Managing Academic Changes as Athletes
By Annabel Gordon
Whether it's starting college or an apprenticeship, it can be challenging to balance educational changes in your life with your athletic commitments.
As developing student-athletes, we are expected to train and compete, perform academically, and take on new responsibilities such as part-time or full-time jobs, learning to drive, participating in additional extracurricular activities for future applications, and overcoming any independent challenges we face.
When I began revising for my GCSE’s, I felt inundated with work, and my training suffered because I didn't plan my time efficiently. Fortunately, my coaches and family provided a great support network for me, and I managed to achieve things both academically and athletically last year by putting together a solid training and revision plan. However, doing A-levels has been a completely different challenge for me.
It can be difficult for athletes to adapt when strict and disciplined training schedules are involved, as well as changes in working patterns. The crucial years of sixth form, apprenticeships, or higher education are when athletes are most likely to stop training or competing altogether.
Hopefully, this blog provides you with the right support and advice to face these challenges and manage your stress alongside your athletics.
Facing challenges (dealing with increased workload)
Moving forward with education can pose several challenges for student-athletes. These can include difficulty adapting training to an increased workload, time management and organisation or falling back on other factors, such as nutrition.
However, if you manage these things effectively, you can still be academically successful and participate in athletics.
Just look at Amy Hunt. She is a silver world medalist and advocate for academics, having graduated from Cambridge with a degree in English. I only started sixth form recently, but I have already experienced some challenges, with the biggest one being managing my winter training alongside all the new opportunities I have gained.
Compared to GCSE’s, many of my A-level lessons are longer and finish later, which gives me limited time at home before my training starts in the evenings. I also have a part-time job, and I’ve signed up for various schemes to help with my future university plans. It is clear that the amount of independent work I have to manage has significantly increased.
The type of workload won't be the same for everyone, depending on the level of education and super-curricular commitments. As a result, each individual will need to find a personal way of managing the time that works for them.
I think a good perspective to have in approaching the new amount of responsibility that comes with higher levels of education is to view athletics as an escapism.
For most athletes, this is easy, as we have a great passion for the sport and our disciplines. However, when it comes to winter training, it can be hard for athletes to stay motivated. When faced with stressful educational changes, for some athletes, priorities may have shifted.
Training is hard work, and it can be very easy to say no if you have had a busy day (whether it’s due to jobs, school or revision). However, the most crucial part of this plan to tackle education alongside athletics is commitment and self-determination.
How do I become a successful student-athlete?
Nobody is making you train or revise. People can advise you, but it is ultimately your own decision.
From my experience, these qualities are the most important to master if you want to succeed as a student athlete. Here are some ways to manage your commitments that I use so I stay motivated:
Use digital tools
A positive of being in a technologically advanced generation is that there are so many apps and online resources we can use to help us. If you don’t like writing or don’t want to journal to prioritise your commitments like me, an online tracking or planning app might be the right organisational tool for you. You can use it to plan out your weekly sessions and work.
Utilise the facilities around you
Does your school, college or apprenticeship provider have any sports facilities closer than your athletics club that you can use alongside your normal training?
One of the biggest changes I've made to my training plan after starting sixth form has been signing up for my local gym and running more. It is an easy thing to incorporate into your winter strength and conditioning if you haven’t already. You can sit with your coach and create a gym plan, which can be extremely useful if you can’t train.
As well as this, you can run anywhere at any time, so it is an easy training component for many disciplines that you can fit around your schoolwork.
Talk to others
It can be very easy to bottle up stress until it is unmanageable.
I think it is really important to sit down with your family, friends, and coaches to discuss anything you are struggling with during A-levels or an apprenticeship. Both come with the challenges of increased workloads that require a new level of planning that many won’t have dealt with before. However, our coaches have experienced this with numerous athletes before and will know better than anyone how to support you.
It’s always important to remember that our family and friends are equipped to support us in whatever way they can.
Maintaining a balanced lifestyle as a teenage athlete
The stress and workload that naturally come with being a student athlete sometimes mean that it can be hard to fit in time to relax. This is extremely important because without rest breaks, we cannot improve at athletics or in education.
You need both a physical and mental break during your week, and these should be incorporated into your training programme and school/apprenticeship timetables.
During these years, as well as new, enriching opportunities that will eventually arise, many social opportunities will open up for student-athletes as well. Part of being a student-athlete and managing your time is having the ability to go out with friends, make exciting trips and enjoy new opportunities in life while staying on top of training and work. This can be difficult, and several academic athletes tend to isolate themselves from their friends, simply due to stress or lack of time to maintain healthy relationships. At this age, the most important thing is enjoying the sport.
From previous experience, if you put too much pressure on yourself to succeed and don’t prioritise your own self-development outside of school and the track, it can be very demotivating. It is important to find the correct balance for you.
My main advice in doing this is to categorise each important section of your life and allocate time for each one. Then, you can make sure you have ticked off each thing that is important to you. For example, I find it important to sit down with my family in the evenings and watch something on TV, which I use as my time to unwind. For this to happen, I make sure to do my homework before training so I can come home, have my dinner and then completely relax. I would write down the things you want to do alongside athletics and school that bring you happiness, and how you will keep doing those things.
It might sound counterintuitive, but for athletes, you need to plan your fun.
Athletics is hard. Mentally and physically. Alongside school and work, you also need to do what makes you happy. Then, when it comes to athletics, you have the necessary positive attitude to drive you forward.
Adapting training
These new challenges may mean you need to adapt your training.
I have already mentioned some easy ways of doing this, such as incorporating more runs and gym work into your sessions, especially in the winter. However, adapting training isn’t always to do with time.
It is most likely that since last winter season, your timetable has completely changed, and you have a lot more going on during the week. It may be that by the time you get to your training session, which for most student-athletes is in the evenings or on weekends, it won’t seem practical for your energy levels anymore.
You may have to mix up the type of training you do on that day to get the most out of your sessions and move the more intense sessions to a time when you're better rested. Likewise, it may be that you have an easy session when you don’t need one, and you can swap around the typical components of your session.
This is where talking to your coaches is a massive help. They are there to facilitate you where they can. One of the benefits of athletics being an individual sport is that you are in charge of your own training, meaning that one day doesn’t have to look the same as others. This can be more pressure because it means you are in charge of your own progress and all the components that come under that (such as time management).
However, it also means that, unlike other sports, you can train to your own schedule. This is very useful for student athletes with limited time, as they can then work around other priorities that are in their lives.
It is better to adapt early so you can be prepared for the season ahead and set achievable goals for yourself. You know when exams and stressful parts of your year will be, so it may be that you will have to adapt your sessions again during those times. It is about being prepared to adapt so that when you need to, you are not stressed about the changes to your routine.
Stick with it!
Athletics is one of the toughest sports to manage as a student, purely because of the high level of independence that goes with it.
Starting a new chapter in your life as a student-athlete is harder than it is for most because of the limited time you have. However, if you have the determination to succeed and you are dedicated to both athletics and your education, there is no doubt that you will be a successful student-athlete.
Hopefully, this blog has provided you with some insight into how I manage this for myself, and has allowed you to start thinking about what works best for you.
About Annabel Gordon
Annabel is an U17 athlete who specialises in javelin throw, but also competes in multi-events and discus throw from time to time!
As part of her role with us as a blogger, Annabel's content will largely be for other athletes around her age who are in school or are just starting to think about other opportunities alongside their athletics, such as college or sixth form!
Instagram: @annabel.athletics
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