Inscribed above is the Olympic motto. In English, it means Faster, Higher, Stronger. These words embody the successful athlete, they also carry exclusively physical connotations. But, of course, anyone who has ever trained in a physical capacity understands that physical goals extend well beyond the physical.
Mental resilience - for which this website is named - plays another major part of athletic success. But again, that’s only one ingredient.
There are many others, but, perhaps, the most important for longevity and success is continuous learning. No, this isn’t the formal, bureaucratic-laden, check-the-box type of learning. There’s a place for that, but not in athletics.
Sustained improvement derives when both physical and mental work in synchronicity. Through repetition, physical literacy soars while mental acuity sharpens. When mind and body merge, lessons become concrete. For this reason (and more), every athlete is a student-athlete.
The interscholastic athletic organizations (think, CIF [high school], NCAA, and NAIA) have done – and continue to do - a great disservice to all athletes by monopolizing the term “student-athlete.” This perpetuates a false dichotomy: students learn and athletes compete. In their world, a student-athlete does student things in the classroom and athlete things in the arena. Exams in the morning. Competitions in the evening…
Now, this is not to discredit the value of traditional education; but to think that when an athlete leaves the classroom that their tasks become solely physical is absurd. Not only that, it’s wrong.
Perhaps one reason you’re reading this is that you value seeking ways in which to improve your athletic performance. Maybe you watch videos, attend seminars, or listen to podcasts to learn more about your sport. These resources hold merit; however, for an athlete, they are the means to learning and not the end.
Physicality aside, time spent in the classroom is no different from a training session or even a competition. Setbacks, achievements, failures, different environments, and recurring challenges are all inevitable. Regardless of how they are perceived, there is the likelihood, that - at the very least - something can always be learned. By perceiving challenges, in real-time, as learning opportunities, you accelerate both the rate and frequency of learning.
Take copious notes. The most successful athletes diligently jot down information in their training journals. It’s intel. They track what they are learning while they are learning and on a day-to-day, even session-to-session basis. Writing not only solidifies what it is that you’re doing, but it allows for an objective reflection in the future when the appropriate time presents itself.
Processing successes and failures, coping with the realities of pain along the way, and understanding the influence of both confidence and competence, all are tools that can be deployed in every arena of life. Sure, the lights might not shine as brightly out there, in the real world. There likely won’t be as much fanfare, but that doesn’t mean your impact can or should be any less.
You’re a student-athlete, but, remember, that doesn’t fully encapsulate you. This is just the start of a much longer journey. Though that title is ephemeral, the lessons gleaned while bearing it are not. They become a part of you, etched into your journey, able to be applied wherever you might go.
Written in collaboration with Chandler Maciel.
