Paw Print Editor: Brianna Robles
The day of competition seems too always be the most nerve-wracking of them all. Fans all line up at sporting events waiting to cheer on their favorite team not knowing what is going on in those athletes’ heads. The pressure it’s there even if we try to ignore it, we know the days leading up to game day or the day of a match won’t mean much if we don’t win. It’s the pressure of letting ourselves or our teammates down or even those who came out to support. When it comes to the time when the game begins the main concept of it all is to win.
Sometime people like to say winning isn’t everything and it really isn’t there is so much more to life then to let one bad game, or one bad race define us—it isn’t worth it. But the thing is people always expect athletes to be on the top of their game and lead the team to victory because in reality that’s the whole point of sports to see who is willing to give it their all; who has the most guts?
Even as there are different rules or different concepts to each sport, they all have one thing in common and that is they require a lot of effort. But the pressure to win is always their because everyone wants to claim that they are the best. The winning mentality is a good one to have because of course we want to have that mindset and be competitive but what people don’t often stop to consider is how that often that can be damaging to an athlete.
Having goals and expectations are good to have but there comes a point where we have to ourselves first and many people don’t understand that. There are times when people make winning their lives their only goal in life is to be better than everyone else on the course, on the field, whatever the cause may be but what is really important is to remember that we are human. Sometimes we may have a good day and other days may not be as good, but we have to understand it is all a part of the process.
The pressure that is placed upon athletes to be the greatest sometimes can be their greatest downfall. The amount of excess stress these induvial already encounter on a personal level is already enough. Sports are often used towards safe places to channel emotions or to destress so adding this obligation to win take away from this outlet many athletes need. Sports are a part of someone’s life, and we can’t let be a characteristic made to describe a person because there is so much more to then then the goal they made or the race they won. Sometimes we all need to take some time to stop and think about the pressure we place on ourselves, or others place on us and understand that losing one game is better than losing ourselves and our love for sports.
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