Across America, millions of students are starting their college journey.
For many, the feeling of not belonging as well as homesickness can make the first days and weeks at college extremely challenging.
Add to that the commitment of entering a new sporting team and for student athletes those nagging self-doubts can become especially intense.
The “I don’t belong here” self-talk can become overwhelming, especially for those athletes who are used to being the big fish in a small pond.
This is where mental skills can be applied to overcome these feelings and ensure that athletes can perform at their best even if they’re now the small fish in a big pond.
Here are four techniques a freshman can use to overcome these feelings. If four feels too overwhelming, pick just one to use and master in the first week.
Use Evidence
Any athlete on a roster was selected by a coaching staff who watched them play. The knowledge that your athletic program has asked you to join them is the greatest evidence there is that you belong where you are.
Identify the strengths in your athletic performance that earned you this opportunity and remind yourself of them.
Acknowledge
Notice those “I don’t belong here” thoughts and relabel them as “I’m having the thought that I don’t belong”.
Sounds like semantics, but changing the relationship you have with those thoughts is powerful. They are just thoughts and not reality.
Separating the Mistakes from Identity
If you’re in practice and make a mistake you can quickly get the feeling that “I’m not at this level”.
Here are three things you can do inside 10 seconds that can narrow your focus back to the next rep.
1. Name it. That’s the doubt talking. Don’t argue with it, just label it and let it pass.
2. Reset your body. One long breath out or one physical action like a tap of the helmet or a tap the bottom of your shoes. That’s the physical moment you say that the mistake is behind you.
3. Shrink the frame. Don’t answer “do I belong” Answer “win the next ball” or “make the next pass”
Compare Fairly
There’s the age old saying “comparison is the thief of joy” and it rings true in a sporting sense.
Freshmen can catch themselves comparing their week-one self to a senior who has had four years to hone their craft.
Naming that distortion directly “you’re comparing your start to their finish” can help break this. Why not ask that senior what they did in their first year?
Self-doubt in those first weeks is a normal part of stepping up a level.
The athletes who thrive aren’t the ones without doubt, they’re the ones who’ve learned what to do with it.
