiggins played a huge role in propelling his El Capitan Vaqueros to a 29-8 win over Mission Bay High School in the San Diego Section Division III Playoffs. Wiggins had three homeruns against Mission Bay, two of which were grand slams added to his already impressive 9 RBIs in the game. Wiggins also had a double and a three run homer as the Vaqueros defeated University City to take them to the division title game.
To view Tyrone’s complete SportsForce profile click here –http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/twiggins

Scouting report courtesy of SportsForce – Home for college Sports Recruiting Videos, Tips, Tools and Premium Services – www.sportsforceonline.com

Sport: Track and Field Event: 100M Hurdles, 300M Hurdles, Long Jump

Class: 2010 School: Vista High School Vista, CA

Coming off of an injury earlier in the season, Vista senior Danielle Littleton has more than made up for lost time. Littleton is a state finalist in the 100M hurdles and won the 100M hurdles (14.4 seconds) and 300M hurdles (45.6 seconds) in her squad’s win over Rancho Buena Vista. Littleton also won the long jump with a distance of 17 feet, ¼ inch. She is committed to UC Riverside.

To view Danielle’s complete SportsForce profile click here – http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/dlittleton

Scouting report courtesy of SportsForce – Home for college Sports Recruiting Videos, Tips, Tools and Premium Services – www.sportsforceonline.com

Are you looking to feel more confident as you look to prepare for college sports and the recruiting process? At SportsForce we hear many different questions, opinions and stories from student-athletes, parents and coaches all the time.

Here are some of the most common college sports recruiting questions our staff receives:

When do college coaches start recruiting?

What are college coaches looking for?

How can we maximize exposure to college recruiters?

What do we need to do and when do we need to do it?

What about the SAT, ACT, financial aid, NCAA Eligibility Center, etc…

Here are two simple and proven ACTION STEPS you can use today to begin taking control of your sports career and college sports goals.

Step 1: Student-athlete assessment

ACTION ITEMS:

1. Ask yourself “What type of college experience am I looking for?”

Attention student-athletes:

You need to reflect on what type of experience you are looking for. Write your thoughts down in a casual format (bullet points are fine) and be able to verbalize what type of college experience you are looking for.

Attention parents:

We recommend parents asking this question and letting your son or daughter answer this question with no undue pressure. See if your student-athlete can describe the type of experience they are looking for.

GOAL = To get a clear idea of what college experience you want as a student-athlete.

2. What are your key college decision factors?

Create a list of all of the key decision factors and give 1 to 5 points for each decision factor (5 being an extremely important decision factor). We recommend doing this on a spreadsheet and then ranking the potential colleges you are interested in by using this system to create an overall point total for each school.

Potential decision factors including: Academics (Majors offered, career development, alumni), Athletics (level of competition, W/L record, tradition), Social environment, Size of school, Public vs. Private, Cost, Location, Coaching Staff, Intuition (gut feeling, emotional connection)

GOAL = To have a proven ranking and college decision making system to know what potential colleges you are really interested in.

To accelerate your education on the college sports preparation and recruiting process I recommend signing up for our FREE SportsForce College Sports Recruiting Guide.

* FREE Sign up click HERE

To get access to more advanced college recruiting tips, strategies and advice visit our website and RESOURCES section.

The SportsForce team, which is comprised of former college and professional athletes and coaches, is relentlessly committed to providing an ongoing education to help you best navigate your journey as a student-athlete, parent or coach.

Article courtesy of SportsForce, Home for professional and affordable College Sports Recruiting Tools, Tips, Online Profiles, Highlight Videos and Premium Services.

www.sportsforceonline.com

info@sportsforceonline.com

858.350.5889

Ryan Fobes, a SportsForce athlete and second baseman for Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, CA, has accepted an athletic scholarship to play for the University of Sioux Falls Men’s Baseball team. SportsForce caught up with Ryan and asked him a few questions about his recruiting process and ultimate decision to play for the USF Cougars.

What factors made you decide on the University of Sioux Falls?

Sioux Falls is a tightly knit community and one of those towns where ‘everyone knows everyone’. I think attending a University that you can be up close and personal with is important.

Were there any other schools you were seriously considering?

I was seriously considering attending Whittier College. However, I just didn’t get that feeling where you know it’s going to be the right fit like I did with Sioux Falls.

What are you most looking forward to most about playing for the University of Sioux Falls?

I think the team’s chemistry is what has carried the team to a record breaking season this year, along with coaching. The Cougars have a great young coaching staff, who really know the game of baseball. Coaches who teach you the little things about the game are what make you a better ballplayer.

What advice would you give to other student athletes looking to play in college?

Grades. Grades. Grades. You don’t have to be the best player on the field to get a scholarship. Work ethic in the classroom is just as important as on the field.

Congratulations to Ryan for signing with the University of Sioux Falls! Be sure to visit Ryan’s SportsForce profile (http://www.sportsforceonline.com/athletes/rfobes) or check out his highlight video below.