A Typical College Freshman Mistake
Over winter break we had two college freshman (alumni from our high school team) come back home from their respective DI schools for winter break. Guess how much training they did over break….
Little to none!
How do I know?
- Partially from what I saw during break
- Partially from what I read on Facebook during winter break
- But mostly because of what I read on Facebook now that they are back in school and training has again begun (they both admit that they probably should’ve done a bit more while they were on break)
I’m not saying all college freshman do this, but it’s a very easy mistake to make. You’ve just finished up your first college semester ever. It’s been crazy, busy, and hectic. There have been lots of adjustments to make, time away from friends, and time away from family. When you get to go home for Winter Break, it’s very easy to:
- Do nothing but party with all the friends you haven’t seen in a while
- Do nothing but spend time with and enjoy the company of your family
- Do absolutely nothing because it’s the first time in months you don’t HAVE TO do anything
Now I’m not saying it’s wrong to enjoy your time at home. I’m certainly not saying it’s wrong to spend time with family, nor is it wrong to take a little bit of a breather and relax a bit. I actually think breaks or changes of pace are a good thing. However, as a college student-athlete, when you go back to school (especially for softball) you WILL go back to training. You’ve already worked so hard for months! Why take a 4 week break from everything and “throw away” any of what you’ve gained during your 1st semester? I’m not saying you have to keep up the same intensity and you don’t even need to do the same exact drills or exercises that you do in college, but at least do “something” to maintain the fitness level you’ve built up for yourself.
Some think that one “small” break won’t make much of a difference. Let me tell you, when you have a team of players who’ve been training for months then there’s a break then you all come back to train…it is VERY OBVIOUS who took a break and did nothing and who kept their conditioning up. Right now we’re going through conditioning with our team at the high school age level. It’s just pre-season, we aren’t really “allowed” to make conditioning “mandatory” and over break there are various reasons why student-athletes say they can’t make practice. Fine. But as a coach, even if a student-athlete has only missed just ONE week of practice, our coaching staff can tell, it is very obvious, which players have been diligent with their attendance and been there on a regular basis and which players have missed conditioning sessions.
So if you want to make the best impression possible on your coach, stay on top of your fitness level!
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