The Secrets of College Track
A lot of high school athletes focus on getting to college and being able to compete in college, but what is college like? In this blog post I am going to dive into my experience as a division 3 athlete and what it is like to run college track and field.
The first thing that a lot of athletes are concerned with is the actual quality of the experience. I have loved being able to compete in college and it has benefited me by providing structure to my life and helping me build good personal skills. By having required practices and meets, I am forced to have good time management skills so that I can get my work done in time. This has helped me in general because I am able to be more on top of school work and I think that it has actually allowed me more free time than some of my other friends who aren’t athletes. College sports have also helped me to build personal skills that I will be able to use in the workforce. Skills like competitive drive, mental toughness, and communication. On top of all these benefits I have been able to have a great time competing with my teammates and learning more about the sport that I love.
Beyond the overall experience, there is a lot more to competing in college. Some of the big things are better competition and better coaching. In high school there are a lot of athletes that are not as interested in the sport or just not as committed. On the flip side, all college athletes made the choice to continue playing and many were recruited to do so. This means that the overall competition level increases when entering college. This is nice because there is more riding on each performance and opportunity to compete. It feels more real no matter what and instead of some games where you get bored halfway through because you are handily beating the other team, most games are a grind to get through. Coming with better competition are also better coaches. Many college coaches are paid only to coach, unlike highschool where many coaches are teachers that happen to know a bit about the sport. This means that your college coaches have a lot of knowledge and want to help you improve your game. High school coaches definitely want to do the same but it is harder when they have a full time job outside of coaching and they just don’t know as much.
Hopefully this information has helped give you an eye into what college track life looks like! There are a lot of benefits and great experiences that I have found competing at the college level and I highly recommend to continue for those that love the sport they are in.