Athlete- Student

My question for this assignment is very near and dear to my heart. I played a sport in high school, Cheerleading, and doing this sport greatly affected my mental health. This question also brought itself up again when I was recently faced with a decision: Do I want to join the college Cheerleading team as well as be in a Sorority? This conflicting question had been on my mind since the beginning of last semester but I decided against doing Cheer due  to the mental stress that it endures. Getting a job over the summer and the winter break will also not be a possibility because of the time commitment it requires.

The question that I am  talking about is “how do athletics contribute to mental health”? This question was perfect to me because most of my friends do sports like Rowing and Sailing. While hanging out in my lounge,  I thought it was the perfect time to ask my question, because every sports player was in here. After asking the question, my friends Mary and Rachel answer the question very quickly. They both said “Sports are good and bad for mental health”. Mary added on by saying “It’s good because it helps me get my stress out and, like, anger and it  makes me focused all throughout the day”. Mary then added “I know when I have practice that I don’t have a lot of time throughout the day so if I need to get something done, it forces me so be efficient and get everything done that I need to get done”. Mary basically read my mind. When I did sports in High School, I knew that I needed to manage my  time doing my homework as soon as I got home from school and plan all of my time around Cheer practice. Cheer would keep me on a consistent schedule and I would get all of my work done in an efficient amount of time. Tamryn and Rachel agreed with Mary as well. Tamryn is on the Sailing team, so her sport is a little more relaxing. I asked Tamryn how stress related to Sailing and she said “honestly, it relieves it. I know that I have to  get my work done every day by 3:00 PM and when I’m at practice, the water takes away all of my anxiety. While I am doing my sport, I don’t think about anything else”. 

Although Rachel agrees with sports  being good for mental health, she also believes it contributes in a less positive way. After asking Rachel how  mental health contributes to Rowing, she responded “sometimes Rowing gets so stressful during practice that some people on the team, including me, dry heave after getting out of the water”. We kind of detoured off of the path of mental health. The focus of the conversation went more to physical health. After hearing what Rachel had said, Mary agrees and  admits that she dry heaves all of the time. “It’s not because I’m sick, it’s just because sometimes practice gets so rough that I can’t breathe and I end up dry heaving”. 

The overall consensus is that sports hurt, but they also help. Being able to have a timed  out schedule of every day is great, but the sport itself can put a serious toll on your mental health and, more obviously, your physical health.