The past two weeks have witnessed a bold move by the world’s no.2 best tennis player Osaka who withdrew from the French tournament to favor the restoration of her mind. Her decision was fueled by her attempt to not attend to any press media after any game played which caused the organizers to place a 15000 USD fine per press missed. She opted out of the tournament. Such a bold move, huh! The essence behind all this is for her mental well being. On the local scene, we may not have the press conferences after our games but the pressure that comes with each game as a team or individual is also grave enough to distort one’s state of mental being.
A few weeks ago, I reached out to a friend whose team lost all its games since the start of the league. Team plays can be crazy with each individuals contribution adding up to the whole team’s performance. Apparently he was the individual who cost the team its first prospected win. In the last seconds, he turned over the ball and capped that with a foul leaving the opponents with two free shots. Two days after the aftermath, he was still locked up in his room most probably trying to recreate the moment a thousand times with an if clause. He joined the other players on his team who were always blamed for the losses of the games which left him nervous to face his teammates. This wasn’t the first time the team had blown its win as 90% of their games would be leads from the first quarter till the last 2 or 3 minutes. He was mentally disturbed. If self hate was a person, he would redefine it.
As an athlete if mentally unwell, your performance can’t be as a good as a new broom. The mind is the control button while on court. There are so many attributes to why one can lose their mental state and the game in itself is inclusive. Registering a loss in a row, fumbling with the ball or turnover at a critical time, low playing time, poor performance as an individual, the audible fans among others can all affect your state of mental being. Talking of fans, these can pass as a replacement for the media press on our local scene. Keep your mind locked to the match least you will get into a fight with a fan who barely knows you beyond the court.
The games and all that comes with them can get frustrating. It’s actually fine to feel this way. Depression is even probable. Just for emphasis; its actually fine to feel this way and you may have felt this way consciously or unconsciously. And it is also fine to keep off the pitch or court until your mental well being is restored. Reach out to someone and have a chat over the occurrences. Talk to the coach or confide in a teammate who witnessed what happened. Normalize feeling vulnerable and get the right help!
Finally, just to say: sports teams, Stop sacrificing your teammates for a loss! Go study what went wrong as a team and work on it. Correction is different from judgement. You can reprimand what they did in the game but don’t build negative energy for your teammates. Remember for as long as you have had an opportunity to play, you have ever made a turnover. Stop making someone feel like they have done the unseen.
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