by Gabriella Kraft

Pressure can make or break a person.

A well-balanced lifestyle is hard enough as just a regular student. The added stress of being an athlete brings so much more pressure. 

When I first started two sports, I was on two teams for cheerleading, with practice every day except Fridays and Saturdays. And with basketball, I had practice scheduled right before it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturday mornings. 

I felt like I was drowning trying to balance school work, sports, friends, and life. It felt impossible until I quit basketball. I felt like I was finally able to breathe. It didn’t make a major difference, but it was big enough that I could feel alive again. 

Without basketball, I was able to actually hang out with my friends outside of school, get my homework done at night, and I wasn’t stressing over little things. 

“A well-balanced life revolves around having a schedule while also giving ourselves time to breathe. If it’s all work and no play, the sport starts feeling like a job that’s holding us back from our full potential.” 

A well-balanced life revolves around having a schedule while also giving ourselves time to breathe. If it’s all work and no play, the sport starts feeling like a job that’s holding us back from our full potential. 

A better way to manage our time as a student-athlete involves prioritizing what is most important, learning to say “no,” setting realistic goals, and using downtime wisely.

It’s easy for athletes to over-commit, to push ourselves until we can’t push anymore, simply, because we feel obligated to be the best at everything — not because we are cocky, but because we want to push ourselves to be the best we can be. Most don’t feel that it’s possible if we aren’t pushing until we cannot anymore.

Sooner or later, our mental health declines. We aren’t the best at our sport, our grades fall, and we feel like we are alone. We feel that if we aren’t excelling in at least one or all aspects of our lives, we are failing.

Most people don’t even notice an athlete who’s spiraling out of control until we are completely pulled away and have distanced ourselves. We feel as if we are too far from saving.

Parents play an important role in a student-athlete’s life as well. Kids can only give as much as we get. When teens get a pushy parent who only yells and does not provide much support otherwise, they eventually just give up.

Athletes need all the support we can get, or we break under the pressure.