Imagine starting yet another year not knowing if you are going to have a season to look forward to with your team.
Whether you are a secondary schools footballer or cricketer, volleyballer, basketball or track and field athlete, you are left wondering when am I going to get to compete in a structured format over a season.
The same goes to professional footballers here and cricketers in the domestic leagues. The pandemic has hit sports in our side of the world in ways never experienced before and sadly we don’t seem to have a way to start things up again.
So how do these young athletes stay motivated? Despite it looking like there’s little to look forward to, visualising your goals still helps. Positive imagery is a powerful way to remain inspired to advance. Think about your goals every day. Imagine your life once you’ve reached your professional goals and use these images to motivate yourself.
Just like a coach motivates their athletes by assuring them they can achieve their dreams; you should learn to encourage yourself in your career with positive self-talk. If you’re afraid of failure and you tell yourself a task is too difficult, chances are you won’t do well.
If you tell yourself a challenge is an opportunity to test your skills and learn new ones, you’re creating a positive situation for yourself in which you’re not limited by your own apprehension.
While there are restrictions still existing for competitive sports, having regular training partners can still be part of your routine. No matter how hard players train alone, they will work that much harder if they have someone pushing them.
A useful way to increase motivation is have players work in pairs. This is especially effective if the players are of similar ability, and have similar goals and training programs. On any given day of training, at least one of them will be motivated to work hard. They will also be more dedicated if they know someone else is counting on them.
How about having your personal training diary. And in this, keep coming up with your own training tips or motivation lines. It is reinforcing for players to see improvement in different areas of their training and performances. An effective way for them to clearly see your progress is by keeping a training diary. Maintaining a detailed training log enables players to record important aspects of preparation such as physical, technical, and mental training.
It also enables you to track your performances. Plotting improvement provides clear and tangible evidence to players providing reinforcement to their efforts which increases their motivation. Training diaries are also useful means of identifying the causes of overtraining, illness, injuries, and performance slumps and streaks.
Taking a stroll always works in more ways than one. Commonwealth silver medallist race walker Tom Bosworth says getting outside for a daily stroll is just as important for your mental health as your physical well-being: “My message to you today is get outside and go for a walk. It’s a chance to get out of the house that we’ve been trapped in for the best part of a year now, and think things over and make rational and calm decisions, and have time to yourself. It’s a great benefit to you, and probably everything that you’re doing in your day to day lives.”
And lastly, coming up with a gratitude list could be a good thing. This can be included in your diary. Focus on the small positive things in your life while everything else appears so uncertain.
Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Media. He was a FIFA Media Officer at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. The views expressed are solely his and not a representation of any organisation. shaunfuentes@yahoo.com