Growing up loving the game of basketball, I thought I would stick with it for the rest of my life. Being the best player on the team, I always wanted to be at practice, the first in the gym and the last one out. While others started to have different interests, I stuck with basketball.
Middle school was more intense than elementary school since I could be cut from the team. I worked with multiple coaches to get prepared for team tryouts. The coach for the team wasn’t happy with my performance, or anyone else’s. As tryouts went on, it was hard to hear criticism from others, especially coaches, about something that I worked so hard for at such a young age. However, I didn’t let that stop me, and I went on and earned my spot on the team, until COVID-19 shut everything down. The eighth grade season got canceled.
The year 2020 wasn’t a good one for me. I signed up to play in higher level games but wasn’t allowed to because of the pandemic and social distancing requirements. I didn’t work on my game as much until we started going back to somewhat normal. I got a trainer because I was going into my freshman year of high school and I had to make the basketball team. I felt like if I didn’t make the team, I would be giving up on my dream.
According to Mike Edger in a Sports Psychology Today article, kids come into high school with high hopes until the “coach destroys the mental part of the game.” When playing a sport long enough, athletes might stumble upon a couple of coaches that aren’t their cup of tea. They mess with the athlete’s mind, coaches tell them they are no good, or won’t let them show off their potential. Nothing can help the fact that there’s always a coach that will make people lose their love for their sport.
Going into my first one-on-one session in a while with a basketball coach was somewhat stressful. I didn’t really know this coach but I still wanted to show that I could do what many of the upperclassmen could do. My trainer would often tell me that I was too small or not fast enough to be on a high school basketball team. I thought these words could be used as motivation, but they weren’t. It bothered me to a point where I doubted if I would even make the freshman basketball team.
By my second year of high school, I didn’t have the same passion for the game as I previously had. According to Trine University different coaches have different styles. It is really hard to find coaches that coach the same way and having to adapt to different coaches almost every year gets hard. When I got in contact with these types of coaches I tried very hard to block the noise, but it didn’t really work. It got to me. It was nearly impossible for me not to lose the love for my sport. According to BrianMac sports coach, athletes often lose interest in their sports because they get stressed out.
When losing passion for a sport because of all the background noise of people and coaches, giving up isn’t the best choice. For me, I didn’t give up because I still love the game and didn’t let the outside noise get to me so much that I quit. Being a leader on and off the floor is a big key to coaches, so even when I don’t get playing time or the role I want, I still keep positive. Only because I’m not ready to give up the sport I worked hard for all my life.
