3 Back-To-School Tips for Student Athletes
By a Stanford Student Athlete
Spoken as someone who has a love-hate relationship with change, I understand the wide range of feelings you can have about the start of a new school year. Whether you're excited, anxious, intimidated, or just want to go back-to-school shopping, I hope these tips facilitate your adjustment to the new school year!
#1: Create a Routine
If I could choose just one tip in this post for any athlete, this is it. As athletes, our bodies aren't just used to routine, they thrive with it. From personal experience, I can manage stress and busyness a lot better when I have a routine in place. Time is the student-athlete's most valuable resource, and routines optimize that resource.
It might take a couple weeks to fully develop a routine, but make a conscious effort to see what rhythms work for you. You can even start planning your routine before school starts. If you're a visual learner, it might help to look at a calendar with your class and practice schedule. See your gaps of time throughout the day, and plan your meals and study sessions accordingly.
For example, my practices are in the afternoon, so I set my classes in the morning. I'm not even on campus yet, but I know what time my first class is, what time I will need to eat breakfast at, and what time I will set my alarm for. I also have an hour gap in the middle of my day, so I will grab lunch and head to the athletic facilities then. Of course, you should be flexible if you get to campus and realize you need to change up your routine a bit. Maybe you thought you would do homework after practice, but you realize that you are too tired after practice to concentrate. It will take time to master the routine that works best for you, but it will be worth it!
#2: Get Connected
My high school coach once told me that it's not about what you know, it's about who you know. If you ask me, I think it's probably about both. But he does have a point, relationships are vital to success.
First of all, get to know your classmates. They are going to be your first call when you can't find the assignment online or if you forget a due date. It might be easy as athletes to depend on our teammates or other athletes as our source of socialization, but I would also recommend getting to know the people in your classes. Definitely befriend a good note-taker, because when you miss class for a competition, you can trust that their notes are complete and accurate (although if it's available, I would still watch the recording).
Just as importantly, connect with your professor or teacher. If you demonstrate that you have a desire to learn and perform well in their class, they are more likely to extend grace in the occasion you need it for sports. They're also more likely to take the time to help you catch up on what you miss.
Just because these relationships can make your life easier, please don't take advantage of them. It's not just about what they can do for you, and going in with that mindset will likely be noticeable and offensive to them. They're people, too! And probably pretty cool people at that.
#3: Get Out Fast
Imagine you're running a 400m race (calm down, it's just pretend). If you get out too slow--if you get behind--you are going to pay for it the rest of the race. You probably aren't on pace for a PR, and if you want a win, you're going to have some serious work to do in the second half.
School is the same way (minus the lactic acid, phew). If you don't start putting in work at the beginning of the year, you're going to regret it. Maybe your grades slip early in the school year, and you spent the rest of the semester fighting to get on the right side of the bubble between an A and B. Maybe you're a procrastinator, and you put off far due dates until they all pile up on you.
Starting off strong saves you this kind of stress later in the school year. Personally, I do my assignments the day that they are assigned (sometimes even before they are assigned, hehe). The "due date" is not the "do date!" Especially as a student-athlete, you will want to have time between when you start an assignment and when it is due in case you need to ask a professor a question or get help from a tutor. Anything that will decrease your stress will benefit your athletic performance as well as your grades.
Set aside time--maybe just 15 minutes, maybe an hour--each day that you will do homework, regardless of when it is due. You can add more time if you have urgent matters, but ideally, by using this strategy, you won't ever feel that way. Don't say that you don't have homework, you can always read a chapter ahead in a book or start reading through the notes for the next unit.
Another practical way to "get out fast" is to plan your classes accordingly. If you have a spring sport, load up your coursework in the fall. In high school, I did this by putting my off-periods in the spring. In college, I do this by taking more units in the quarters that I don't travel for competitions.
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