Demanding Sports

Though I no longer do cheer anymore, this friday at the football game, when I saw the girls cheering on the sideline, I remembered just how stressful sports can be. All the yelling from coaches, time crunched schedules, sore muscles, and pressure to win, can really take a toll. For me, I didn't even realize I was stressed. So without knowing it, I ended up causing myself both emotional and physical stress. Like I said earlier in the blog, I basically spent my whole life as a cheerleader- I did the the junior program, instructing, high school cheer, competition cheer, all of it. I loved it. But then last year, I wasn't getting the same rush that I normally did from it. I started dreading practice, something I never did before. And, instead of addressing it, I just contributed it to my larger load of homework. At the time, I had a new coach, who I didn't get along with, we had just won first at nationals, so we were under a lot of pressure to maintain that title, and the practice hours had been made even longer, so it was inly resonable that I was stressed, I just didn't want to admit it. Soon though, the stress started to affect my school and social life too. I was so tired that I couldn't focus on school, so my grades suffered and when my friends wanted to go out all I want to do was relax, so my social life suffered, which caused me even more stress. Yet I continuted not to address it, in fear of having to quit. So, stressed and emotional exhausted, I kepted cheering. One day though, that stress that I was feeling, started to translate into physical stress, and during one of our peformances I hurt my back. I know longer had the decision anymore, I was told that I had to take time off. So thats my story. And if there are any out there who feel as I did, just take a few minutes to asses your stress before you get hurt like I did.