Being a student athlete is more than just fun and games. Athletes challenge themselves everyday during the school year to become successful in their career.
The Scoop spoke with Doug Shrank, an Assistant Coach for Men’s and Women’s swimming at Drury University about how to become a successful athlete during school. Prior to coaching at Drury, Shrank was on the coaching staff at Arizona State University. In college, he was an NCAA qualifier in the 100 Butterfly.
There are many things that collegiate athletes need to do well in order to be the most successful they can be. Here are 5 things that Shrank believes to be very important.
1. Work hard
“To reach their full potential, athletes must be willing to put in the work. There is no denying the fact that if you want to be successful and continue to get better each year, you have to work very hard. The physical demands on college athletes are extremely high with grueling workouts and long hours of training. It is certainly not easy. However, if you want to be great, you must be willing to embrace it even on the hard days”.
2. Manage your time
“They have long training hours while they are also trying to be successful in the classroom. Meanwhile, they must get enough sleep and put an emphasis on proper nutrition and recovery if they want to be at their best” Said Shrank
3.Set your goals
“Goals can be very powerful in driving and motivating athletes when they are struggling to stay on track”.When you are getting up early in the morning and headed to a daunting workout, remembering the desire for success and to achieve the goals you have for yourself can be the push needed to keep moving forward.
4. Stay strong
“The ability to be mentally strong and use setbacks as motivation is another very powerful tool for athletes. Failure and disappointment can be something that destroys an athlete or drives them to be better than ever before” . It is up to an athlete to choose what way to go. “When an athlete has an extreme disappointment, it can be difficult to keep going. They might struggle to decide whether or not it is worth all of their effort”
5. Team
Another key element to success for athletes is the ability to be a good teammate. When you show that you care about your teammates’ success and show them support, you will help create a strong environment where everyone can reach their full potential. A team where there is mutual respect will be an environment where everyone can push each other to their limits and allows the team to achieve its best results.
