How Can Other Extracurricular Activities Enhance Your Athletes' Mindset and Performance? - by Sarah Daren

From the Coach’s Clipboard Basketball Playbook
"Helping coaches coach better..."

Athleticism is a wonderful skillset that, while it may not seem immediately applicable in many professional settings, carries a great amount of skill transferability. There are plenty of studies that have come out over the decades that speak to and verify the importance and health benefits that come with athletic participation. The types of sports and their benefits will vary, but everything will have some benefit. When considering the point another way around, it can be a bit trickier to nail down how to improve athletic performance.

Intense training sessions, disciplined schedules, and drills play a crucial role in shaping an athlete's abilities and skills sets, there is another aspect that tends to get overlooked: participation in other extracurricular activities.

Engaging in extracurricular activities is a wonderful way to increase an athlete's mental and physical performance on the field and off the field. Here are some examples and ways in which participating in other extracurricular activities can benefit athletic performance.

The Benefits of Extracurricular Activities for Athletes

A well-rounded education is one that is made up of multiple different subjects and is led that way for a variety of reasons. One of which is the simple fact that engagement with other information, ways of thinking, and alternative problems require a consistent engagement of an individual's skills and abilities. The same logic can, and should be, applied to athletes.

Athletes who "cross-train" either in various forms of cardio-vascular, muscle development, or speed and agility exercises will be a more well-rounded athlete and more capable when in the sport of their choice. By engaging in different sports, a mental acumen and ability to reason quickly, navigate different physical challenges, or work well with other team members only serves to hone the multi-faceted requirements of a solid athlete.

Playing other sports is an obvious choice to replicate such training, so is participating in other less competitive physical activity and extracurricular activities.

Extracurricular Activities for Athletes

Improved Mental Fortitude

There is such a wealth of extracurricular activities available to people nowadays that it can be hard to know where to start, or just what to choose. If someone is looking to specifically challenge and hone the mental acumen and reaction time of an athlete's mind, there are a few activities that might rise to the top of the list. Calming exercises like Yoga, walking, or Tai Chi engage the breath in ways that have been clinically proven to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. Taking up more outdoor activities such as hiking, trail-running, rock-climbing, or swimming, serve the dual effects of relieving mental health struggles while providing a necessary break and reset from the stringent demands that often accompany strict, athletic training regimens.

If an athlete needs a break from more physically based extracurricular activities, there are also plenty of other things to spend time doing. Puzzle-solving games like chess, scrabble, or other imaginative games encourage thinking outside of the box, confidence, and learning to make quick decisions. Music has long been a fun and effective way to engage multiple centers of the brain, not only by teaching multitasking motor skills, but essentially a new language and playing music helps with mental health.

Debate clubs require a huge level of commitment from a research standpoint all rolled into a friendly, competitive nature that also improves personal confidence under pressure- a great skill for shooting free throws, or taking the final penalty shot. Spending time building resilience, the ability to stay focused under pressure, and quick thinking problem solving skills is a huge benefit for athletes wanting to perform at their best. Regardless of what extracurricular activity is chosen, there is likely to be an obvious benefit felt in the mind and body.

Strengthening Physical Performance

Sports, more often than not, require much more physical attributes than mental or emotional. While all three are certainly inseparable, speed and power are what ultimately matter in most games. The ability to outrun a tackle, smash a baseball out of the park, or swim farther than everyone else takes time and practice. Though many athletes may spend their time hyper focused on one sport, working in some variety has combined benefits to affect performance in any athletic scenario.

Someone who spends their free time cycling on the weekends is building up their Vo2 max levels and cardiovascular endurance. Swimming is a full body exercise that tones and strengthens lean muscle fibers that can help to stabilize and protect the body against injury in other more aggressive sports.

Playing frisbee, while not very strenuous, requires a great tact for judging distances and can transfer to other sports that involve the need to throw. Regardless of what extracurricular activity one might participate in, strength can be derived and reutilized.

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