The life of a student-athlete looks a lot different during the Corona crisis. No sports, no practices, no matches, even no classes at school. Your whole life you’ve been working on your sports career, but all of a sudden you’re having to stay at home. What can a student-athlete do during the Corona crisis?
Luckily, there are still many things you can do to help yourself, as well as the people around you. It’s also a great time to work on things you usually don’t have the time for, to be able to fully get back to work when the Corona crisis is over.
Check out some tips from the Slamstox team and use them to your advantage!
1. Stay fit!
Obviously this one should be on top of the list for every student-athlete. The season in the US might be over for now, but there will be new seasons. Even you will have to prove yourself again for your teammates and your coaches. Those student-athletes that are fit at the beginning of next season, will have the best chances of winning. In addition to your regular exercises, you can do a lot of body exercises, follow online yoga classes, and work on your core & stability. We are a big fan of the explosiveness and speed training by Pierre’s Elite Performance. Looking for some more creativity and daily challenges with other athletes? Check out the YouTube channel of our partner Amjoy Tigers!
2. Work on your mindset
Every student-athlete knows how important it is to mentally perform well during matches, games and practices. There is relatively little attention for mental performance, compared to physical and technical performance. You can a lot of work on this by yourself. For instance, have you ever read a book about mindset? We highly recommend “The Young Champion’s Mind” by sports psychologist Jim Afremow. This book is written especially for student-athletes! Are you not a big fan of reading and would you rather listen to a good podcast? Take the time to listen to “The 10 pillars of peak mental performance” by Brian Cain, ex-college baseball coach. Our fans that really took notice, have recently seen Brian in our weekly Words of Wisdom on the Slamstox Instagram.
3. Help your coach with recruiting
It’s a hectic and stressful period for every college coach. Seasons are cancelled, games and practices are postponed and nobody knows when we can all play our beloved sports again. In addition, the NCAA has granted all athletes an extra year of eligibility. For many coaches it is still unclear what kind of impact this will have on their teams for next year, their roster spots and their scholarship limits. Your coach could definitely use a hand right now. How about helping your coach finding some new talented student-athletes for next year’s team? This does not only help your coach, but it will help your team and your chances of winning the championship next year! Check our Slamstox Student-Athletes for available recruits. See anyone you really like and you think could fit within your team? Contact us!
4. Prepare for life after college
Many student-athletes will prepare for life after college during their time in the US. Unfortunately, not everybody can turn pro after college. Luckily, you will learn many things as a student-athlete that will help you in other aspects of life and your professional career. You have an international degree, are fluent in (business) English, built up a large network and you have the discipline of an elite athlete. You also know how to manage your time, you’re a team player and you possess leadership skills. Have you ever thought about what you’d like to do after college? Slamstox is working on a new service to help our student-athletes find jobs once they come back to their home countries. Sign up through our “intake form” to learn more and to be included in our future services!
5. Give back to your community
A no-brainer for every student-athlete. You are extremely fit and healthy, but not everybody has that luck right now. You can help a lot of people around you. Go to the grocery store for your grandparents, help your neighbours with some yard work, or offer your acquaintance to take care of the kids so that they can go to work. There must be something you can think of to make the life of everyone around you a little bit easier. You will always receive a lot of gratitude, positive, and extra fans in return!
6. Spend extra time with friends & family
As a student-athlete, you spend a lot of time traveling and working on your sports career. Usually you will only be at home for about 3 or 4 months per year. This is a good time to spend more quality time with family. Which crazy stories can you tell them about your last few semesters? Do you have any brothers and sisters to beat in a good old board-game? Or maybe it’s an idea to show some pictures of your university to the family members that don’t have that much of an idea about what you’re doing in the US? Invest in your relationships with family and friends, kids! It’s always a good time for that.
7. Get better with video analysis
The best student-athletes always want to become better. This also means learning from your own mistakes. How often do you watch videos of your own games? How does this help you to learn from your mistakes and to further develop your skills? Did you know that the legendary Kobe Bryant watched every single minute of every single game that he played? Just to learn from his own mistakes? Ask for your video footage and start analysing today! In addition, it could be a good idea to search on Youtube for your favorite athletes and to learn from their videos. Use the internet!
8. Share your content and sign up for an interview with Slamstox
During your time as a student-athlete, you take a lot of awesome pics and videos. There are so many people in your home country that would want to see what the life of a student-athlete really looks like. Do you have cool pics or vids that we should share with our followers? Send them to us and we will create some cool graphic designs for you! We also love taking personal interviews with our student-athletes to learn from their background, stories, and ambitions. A nice example is our recent interview with tennis player Jaap Aaldering. If you really want to be a pro within our marketing, you should sign up for one of our Around & About video’s. Are you interested in sharing your story and helping us out? Send a message and let’s do this!
9. Create an album with pictures and videos of you and your team
Time flies when you’re a student-athlete. Before you know it, your career is over and you will be moving on to the next phase of your life. Every graduated student-athlete will say that time goes faster than you think in advance. It’s a lot of fun to look back on your career and to review old pictures and video’s, they bring up great memories! Take the time to create a photo album, or create a highlight video with all the best moments from last year. Did you know that our field hockey specialist Kim did this after her first year? She still watches this video a lot, smiling every time! Check out her freshman year highlight video and get inspired!
10. Stay ahead in your studies and competences
One things is true for sure; you’re not done yet with learning and studying. It’s always a good time to think ahead about your studies and what you want to learn in the future. To what extent can you already prepare for the (online) exams later this year? Which extra courses can you follow to make your degree even more attractive for employers? Think about your development outside of your current major as well. How is your information literacy and how do you handle computers? Have you ever thought about taking an online course for software development? Chances are pretty high that this can be extremely helpful in the future. An online program we like a lot for this is The Code Player.
Need additional inspiration or do you have tips for your fellow student-athletes? Send an e-mail to info@slamstox.com and we would be happy to help!
Slamstox wishes everybody a lot of safety and health during this difficult period. Keep your head up everybody
