Hard Work

Athletes routinely push themselves to the point of exhaustion. They come up to the brink of pain and discomfort that most people try and avoid at all costs and then push right on through it; choosing to endure momentary pain in favor of lasting glory.

The common goal tying their work and sweat together is the fact that competitors in any type of sport strive to be on the top.

Molalla area student athletes routinely cut into their social lives in order to put extra time in the weight room or gym. They push back the temptation to go home and relax after a long day of class to run another mile in the rain or work yet again on the mechanics of a swing.

This type of commitment to sport is not for everyone, and usually the line between great and mediocre boils down to mental toughness. Can you hack it or not?

It is not something that is often acknowledged.

Many times people point to athleticism and talent to explain success and often neglect to consider just how much an individual’s commitment to improvement really plays out in the equation; how much those hours away from the stage really benefit the brief moments of glory.

“I will take hard work over talent any day of the week,” Molalla track coach Gary Fischer said.

His track team is primed for a run at the state title this year with many talented and athletic kids on the Indian roster—but without hard work and mental composure, it would all be for not.
It is not something that has completely slipped from the collective psyche of our society. The importance of mental toughness, the type of attitude that shows up after much hard word, shows up routinely in common sayings.

Get your head in the game.

He was in the zone.

He is a clutch shooter.

There is no muscle on the body that makes a person more in-tune in a game. There is no amount of repetitions that will make a person stronger in the clutch. That is, no muscle outside of the brain.

All of those hours in the gym, and all of those miles pounded away under the soles of running shoes do help in the physical sense. Athletes increase their strength and are able to throw a ball further; they pump up their endurance and can run faster for a longer amount of time.
However arguably the biggest thing that all of those sore muscles give to the kids playing competitive sports is a mental edge.

A baseball player will know that he has done everything that he can in practice to be able to swing the bat to the best of his ability in a game. This knowledge frees him, to some extent, of self-doubt. He has the mental edge to be able to let loose and are not be hampered from the sort of un-assuredness that so easily can creep into a player’s mind.

This weekend I went snowboarding. I am usually a skier, and even though I do sports that are similar, I surf (very badly) and skate (even worse), I figured to spend much of my time laying face down in a snow bank contemplating just how many people heard me cry out for help as a flew down the mountain out of control.

For the first few runs mountain I fulfilled my own prophecy and saw stars after a few hard crashes; however after a while I grew less and less afraid of falling, because I was doing it so often, and I started to improve. Soon I was going faster and through more varied terrain.
My mind was free of its own constraints.

I had broken through the invisible barrier where my mind was limiting my body.
For athletes in sports, practice is like falling in the snow. They have worked through the right and wrong way to do things time and time again behind closed doors in the gyms and fields of practice and so when the time comes in a big game or meet, they know exactly how they should play.

Their mind is free to succeed because they have broken through and gained the mental toughness that means so much to champion players and teams. Their mind is primed and ready.

They have their head in the game.

They can get in the zone.

They are free to be a clutch shooter.

The love you give comes back in the end.
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