Blog #2

 I have honestly and thoroughly enjoyed working on my project so far. Working with Coach Lew and Coach Devin has been such a cool experience and my conversations with them have opened me to so many questions and ideas about the well-being of students, student-athletes, and members of the Hawken community that I wouldn’t have thought of before. I think I am able to give them a different perspective to think about while producing and/or introducing the different aspects of training. I learned about how they plan out an athlete's calendar. They use an annual calendar so they can plan out not only the determined training periods but an athlete's off-season and they even mark out specific times for total recovery as well to make sure athletes avoid burnout. Athlete Burnout is a condition where an athlete becomes stressed, overtrained, overworked, psychologically drained, and completely loses interest in their sport and this can be paired with declining athletic performances but it doesn’t have to. Burnout can also be seen in student-athletes and non-student athletes within a school setting from their attitude or lack of motivation for schoolwork, academic achievements, and performances. The idea of not recovering correctly and undergoing burnout really struck me before I started this project because I have seen athletes go through it even at Hawken and it is why I am focusing my guide on recovery. I want to at least introduce strategies that could potentially make a difference to help stay one step ahead of burnout and chronic fatigue, which is the result of poor recovery, stress, under-fueling, and overtraining, and it goes hand in hand with burnout. One thing that helps me reduce soreness and aid in short-term recovery is foam rolling which I learned how to do appropriately, and I was thinking I could even include videos of how to properly do it for specific muscle groups in the guide. 

Rolling out the Hamstring Muscles
  
  • Semitendinosus.
  • Semimembranosus.
  • Biceps femoris. 








Doing some puppy sitting 
Coach Lew's new puppy

Comments

  1. KatrinaDecember 3, 2021 at 7:50 AM

    Jess, it sounds like your project is off to a great start! This post raises some really important points about burnout, what causes it, and signs to look out for. I can tell from the post that you are developing your understanding of recovery and thinking about how to apply this knowledge to the student athlete guide. The idea to create foam rolling videos as part of the guide is really interesting! I look forward to learning more about your work in the next post -- and keep the puppy pics coming :) -- Dr. Hagen

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